San Francisco Police’s Central Station is one of the smallest precincts with the most people, covering North Beach, Chinatown, the Embarcadero, Fisherman’s Wharf and parts of the Financial District. It has more tourist attractions than any other district, and hosts millions of tourists every year. Its popularity has also made it vulnerable to “auto boosting.”
In the month of March, there were 317 incidents of theft from a vehicle in Central Station’s jurisdiction. In the station newsletter from February 28, Captain Paul Yep wrote in the newsletter that most arrests occur during daylight hours and 70 percent are done on the street. But between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Thursday, April 19, no calls were made about an auto burglary, so officers Alfredo Oropeza and Sean Archini found other matters to attend to.
“Right now it’s all about the vehicles being broken into, so we drive around those areas where there’s a higher percentage of cars that are tourists, and that’s where the boosters are striking,” said officer Oropeza. “What we hear from the guys that we catch, they say there’s no repercussions to it.”
In 2014, California approved state statute Proposition 47, which lowered the stakes for a number of nonviolent, “non-serious” crimes, including fraud, shoplifting, drug use, and grand theft so that they would be classified as misdemeanors. Proposition 47 could also impact the sentencing of felons currently serving time as well as past convictions, which could impact as many as 1 million Californians.
Both Archini and Oropeza believe that San Francisco is the most lenient of the surrounding counties.
“Say you arrest a guy in San Francisco and he committed a crime in San Mateo, he does not want to go back to San Mateo because he knows he will get more time. Our job’s knowing the law; their job’s knowing what laws they can break,” said Archini.
Sean Archini has worked at SFPD for 19 years, recently coming back into “uniform” after seven years as a plainclothes officer tackling long-term cases. Alfredo Oropeza has just recently finished his probation training and will be transferring to another station soon. Today’s first call is a man with a knife.
At the scene, a subdued Latino man was searched by officer Archini outside a Goodwill store on Bay Street as he explained to officer Oropeza in Spanish that he was using the knife to clean his fingernails. He had not brandished it at anyone, so he could not be charged with a crime. With two other police cars and three additional officers at the scene, they decide to take the next call, a dog bite.
The dog, a lab mix named Kaiser, was being dogsat by a Google employee; the victim was the locksmith helping the sitter get into her apartment. Due to the animal’s involvement, Animal Care and Control, as well an ambulance for the victim, were called to take over. Fortunately, someone had broken into the Good Vibrations adult store location on Kearny Street to bring the officers elsewhere.
It appeared someone has smashed the glass door with a rock left on the sidewalk, and the front display of sex toys and lingerie had been rummaged through. A “walk through” of the store revealed no stolen merchandise from the main floor, and footprints and fingerprints were collected at the scene.
Many calls can be false starts, or are resolved by the time of arrival by the officer. Oropeza had to attend traffic court, so Archini headed out alone to Lids, a hat store on Jefferson Street in Fisherman’s Wharf. The store had been robbed, but only to a certain extent. Petty theft valuing up to $950 is considered a misdemeanor, another change due to Proposition 47, and the stolen goods amounted to between $250 and $350.
Having recently switched to the day shift, Archini says the night is where most of the action happens, near the strip clubs.
“At least at Good Vibrations it was kinda classy. Here,” he refers to the slew of clubs and bars on Broadway, “it’s just hilarious.”
North Beach Bugle 