Viral video has everyone talking about SF's 'shoplifting surge.' But is it real?
sfchronicle.com
sfchronicle.com
Reporting theft to the police department is a waste of time since police will not pursue or investigate the petty theft. After spending much time filing reports with police, people realize that they are wasting their time, and they stop filing reports. As a result, the official police stats in places like San Francisco are completely unreliable.
If the numbers go up, it's a sign that crime is increasing. If the numbers go down, it's merely a sign that people have lost their faith in enforcement because of the overwhelming nature of the crime.
> After spending much time filing reports with police, people realize that they are wasting their time, and they stop filing reports.
People file reports for reasons beyond just expecting enforcement. For example: insurance companies often require a police report before they'll accept a claim for theft.
On the other hand, what evidence there that this effect is not more pronounced than it was in the past?
I would consider their statistics, but I don’t think they have released any — they have just made claims that Shoplifting has increased.
Have they released data showing that shrinkage has increased nationwide or in California, and that shrinkage has been driven by increases in shoplifting?
The viability of your claim that petty crimes are less likely to be reported now than they were in the past depends on you producing evidence to support it. You haven't offered this, or even a hypothesis to explain why you think it might be true.
Again, I'm not debating that petty crimes are under-reported, but whether this phenomenon of under-reporting has increased over the past few decades to the point that police statistics are now "completely unreliable," as you put it. On a personal level, 20 years ago, I had something stolen from me in SF. I didn't report it, but I'd be just as likely not to report a similar theft now- no more, no less. What changed for Walgreens?
I think a much more reasonable explanation for the perceived surge in crime in the face of police data indicating the opposite is 1) Walgreens was one of the few retailers that remained open during the pandemic, thus raising their risk profile, and 2) there's a self-reinforcing effect of viral videos showing people getting away with brazen shoplifting at Walgreens.
That being said most people wait in line and pay for their purchases like civilized folk. I'm happy to pay, but when the line is long I get frustrated that those girls don't have to follow the rules like everyone else does.
> police officers said that shoplifters are getting more brazen, and that shoplifting incidents are likely underreported.
I don't get this article, it's like it was drafted in hopes that people just skim through it and look at the charts only. There is no real premise or conclusion, just posing a question for PR purposes.
Better data, I think, would be from stores reporting loses due to theft but I'm sure that data is a lot more difficult to obtain.
Another thing I've noticed is how so many items are out of stock on the shelf. I assume pandemic-related supply issues are the main culprit, but perhaps theft is another reason.