Did you know that arresting repeat criminals leads to crime going down? You can thank San Francisco for imparting this wisdom upon us all.
San Francisco has brought its car break-ins down to fewer than half the number it saw last year over the same time period with a renewed focus on the crime. The city’s use of coordinated stings and focus on repeat offenders has led to a massive and steady drop compared to nearby Oakland’s mild, inconsistent decline.
The organized burglary crews that San Francisco is targeting are made up of repeat offenders, just like the retail theft crews that have been leading to pharmacies shutting their doors. No matter how many activists and “criminal justice professors” the San Francisco Chronicle finds to complain about arresting, prosecuting, and jailing criminals, the unavoidable reality remains: if you lock up repeat criminals, they cannot repeatedly commit the crimes they are committing when they are free.
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Many elements of the criminal justice debate are difficult, but this remains one of the easiest policy questions you could be given. Repeat criminals, who have proven that they reject the basic rules on which society operates, should be arrested, vigorously prosecuted, and locked up. You cannot “solve” crime just with jail time, but it is a necessary part of mitigating crime and making people safer. If left-wing San Francisco can prove that right before our very eyes, why should we still pretend that pro-criminal district attorneys have any credibility when they assert otherwise?
Crime does not have to be tolerated or normal, even in large cities that will inevitably see more of it than other places. If San Francisco can find the stomach to crack down on repeat criminals, there is nothing stopping other cities from doing so other than the incompetence or cowardice of their leaders.