Car break-ins drop in San Francisco as drone use increases

https://archive.is/rRfZv

From the article:

Car break-ins are as old as cars, but bipping, as a regional media spectacle and viral moment, belongs to the Doom Loop era. Consider the evidence: Reports of auto burglaries peaked in 2017, while Google searches for “bipping” didn’t spike until seven years later. This came after bipping — rumored to be either an onomatopoeia for the sound a hammer makes when it taps on glass or a police acronym for “burglary in progress” — found its way onto T-shirts and into the lyrics of local rappers.

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Car break-ins rose dramatically in the 2010s, with more than 30,000 recorded in 2017, according to San Francisco Police Department data. Since then, annual tallies have been gradually falling, and in the last two years, they’ve decreased by more than 75%. There were fewer than 1,800 reported car burglaries in the first half of 2026 — an average of around 10 per day. That may seem like a lot, but in 2017, the daily average was around 85.

The police attribute bipping’s heyday to a lack of enforcement technology and a district attorney unwilling to prosecute perpetrators. Burglars knew they could smash windows, grab electronics and other valuables, quickly sell them to black-market dealers, and likely never get caught. Less than 1% of car burglaries over the last decade led to a conviction. But Dreamllife Rizzy is right: Those days are over.

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The SFPD increased patrols in bipping hot spots like Fisherman’s Wharf starting in 2023. Cops also started using bait cars and building cases against major bipping gangs. In 2024, the department deployed its network of Flock cameras, and voters increasingly more concerned about public safety than privacy approved Proposition E, which allowed the SFPD to use drones and other types of surveillance technology.

“We are able to swiftly identify crews moving throughout the city, follow them, and make arrests when it is safe and feasible,” SFPD spokesman Evan Sernoffsky said. “Word is spreading among the criminal element that we will catch them and arrest them.”

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Not everyone is so enthusiastic about the new surveillance tech, of course. The Standard reported last year that local police were sharing their license-plate reader data with other agencies, which could violate state law. Sernoffsky said the SFPD does not use Flock cameras for immigration enforcement or share its data with state or federal agencies. Elsewhere, cops are using Flock cameras for increasingly dubious arrests (opens in new tab).

And in San Francisco, auto glass shops are suffering as fewer people need their windows replaced.

Also: A dark thriller about San Francisco car break-ins is selling out theaters

The dark and deadly serious film follows a pair of brothers, Juju (Reed Shannon) and Slim (Zach Sowers), as they navigate the criminal underworld of San Francisco. Slim is a promising basketball player with his choice of scholarships, while his brother Juju becomes wrapped up in a crew of thieves who use spark plugs and brute force to smash their way into car windows. The film feels like something of a modern day interpretation of the 2004 drama “Sucker Free City.” The movie was co-directed by Alex Ferrufino alongside San Francisco rapper and Cookies cannabis entrepreneur Gilbert Anthony “Berner” Milam Jr. (Berner also has a co-writing credit alongside David Mansanalez).