SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Earlier this year, San Francisco reported that property crime had dropped significantly. The numbers say so, but some people say they’ve stopped reporting “smaller” crimes because the police take so long to respond. Many others do not report crimes because they feel nothing will be accomplished.

For example, it’s mid-morning Monday, I caught what store workers tell us is a typical occurrence at Walgreens on Market and 9th Street in San Francisco.

An employee is on the phone with a 911 dispatcher to report the incident while another employee yells at the woman.

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The two employees now describe what is happening on the phone.

She continues to put items in her bag, despite knowing that she is being recorded on a cell phone and that the incident is being reported to 911. She then calmly walks out of the store.

When this crime happened, the security officer was at lunch.

We wanted to talk to them, so we went back a few days later and interviewed security.

Lyanne Melendez: “Have you seen this woman before?
watch: “All the time.” It’s usually every day, every other day.
Lyanne: “What does she do when she comes in?”
watch: “They usually come down the aisle, fill up and leave.”
Lyanne: “Can you do anything about it?
watch: “No, they won’t let us touch them anymore.”
Lyanne: “How long does it take the police to respond?”
watch: – They don’t answer.

And shoplifters know it.

“They’re in and out of the store in two or three minutes and they’re out the door and by the time the store reports it, people are long gone,” explained David Burke, SFPD Public Safety Liaison for District 8.

Even after the store reported it, the police admit it was taking too long to respond.

Here’s the data on police department response times when dealing with non-violent crimes like a burglary.

So far this month, it has taken police almost 30 minutes to respond. The target is 20 minutes. The last time they met that goal was in the first four months of the COVID pandemic, when shelter-in-place orders were in place.

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Police say they may not reach that goal in future years because they have about 500 fewer officers.

The truth is that the SFPD has struggled for years to recruit new officers, and that was even before the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, when there was a nationwide call for police defunding.

However, in San Francisco in August 2020, some lawmakers called for cuts to police funding and the cancellation of four future police academies.

“Actually, I would propose that we eliminate all four,” former San Francisco Supervisor Sandra Fewer said in August 2020.

“This is about the system being rotten to the core,” San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen added during that Aug. 20, 2020, meeting.

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Even the mayor initially agreed that changes needed to be made, but when property crime escalated, London Breed took a different stance.

“We will expand recruitment strategies and work to retain officers,” Breed said in December 2021.

Even the supervisor who called for police defunding later complained that her district had no law enforcement officers.

“I’ve asked this department to give the Mission what it deserves in terms of police presence all year, and I’ve been told over and over again that there are no officers,” Ronen expressed in February 2023.

In the end, the police department’s budget was never cut, but police say the rhetoric did lasting damage.

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Recruiting has been a challenge, even as the mayor and police chief welcomed the largest police academy class of 2018 earlier this month.

For people who have been victims of or witnessed thefts, there is weariness and resignation that little will be done to prevent them from happening again.

We caught another man apparently stealing from a Walgreens in the Noe Valley neighborhood.

It wasn’t until I started recording that the employee offered to contact the police.

“There’s a psychological thing where if you feel good if they don’t come or they come in an hour from now, I don’t bother,” but the police department, no I don’t know that this happens if people don’t make reports , then we’re not aware of this happening,” Burke added.

Police are also relying on new technology to help them search for people through Prop E. That was approved by voters last March. Police will now have license plate readers and drones at their disposal.