‘Locked Door Loophole’: How Sen. Wiener is attempting to crack down on car break-ins
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(KRON) — State Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) Senate Bill 905, a bill attempting to lessen the hurdles of convicting a suspect of auto burglary, was passed in the state senate today.
Under current law, convicting a suspect of auto burglary requires that prosecutors prove not just that the person entered the vehicle without permission but did so forcibly when the vehicle was locked. The mere fact that a window was broken is insufficient– prosecutors must prove that the door was locked, which requires that victims must physically come to court to testify.
“This requirement can sabotage clear cases of guilt, particularly for situations where someone is visiting San Francisco and is not going to return just to testify that they locked the car door,” Wiener said.
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SB 905 eliminates the requirement of proving the victim’s door was locked; instead, forcible entry — such as a broken window — will be sufficient to prove the crime of auto burglary, which may be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony.
Wiener said the bill would also address the organized resale of valuable goods found in a stolen car. If car burglars hold more than $950 of goods intended to resell– such as laptops, cameras, and cellphones– then the car burglar is under grounds of being criminally prosecuted.
“Auto break-ins have long been a vexing problem in San Francisco, and despite recent progress by city officials reducing the number of break-ins, they remain a problem,” Wiener said in a statement.
Senator Wiener previously authored similar legislation in 2018 and 2019, but the proposed bills have since been killed. SB 905 is sponsored by the Office of San Francisco Mayor London Breed.
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