San Francisco D.A.: Jailing Suspects Has Worked with Theft, But We Can’t Do it with Drug Cases

On Tuesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins stated that keeping repeat thieves behind bars is helping with retail crime, but there hasn’t been an improvement in keeping drug dealing suspects behind bars.

Host Dan Abrams asked, “So, you had said to me in October that you were having a tough time keeping suspects behind bars. Has that improved?”

Jenkins responded, “That hasn’t necessarily improved in drug dealing cases, but it has improved with respect to property crime. Certainly, when we can demonstrate that someone is a prolific thief and somebody who’s working with an organized sort of theft crew to commit these acts.”

She added that some of the reduction in crime is due to “a larger police presence in areas where we know that certain types of crime [are] more prevalent and my office stepping into the courtroom and saying, certain people must be detained in order to protect public safety and ensuring that there are appropriate consequences for people who commit crime in San Francisco.” And “We’ve seen a significant decrease in retail theft. But, again, it goes back to partnering with the police department as well as retailers to ensure that we are putting police where we know that they need to be to function as a deterrent, but also that when we receive those cases, that we are being thoughtful when we walk into court to say, certain people, yes, we can allow back out, but others must stay in for public safety reasons. And so, when you keep certain people in that are prolific thieves, you see those numbers drop instantaneously.”

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