Governor Newsom Signs Senator Wiener’s Law to Crack Down on Car Break-ins, Retail Theft Package From the Senate

SACRAMENTO – Today Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) Senate Bill 905 and the entire Safer California Plan, law the most significant bipartisan legislation to crack down on property crime in modern California history. SB 905 eliminates the “locked door loophole,” a senseless barrier to holding auto burglars accountable, and the signing gives prosecutors additional tools to address widespread auto burglary.

The Safer California . a bipartisan legislative effort by the California Senate to address critical public safety issues like retail theft, the fentanyl crisis, and community-based crime. The new laws go into effect January 1st, 2025.

“This new law is a big step forward for accountability on auto burglary,” said Senator Wiener. “It made no sense that the law required the District Attorney to prove that the owner locked the car door in order to convict someone for auto burglary - it shouldn’t matter if the door was locked. Soon San Franciscans and all Californians will benefit from this additional tool to tackle the widespread problem of auto break-ins.”

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.

One barrier to consistent, effective enforcement is the locked door loophole. Under current law, convicting a suspect of auto burglary requires that prosecutors prove not just that the person entered the vehicle without permission or did so forcibly but also that 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 as such. 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.

SB 905 eliminates this needless requirement; instead, forcible entry will be sufficient to prove the crime of auto burglary, which may be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony.

As amended, the bill will also address the problem of organized resale of goods stolen from cars. Auto burglars seek valuable items such as laptops, cameras, and cell phones and then resell them. Under the bill, individuals could be prosecuted for holding more than $950 of stolen goods intended for resale, whether those goods were stolen in one or multiple incidents, and whether the individual played the role of thief, middleman, or seller.

Senator Wiener previously authored similar legislation: in 2019, Senate Bill 23 died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, and in 2018, Senate Bill 916 died in the Senate Appropriations Committee. 

SB 905 is sponsored by the Office of San Francisco Mayor London Breed. Read more about SB 905 here.

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