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New S.F. proposal would try to crack down on stolen goods resold on city streets - San Francisco Chronicle

As San Francisco leaders and officials struggle to respond to the escalating debate about retail theft in the city, one supervisor wants to target the street vendors who resell stolen goods.

Supervisor Ahsha Safaí is working on legislation that would create a permitting process for street vendors with the goal of cracking down on “fencing,” the practice of buying and selling ill-gotten merchandise.

Safaí said Tuesday goods shoplifted from stores or stolen from homes are often resold on the city’s streets - especially in UN Plaza or around BART stations in the Mission. He didn’t have data on how often this occurs, but said residents have recovered their stolen belongings in these areas. Safaí said “the need to stop street peddling of stolen goods” came out of an organized crime retail working group comprised of law enforcement and retailers, and is supported by business districts.

“We see a tremendous amount of goods that are sold on our streets without a license in San Francisco,” Safaí said during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. “It’s an important piece of legislation that would seek to disrupt and end the selling of stolen goods.”

Whether it would have an impact on the practice is unclear.

The move comes more than a week after coordinated crews of thieves plundered Union Square stores and drew national media attention to San Francisco.

Safaí latched on to the issue of retail theft earlier this year when major chains, including Walgreens, publicly blamed organized theft for their losses and closures. More recently, police data did not support the narrative that Walgreens said it was closing five more stores because of rampant theft, although official police data on shoplifting only tells part of the story given inconsistent reporting from retailers.

Safaí is working with the City Attorney and the Office of Small Business to draft the legislation, which would include a nominal permitting fee. The legislation wouldn’t apply to food vendors.

San Francisco has previously been moving in the direction of reducing fees, including eliminating fees for artists who sell their goods in designated street spaces to avoid disproportionately hurting low-income people of color and compounding pandemic financial hardship.

Safaí said his legislation wouldn’t impact the fees cut earlier this year and wouldn’t crack down on people conducting legitimate businesses. But he argued that “we have to ensure they have permits to sell on the streets.”

“They’re sold in competition with brick and mortar establishments,” he said.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench

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