Undercover Cops To Work SF Bars

This weekend undercover San Francisco cops will be working the bars of the Castro in a campaign to stem a renewed wave of pick-pocketing incidents.

San Francisco Police Sergeant Chuck Limbert, Mission Station's liaison to the LGBT community, said the operation would begin this week, but he wouldn't specify when. Officers would be "specifically looking for individuals that target bars for theft of property or criminal activity," such as pickpockets and purse snatchers, he said. He said the operation would continue "until the problem is solved." Limbert said overall crime in the area is down over the last three years, but he wants to see further decline. "If we're getting two reports out of a bar on a specific night, that's two too many," he said. Limbert acknowledged Castro bar-goers might be nervous about undercover police visiting nightspots, but he suggested that would be good in the case of people with nefarious intentions.

Unsurprisingly, bar managers report that the most-stolen items are iPhones.