San Francisco police arrested nine people on Friday on suspicion of theft at a grocery store in Bernal Heights.
Officers assigned to the Ingleside Station arrested five adults who were cited and released, and four minors who were taken to the Community Assessment Referral Center, an organization that handles the cases of arrested juveniles. Seven of the nine people arrested were suspected of organized retail crime.
The arrests were part of an operation to combat shoplifting. During the operation, officers in uniform or plain clothes waited to arrest people who had stolen from a store, police said. The store where the arrests took place was chosen because of a “high number of shoplifting incidents,” police said, who did not name the store.
Last September, San Francisco Police received $15 million from the state to combat organized retail crime in the city. Police say officers have made dozens of arrests as part of the effort.
Police are still investigating the incident and are asking anyone with information to contact SFPD at 415-575-4444.
