It would be entirely reasonable for the cops to file a report, but I would not make the assumption that they did. Reasons cops file reports include: An intent

It would be entirely reasonable for the cops to file a report, but I would not make the assumption that they did. Reasons cops file reports include: An intention to investigate the crime The victim requests a report for an insurance claim In this case they know it’s a hard crime to investigate. Based on the articles I’ve read, it seems thieves in SF often use stolen cars, so even the plates may not be that helpful. Moreover we have serious crimes like attempted murder and illegal gun possession in SF going un-prosecuted, so the cops cannot assume an arrest could lead to anything at all. Additionally filing a report with little hope for an arrest makes the precincts numbers look bad. Those numbers will get reported in neighborhood association meetings, and those association people (I’m one of them) can be a real pain in the ass to the politicians (i.e. the boss’s boss’s boss). It’s just not a good incentive structure and if we were going to do a clean redesign IMO the politicians and cops should have as little control over the official statistics as possible.