District Attorney seeks staff increases for auto‑burglary prosecutions and human‑trafficking unit

District Attorney George Gascon asked the Budget & Finance Committee to fund dedicated prosecution teams to sustain recent investigative gains against organized auto burglaries and to create an expanded human‑trafficking unit.

Gascon said analysts and prosecutors in his Case Support Unit used social‑media and phone analysis to link multi‑jurisdictional crews, yielding indictments and recoveries: one case produced a 20‑count grand‑jury indictment, and another assembled 12 suspects tied to roughly $3 million in residential burglaries and resulted in the recovery of more than $500,000 in property.

To handle the caseload and pursue complex prosecutions, Gascon requested a two‑year auto‑burglary team (a head attorney, three prosecutors, one investigator, one analyst and one paralegal) at an estimated cost of about $1.393 million. He also urged sustained funding for a human‑trafficking unit modeled in part on Alameda County’s larger team, arguing his office currently lacks the capacity to bring the full set of cases forward.

Supervisors asked for cost‑benefit details and for the DA’s office to coordinate with SFPD so staffing increases match projected arrest volumes. Some board members signaled support for scaling prosecutorial capacity if police enforcement yields more arrests and if the city can staff other parts of the justice ecosystem (probation, pretrial services) to avoid bottlenecks.

The committee did not vote on the DA’s budget requests at this hearing; members asked the DA to return with additional workload projections and to justify phasing.