The difference is where you live in Arizona, misdemeanors will actually be prosecuted.
In most of CA misdemeanors are ignored, because of other laws and practices. So yes, it really does mean you can walk out with $950 and literally nothing will happen to you - unless you do it in front of a police officer or something. This is why Apple stores here pay police officers to hang out at the entrance.
The problem with clearance rates is that the denominator relies on larceny being reported. They don't get reported in SF. They do everywhere else. Percentages can make anything look good.
not that this is real "data" or anything, but I have lived in San Francisco (in various parts of the Mission and Soma) since 2018. My vehicles have been stolen 4 times, and recovered all four times. In all cases there was some kind of police report, but no person was ever charged with a crime. In 3 cases they actually had the person in custody and let them go (one time he ran away while being questioned in the stolen vehicle, so maybe that doesn't count, but they told me they couldn't have prosecuted anyway because he was just "in the vehicle, that doens't prove he stole it)
Separately, I have personally witnessed 3 instances of store shoplifting (like filling a whole bag with anything that you can and just walking out) where the police weren't even called because it was useless. They were just yelled at until they casually walked away.
I have watched a car window get smashed and a bag stolen from the car on Haight St. near Ameoba at 1PM on a Saturday. Everyone just watched, no one called the cops from what I could see (I didn't).
Last night I watched two guys use an angle grinder to cut a bike lock and steal a bike on Mission st. I didn't call the police.
I'm probably part of the problem now since I don't even call the cops anymore like I used to, but its hard to feel like you can do anything about it when I have seen them just let people go time and time again.
When the city is incentivized to hide it, the stats are hard to come by as they are the only ones able to keep stats.
Talk to literally anyone who lived there for more than a few years and you'll heard endless stories of crimes against them or their friends that go unreported. I can give you a handful of them myself, and seems like basically everyone I knew who lived there had their own.
Over the years I've read story after story of horrific crimes committed there by 10, 20, 30-time repeat offenders. You can look no further than Boudin's own words and actions.
To try and claim otherwise is basically politically motivated gaslighting. Walk down any number of streets, talk to locals, it's clear as day to anyone with a brain and eyes that there's something uniquely wrong with that city.
In most of CA misdemeanors are ignored, because of other laws and practices. So yes, it really does mean you can walk out with $950 and literally nothing will happen to you - unless you do it in front of a police officer or something. This is why Apple stores here pay police officers to hang out at the entrance.