As retail theft increases, California’s Democratic leadership is locked in a fierce political battle with a coalition of law enforcement and business groups over how to combat the issue. State lawmakers are working to preserve progressive policies and avoid putting more people in prison.
The two avenues most likely to be considered this year are a ballot initiative that would impose harsher penalties for repeat offenders and a legislative package that would make it easier to pursue career criminal gangs.
The leaders behind both efforts accuse each other of misleading voters and being unwilling to work toward compromise.
How did we get here?
Both sides agreed on the need to crack down hard, especially on large-scale thefts where groups brazenly break into stores to snatch goods.
At the heart of the escalating political battle is Proposition 47, a progressive ballot measure voters passed in 2014 that lowered certain theft and drug possession crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, in part because It is to alleviate overcrowding in detention centers and prisons. This includes nonviolent property crimes, such as theft under $950.
Law enforcement says this makes it more difficult to arrest and punish shoplifters. Researchers told lawmakers there was no evidence the proposal was linked to an increase in violent crime.
How are these two solutions different?
A coalition of district attorneys and businesses, largely funded by big-box retailers, is pushing for an initiative to impose tougher penalties for shoplifting and drug crimes. If a person has two prior theft convictions, theft will be classified as a felony regardless of the amount.
Possession of fentanyl would also become a felony, and those charged with multiple drug offenses would be ordered to undergo treatment.
The ballot measure still needs certification from the secretary of state before it can go on the ballot later this month.
California’s Democratic leadership, backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, wants to keep tough-on-crime measures off the November ballot. They worry the ballot measure proposal would disproportionately criminalize low-income people and people with substance abuse problems, rather than targeting the ringleaders who employ large groups of people to steal goods and resell them online.
Instead, lawmakers are fast-tracking a 14-bill legislative package that would crack down on organized online dealer schemes and auto thieves and provide funding for addiction counselors. The proposals could become law as soon as this month.
Do these efforts conflict?
Democratic leaders plan to repeal much of the measure in their own legislative package, citing potential conflicts if voters approve a tough-on-crime ballot initiative.
Earlier this week, lawmakers lacked details on how the two paths might conflict. Later, they said they feared that if both efforts were successful, law enforcement would be able to increase penalties and send more people to prison, leading to mass incarceration and prison overcrowding.
Lawmakers said about a third of the measures in the package may have legal conflicts with proposals in the ballot initiative.
Ballot initiative campaigns accuse lawmakers of holding the proposal hostage to divide the coalition. Local district attorneys supporting the ballot initiative said the two efforts could work together, with the ballot measure taking precedence over the legislative package in the event of a legal conflict.
What happens next?
Supporters of the ballot initiative say they remain willing to work with Democratic leadership but will only consider any solution that involves overturning Proposition 47.
“We’re still ready to sit down with anyone in leadership to discuss this measure, but I don’t want to compromise,” Greg Totten, a retired district attorney and leader of the ballot initiative campaign, said at a news conference this year.
Newsom and Democratic leaders have until June 27 to negotiate to take the initiative off the ballot. Meanwhile, lawmakers plan to send the legislation to Newsom for his signature by next week, despite growing concerns from moderate Democrats.
“When you look at the package that we’ve put together, it’s very comprehensive and it addresses a lot of the details that are in the existing legal framework,” Assemblyman Rick Zbur, author of the retail theft bill, told reporters . “It was never intended to be part of a ballot measure that would eliminate the foundation of the fundamental law we are trying to reform.”
