California lawmakers on Monday gave final approval to a 10-bill package aimed at combating retail theft, a move that divides Democrats as they face a key issue in the upcoming November election.
California lawmakers passed these bills to address crime:
Assembly Bill 2943 targets serial thieves, charging them with third-time felony larceny, rounding up the amounts and expanding the drug diversion program.
Assembly Bill 3209 allows courts to impose restraining orders of up to two years on people who steal, vandalize or assault employees. It also asks the court to consider whether a person lives in a “food desert” and whether stores are the only location for essential goods.
Assembly Bill 1779 allows prosecutors to bring charges for multiple crimes that occurred across counties and have them handled in one court.
Assembly Bill 1802 permanently establishes the California Highway Patrol Property Crime Task Force.
Act of Parliament 1960 increased penalties for persons who take or destroy property worth more than $50,000.
A 1972 Assembly bill expanded the California Highway Patrol’s Property Crime Task Force program to include cargo theft and railroad police.
Senate Bill 905 creates two new felony misdemeanor, or “swing,” offenses for people who force entry into a locked vehicle with intent to steal.
Senate Bill 1385 supports hospital emergency departments and ensures that justice-involved patients have access to evidence-based treatment and ongoing services for opioid use disorder.
Senate Bill 1242 would provide a longer prison sentence if a person is convicted of reckless arson and organized theft of a retailer’s property.
Senate Bill 1320 would require health plans or insurance companies to reimburse providers for mental health and substance use disorder treatment services.
Senate Bill 1416 increases sentencing for people convicted of selling, exchanging or returning items obtained through shoplifting, theft or theft.
Senate Bill 1144 requires online marketplaces to collect information from large numbers of third-party sellers and empowers district attorneys to bring civil lawsuits to enforce violations.
Senate Bill 982 removes the sunset date for organized retail theft crimes, allowing prosecutions to proceed indefinitely.
The legislation has been the focus of intense political debate throughout the year, with Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders responding to pressure from a tough-on-crime ballot measure that would toughen penalties for retail theft. Democratic leaders hoped their bill would influence prosecutors to abandon the measure, but negotiations broke down, leaving California with two different visions for solving crime. District attorneys seeking a more punitive approach to prosecuting felonies for repeat theft and fentanyl crimes will appear on the November ballot as Proposition 36, while the Legislature passes legislation targeting organized theft rings and online marketplaces Efforts to curb crime will now go to Newsom for consideration.
“Retail theft is not only bad for business, it undermines safety,” Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles), who heads the special committee created this year to address the issue, said during Monday’s Assembly vote. Head of the committee. “I appreciate that there is a broad range of perspectives in this agency and in the community, but getting it to the right place is complicated. Many members of this agency have raised passionate and genuine concerns, and I respect them.
While the bills have bipartisan support, they are opposed by many progressive lawmakers, especially members of the Legislative Black Caucus, who don’t want to see more people sent to prison.
“These measures deepen mass incarceration, and the deepening of mass incarceration is happening at the same time that California The opposite direction that people want us to go is to reduce incarceration.
Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Alameda) declined to support seven bills.
“We know that increases in criminalization are often borne by Black and Latino Californians,” she wrote in a statement to The Times.
Assemblymembers Tina McKinna (D-Hawthorne) and Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles), also members of the Black Caucus, were the only lawmakers in the Assembly not to vote on a bill that would have punished those involved in Burglary by forceful entry into a dwelling. Thirteen other Democrats did not vote, indicating they did not support the bill.
California Senator Lora Smallwood-Cuevas and Assemblymember Isaac Bryan do not support some of the Legislature’s bills to address retail theft.
(Jason Almond/Los Angeles Times)
Some Black Caucus members and several other Democrats also support legislation that would strengthen penalties for people who cause fires by stealing property; allow prosecutors to aggregate property theft cases; and allow stores to file temporary restraining orders against certain repeat offenders.
It’s unclear how California will track whether the bill is effective in reducing theft.
“This is not over yet, this is year one, step one,” House Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) told reporters on Monday. “We know data is always the best way to advance policy, but we must do a better job of looking in the rearview mirror at the state Capitol to make sure the laws are working.”
Newsom has already signed two other bills in July that lawmakers enacted as part of related efforts to address drug addiction. The Senate is also advancing seven other fentanyl-related bills in an effort to curb the ongoing drug crisis plaguing the state.
At the heart of the debate over bills to curb theft and fentanyl abuse are differing views on Proposition 47, a decade-old California law that downgraded some nonviolent drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanor, intended to reduce prison populations and give nonviolent offenders a second chance.
Many district attorneys and law enforcement officials blame Proposition 47 for crime in California and supported Proposition 36 on the November ballot to overturn some of the reforms. Proposition 36 would allow people with repeated convictions for theft or fentanyl use to be charged with a felony and potentially be sent to prison. The campaign announced Monday the endorsement of several legislative Democrats, including Sens. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) and Tom Umberg (D-Orange), along with Reps. James Ramos (D-Highland), Jasmeet Baines (D-Delano) ), Stephanie Nguyen (D-Elk Grove) and Blanca Pacheco (D-Downey).
Newsom and legislative leaders are trying to prevent Proposition 36 from reaching the ballot and may announce formal opposition to the measure. They don’t want to change Proposition 47, arguing it created beneficial reforms that reduced California’s prison population and provided funding for drug treatment and other recovery services. They say California can solve its crime problem without changing Proposition 47.
In June, the governor and Legislature introduced a more liberal, less punitive ballot measure designed to compete with the prosecutors’ measure. But just before the Legislature entered its July recess, the governor, who was out of state campaigning for President Joe Biden at the time, canceled the measure and said there wasn’t enough time to get it across the finish line.
The legislation Newsom has filed could offer some political benefits to Proposition 36 opponents: Rivas said he thinks it could prompt some corporate donors to abandon their support.
