SACRAMENTO, Calif.- California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bipartisan package of ten measures on Friday aimed at combating smash-and-grab robberies and property crimes, making it easier to prosecute chronic shoplifters and auto thieves, and increasing penalties for individuals running professional reselling scams.
The decision comes as Democratic leadership seeks to demonstrate that they are tough enough on crime while attempting to persuade voters to reject a referendum initiative that would impose even tougher penalties for habitual shoplifters and drug offenders.
While shoplifting has become increasingly common, large-scale, smash-and-grab robberies, in which groups of people openly rush into stores and steal things in plain sight, have become a crisis in California and elsewhere in recent years. Such crimes, which are frequently documented on film and shared on social media, have heightened awareness of the state’s retail theft problem.
The Democratic governor stated that the legislation provides the most substantial changes to combat retail fraud in years. It enables law enforcement to combine the value of products stolen from multiple victims to inflict heavier penalties and arrest people for theft using camera footage or witness testimony.
“This goes to the heart of the issue, and it does so thoughtfully and judiciously,” Newsom said of the package. “This is the real deal.”
The package won bipartisan support in the Legislature, but some progressive Democrats voted against it, citing worries that some of the measures are overly harsh.
The measure also targets cargo theft, closes a legal gap that makes it simpler to prosecute auto theft and requires marketplaces like eBay and Nextdoor to begin collecting bank accounts and tax identification numbers from high-volume sellers. Retailers can also obtain restraining orders against convicted shoplifters under one of the proposed measures.
“We know that retail theft has consequences, big and small, physical and financial,” said state Sen. Nancy Skinner, who sponsored one of the bills, on Friday. “And we know we have to take the right steps to stop it without returning to the days of mass incarceration.”
Democratic lawmakers, backed by Newsom, spent months earlier this year unsuccessfully attempting to keep a tougher-on-crime measure off the November ballot. Proposition 36, on the ballot, would make repeat shoplifting and certain drug crimes criminal offenses, among other things.
Democrats were concerned that the proposal will disproportionately imprison low-income people and those with drug abuse difficulties, rather than targeting ringleaders who pay huge groups of people to steal products to resell online. Instead, lawmakers’ plan would allow prosecutors to consolidate several thefts at different sites into a single felony charge, as well as strengthen punishments for smash-and-grabs and large-scale reselling.
In June, Newsom proposed putting a competing proposal on the ballot but then shelved the idea a day later. Proposition 36 is supported by a combination of district attorneys, corporations, and several local elected officials, including San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
Newsom, flanked by a bipartisan coalition of state politicians, business executives, and local authorities in a San Jose Home Depot, said the ballot initiative would be “a devastating setback” for California. Last month, Newsom stated that he intends to fight the bill.
“That initiative is about going back to the 1980s and the war on drugs,” said Mr. Obama. “It’s about mass incarceration.”
State Democrats in California have found it increasingly difficult to navigate how to address crime in recent years, after spending the last decade pushing progressive policies to depopulate jails and prisons and engage in rehabilitation programs. Newsom’s administration has also spent $267 million to assist dozens of local police enforcement agencies in expanding patrols, purchasing surveillance technology, and prosecuting more offenders.
The issue reached a boiling point last year, fueled by rising criticism from Republicans and law police, who point to viral recordings of large-scale thefts in which groups of people brazenly rush into stores and steal things in plain sight. Voters across the state are also concerned about what they regard as a lawless California, where retail crimes and drug misuse are common as the state struggles with a homelessness crisis.
As the issue threatened the makeup — and control — of Congress, some Democrats defied party leadership and declared their support for Proposition 36, the tough-on-crime policy.
Because of a lack of local data, it is difficult to quantify the retail crime problem in California, although many point to big shop closures and ordinary items such as toothpaste being locked behind plexiglass as signs of a crisis. The California Retailers Association stated that it is difficult to quantify the problem in California because many retailers do not share their statistics.
According to a study conducted by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, shoplifting increased steadily in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles from 2021 to 2022. According to the state attorney general and experts, California’s crime rates remain low when compared to decades earlier.
The California Highway Patrol has recovered $45 million in stolen items and detained over 3,000 people since 2019, according to officials on Friday.