California Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing over $250 million in funding to combat "organized retail gangs" and "organized retail mobs" committing highly publicized robberies in the Bay Area and elsewhere.
In a press conference on Friday at the California Highway Patrol's Dublin headquarters, Newsom announced his January budget proposal to the legislature will include $255 million in "competitive enforcement grants" over the next three years to local law enforcement to combat organized retail theft.
"It's about the investigation units," Newsom said on Friday. "It's about the secondary market. It's about going online where these things are being fenced. It's about addressing exactly that."
Newsom, a Democrat, told reporters the state is "not walking back on our commitment" to pursue substantial criminal justice reforms. He said "the last full-year analysis" showed larceny and property crimes are down 11% since Proposition 47 passed in 2014, which reclassified some thefts from felonies to misdemeanors.
The Public Policy Institute of California found that property crimes in four of the state's biggest cities (Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco) increased 7% in the first 10 months of 2021 compared to the same timeframe 2020. Last year, California had its lowest level of property crime since statistics were first recorded in 1960.
Reported property and violent crimes had returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to the research. In 2019, the institute determined the property crime rate was, at the time, its lowest observed rate since 1960.
Newsom told reporters the state "had to recognize this moment we're in, and we have to recognize people's fears and anxieties."
"Stats mean nothing in terms of your feelings," Newsom said, adding he wanted to acknowledge Californians' "anxiety" and "that it's unacceptable what's happening."
All of the funding will come from the state's budget surplus, according to Newsom. California Attorney General Rob Bonta would receive nearly $20 million for a new team of prosecutors dedicated to retail theft.
"Here in California, when we see a problem, we develop a solution," Bonta said. "That's how we do it. That's what the 'Real Public Safety Plan' is."
The plan includes $20 million in grants for "small businesses that have been the victims of smash-and-grabs to get back on their feet quickly," Newsom's office wrote in a press release, as well as $30 million in grants to local prosecutors.
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