The California Senate on Wednesday approved a bipartisan package of 15 bills that would increase penalties for organized crime networks, expand drug court programs and close a loophole to make it easier to prosecute auto thefts.
One proposal would require large online marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon to verify the identities of sellers who make at least $5,000 in profit in a year, in an attempt to shut down an easy way to sell stolen goods.
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“This is not a game,” said Senate President Mike McGuire, a Democrat who represents the North Shore, adding that he hopes to get the bills to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk within weeks. “We are working together to achieve a safer California, putting politics aside and making sure we do what is right for our communities.”
It typically takes months for lawmakers to deliver bills to California's governor, but the commitment to take quick action is fueled by a new tough-on-crime strategy in an election year that seeks to address voters' growing fears and at the same time preserving progressivism. policies designed to keep people out of prison.
California State Senator Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, right, speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Sacramento, California, on August 28, 2023. On Wednesday, May 22, 2024, California lawmakers introduced more than a dozen bills aimed at cracking down. against repeat shoplifters and car thieves, part of a new tough-on-crime strategy that seeks to address voter concerns while preserving progressive policies to keep people out of prison. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Large-scale thefts, in which groups of people brazenly break into stores and take products in plain sight, have reached crisis level in the state, although the California Retailers Association said it is a challenge to quantify the problem. because many stores do not share their data.
The Bay Area and Los Angeles experienced a steady increase in shoplifting between 2021 and 2022, according to a study of the latest crime data by the Public Policy Institute of California. Statewide, shoplifting rates increased during the same period but were still lower than pre-pandemic levels in 2019, while shoplifting and robberies have become more frequent in urban counties, according to the study.
Assembly lawmakers also introduced several other measures against retail theft on Wednesday, including a bill authored by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas that targets professional theft rings. It would expand law enforcement's authority to combine the value of property stolen from different victims to impose harsher penalties and arrest people for theft using video footage or witness statements. The measure would also create a new crime for those who sell or return stolen goods and would require online sellers to keep records proving the merchandise was not stolen and require some retail businesses to report data on stolen products.
Lawmakers also approved proposals that would crack down on cargo theft, restore the district attorney's authority to pursue thieves and resellers operating beyond their jurisdictions, and allow retailers to obtain restraining orders against convicted thieves.
All of the bills now head to the second chamber before they can reach Newsom's desk in June.
The advancement of a series of measures further cements Democratic lawmakers' rejection of growing calls to reverse progressive policies like Proposition 47, a ballot measure approved by 60% of state voters in 2014 that reduced penalties for certain crimes. , including thefts of items valued at less than $950 and drug possession offenses, ranging from felonies to misdemeanors.
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The money saved by having fewer people in prison, amounting to $113 million this fiscal year, has been very successfully directed toward local programs to combat recidivism, state officials and advocates said. But the proposal has made it harder to prosecute thieves and allowed brazen criminal networks to develop, law enforcement officials said. An attempt to reform the measure failed in 2020.
As California's major national stores and local businesses say they continue to face rampant theft, a growing number of law enforcement officials and district attorneys, along with Republican and moderate Democratic lawmakers, say California must consider all options. , including the revocation of the measure. The coalition supporting the initiative submitted more than 900,000 signatures last month to include it in the November elections. Signatures are being verified.
