Democratic Mayors London Breed of San Francisco and Matt Mahan of San Jose have backed a tough-on-crime ballot effort to reform Proposition 47, a controversial initiative that reduced some serious drug and theft crimes to misdemeanors.
The measure, called the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Retail Theft Reduction Act, will reform a 2014 law by increasing penalties for fentanyl traffickers and organized retail theft rings, as well as providing mandatory treatment for drug users, according to the proposed ballot initiative.
“In San Francisco, we are making progress on property crimes, but the challenges we face related to fentanyl and organized retail theft require real change in our state laws,” Breed said. “I fully support this measure and know it will make a significant difference for California cities.”
These endorsements come weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters during his budget presentation in January that amending Proposition 47 would not reduce the wave of high-profile retail thefts in the state. Instead, the Newsom administration has proposed six ways lawmakers can expand criminal penalties for organized theft without returning the issue to voters. Newsom agreed that stronger enforcement is needed and has called for more arrests in these cases.
This week, Newsom also assigned 120 California Highway Patrol officers to combat crime in Oakland.
Proposition 47, the 2014 voter-approved ballot measure that Newsom supported, reclassified some serious drug and theft crimes as misdemeanors and increased the amount for which theft can be prosecuted as a felony from $400 to $950. Newsom often points out that some of the most conservative states in the country, including Texas, have a higher threshold for felony charges.
Breed's announcement comes as he runs for reelection and faces low approval ratings and as property crime rates in recent years have been trending upward in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In 2022, San Francisco had the highest rate of property theft among all California cities, according to data from the Public Policy Institute of California, a leading nonpartisan group that researches crime trends and policies. Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Mateo also saw an increase.
Mahan told The Times in a phone interview that he was less aware of the governor's plans and was instead more focused on the results of this bipartisan effort.
“The Legislature will be limited in what it can do without voters,” Mahan said.
He warned that if Proposition 47 is not reformed now, there could be support in the future to repeal it entirely, which he said “would be a mistake.” Mahan said he witnessed firsthand a robbery at a local grocery store.
“That feeling of non-responsibility is detrimental to our society,” he said.
Greg Totten, executive director of the California District Attorneys Association. and campaign co-chair, said that since 2015, Sacramento legislators have tried to address this issue without success.
“We think the responsible approach to this is to move forward with the ballot measure,” he told The Times.
Totten said the measure would convert a third property theft conviction into a felony charge, expand the law to include a series of thefts of items with a total value of more than $950 and also hold those “acting in concert” liable.
The proposed ballot measure has collected 360,000 signatures, more than half of what is required to qualify for the November vote.
In 2020, voters rejected Proposition 20, a ballot measure that would have rolled back Proposition 47 by toughening some criminal sentences.
