Governor Newsom of California signs bill to combat organized shoplifting and property crime

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of laws on Friday to combat organized shoplifting and other property crimes, including tougher penalties for repeat offenders.

Newsom signed the bills at a press conference at a Home Depot in San Jose that was also attended by the state's Attorney General Rob Bonta, politicians and business leaders. Of the state's largest counties, the city and county of Santa Clara have seen the largest increase in property crimes, according to the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

The bills passed the Democratic-controlled legislature on Monday, despite Democrats being divided over how to address the rise in property crimes. Many district attorneys and mayors across the state, including the mayor of San Jose, Support Proposition 36 on the November ballotwhich would allow for felony charges and harsher penalties for repeat drug and theft offenses.

Newsom and other Democrats oppose Bill 36, calling it an attempt at drug policy reform that would increase the prison population by tens of thousands and cost the state billions.

In his remarks, the governor noted that lawmakers had worked with retail industry leaders to pass “the most significant anti-property crime bill in California's modern history,” despite political differences.

“The legislature has worked diligently and in a bipartisan manner to advance these bills, and this, as the [Speaker] pro tempore [Jim Wood] and the speaker [Robert Rivas] said is the beginning of a process, not the end of the process. We are still working on a number of other bills. We have more work to do in this area, more generally. But this is demonstrable progress of this joint effort.”

The ceremony to sign the bill on Friday was the governor’s latest step to combat property theft and other crimes, including Formation of a Task Force on Organised Retail Crime with California Highway Patrol officers, Promise of millions of dollars to law enforcement agencies throughout the state and Involving state prosecutors to assist local prosecutors in Alameda County.

On Thursday, the governor's office said the CHP has arrested more than 2,900 suspects and recovered more than $45 million in stolen assets since the task force was created in 2019. Also on Thursday Traders in Oakland told CBS News Bay Area The task force made no difference to them and more help was needed.

Among the bills Newsom signed Friday is one that would make the property crimes task force permanent. Other bills allow for third-offense theft charges, allow prosecutors to prosecute crimes from multiple counties in a single court, provide enhanced penalties for trafficking stolen property and require online marketplaces to collect information from wholesalers.

Another bill proposes the creation of two so-called “wobbler” offenses that can be punished as felonies or misdemeanors: breaking into a car with the intent to steal and possessing property stolen from a car valued at least $950 with the intent to sell.

Proposition 36 would reverse parts of Proposition 47, which made most drug possession offenses a misdemeanor, raised the threshold for grand theft and forgery from $400 to $950, and provided more funding for drug treatment and victim services. The proposal passed in 2017 in part to reduce the state's overcrowded prisons.

Supporters of Prop 36, which targets both shoplifting and the fentanyl crises, say it would close loopholes in criminal laws and provide more accountability. Newsom, who has made prison reform one of his most important issuessaid Thursday that the impact of Prop 36 would be “devastating” for minority communities, which historically have made up a disproportionate share of the state's prison population.

“The impact on poor folks, the impact on black and brown communities, that's a whole new level. And it doesn't address what they're saying. I've seen that movie over and over again. It's exactly what we are not as a state,” Newsom said in response to a reporter's question. “And the fact that there are some Democrats, you mentioned one, a couple others, who support this, I don't know if they've given it much thought. And I don't mean that as a cheap remark. I mean that sincerely. And I know they're going to push back against it and maybe you're going to keep pushing that story instead of dealing with the substance of it all.”