California Democrats bring down the hammer on crime — or try to

SACRAMENTO, California — The speaker of the California Assembly and fellow Democrats Tuesday will announce a package of bills targeting retail theft — all without touching a landmark criminal justice measure voters approved nearly a decade ago.

A wide-ranging proposal from Speaker Robert Rivas and Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur would allow police to make arrests without witnessing the incident or footage of it, establish a new crime targeting “serial” theft and allow the value of stolen items from multiple retailers within 60 days to be aggregated into a grand theft, which can be a felony.

“Organized retail crime and theft are harming our communities, undermining business owners and eroding people’s confidence in law and order. That ends today,” Rivas told POLITICO.

Their approach is something of a balancing act. Frustrations over property crime have dominated the political conversation in recent months, yet Gov. Gavin Newsom and top legislative leaders have been reluctant to alter Proposition 47, which downgraded a number of crimes to misdemeanors in 2014.

At the same time, Prop 47 has come under intensifying scrutiny — including from Democratic Mayors Todd Gloria of San Diego and London Breed of San Francisco, who support a new ballot initiative to soften it.

The suite of seven new bills — including Rivas and Zbur's proposal — would make it easier to arrest suspected shoplifters while stiffening penalties for organized retail crime. None of those policies would require changes to Prop 47.

Zbur, who chairs the Select Committee on Retail Theft, said the package would give relief to businesses suffering from an uptick in retail crime without returning to overly-punitive policies.

“We’re doing this while preserving the good elements of criminal justice reform so that we’re not putting people in prison needlessly,” Zbur said.

The legislation would also:

— Specify that repeated possession of a “quantity of goods inconsistent with personal use” could be used as intent to resell

— Require major retailers to share some theft data

— Require online sellers to maintain records of legally acquiring goods

— Ensure nuisance actions aren’t brought against retailers who make frequent calls to law enforcement related to theft

— Expand the use of diversion and rehabilitative programs for shoplifting and petty theft

Rivas said he opposes any changes to Prop 47.

“I believe a return to the ballot to address retail theft is not necessary because the Assembly’s plan delivers real and urgent changes for Californians,” he said.

Zbur said the package “is much more robust in addressing organized crime than the proposals that are focused on Prop 47.”

Other legislation in the package include a proposal from Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria to allow extended jail time for property crimes over $50,000 in value — reducing the current $100,000 threshold — and one from Assemblymember Marc Berman allowing courts to issue longer, broader restraining orders for thefts or vandalism.

The bills' authors — which also include Public Safety Chair Kevin McCarty and Assemblymembers Reggie Jones-Sawyer, Jacqui Irwin and Juan Alanis — will share details of their proposals this morning, joined by Attorney General Rob Bonta and representatives of the retail industry.

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