Steve Smith
Blog
The Search for Police Racism: A Narrative of Data, Oversight, and the Reality of Police Reform in California
In 2020, following nationwide protests after George Floyd’s murder, California began an ambitious experiment: could expansive data collection and new oversight agencies reveal whether policing was systemically racist? Central to this was the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA), passed in 2015 and expanded after 2020. RIPA required law enforcement ...
Blog
On Juvenile Justice Policy Debates Driven By Untested Dogma, Not Data or Honest Timelines
Two 2026 bills—Assembly Bill 1902 by Asm. Gail Pellerin (D-Santa Cruz) and the failed “Lorenso’s Law” (AB 2040) by Asm. Alexandra Macedo (R-Tulare)—show how lawmakers are grasping for answers. But the most glaring flaws run deeper. The system’s rigid age cutoff means some offenders—many who are adults by the time ...
Commentary
San Francisco’s Justice System Is Breaking Down
San Francisco’s criminal justice system may be reaching a breaking point. A San Francisco Superior Court judge recently found Public Defender Mano Raju in contempt and imposed fines after the office continued declining court-assigned cases in defiance of a prior order to stop doing so. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins says ...
Blog
Bay Area police oversight is in turmoil—and the real problem is inside the oversight system itself
Civilian police oversight was built on a simple premise: internal police discipline was not enough on its own. Independent civilian review would add transparency, improve accountability, and strengthen public trust. That model now exists in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and San Jose. But its defining feature today is not success ...
Blog
Road to Freedom – Unravelling the Riddle of David Allen Funston
California’s “elderly parole” system, created under AB 3234 and related statutory reforms, allows incarcerated people to be considered for release once they reach age 50 and have served at least 20 years. It is routinely described as a compassionate mechanism for aging inmates and prison population management. But the label ...
Budget
TSA’s Time Has Come
For all the focus on reforming Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE), the agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) most in need of defunding is the Transportation Security Agency (TSA). Founded in the wake of 9/11, the TSA was a response to the hijackers’ use of box cutters to ...
Blog
The Funston Case – The Dangerous Myth of the “Elderly Inmate”
In California, a life sentence rarely means life. With limited exceptions — death penalty cases, life without parole (LWOP) sentences, and certain murder convictions — most inmates serving life terms will eventually become eligible for release. In 2021, lawmakers passed AB 3234, lowering the age for “elderly parole” eligibility from ...
Blog
California’s Sanctuary State Paradox
Gov. Gavin Newsom has repeatedly argued that California cooperates with federal authorities to deport violent criminals who are in the country illegally—an assertion that appears to conflict with the state’s sanctuary reputation. In a recent interview with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, Newsom said that more than 10,000 criminals were deported during ...
Blog
Legislature’s Anti-ICE Measures Would Bring Unintended Consequence of Betraying California’s Veterans
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D- Hollister) and Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez (D- Los Angeles) have announced Assembly Bill 1896, legislation to bar Department of Homeland Security employees who participated in immigration enforcement during the second Trump administration from holding any public employment in California — including peace‑officer positions. It’s the most ...
Blog
On Warrants and Searches, A Man’s House Is His Castle
The Fourth Amendment and decades of case law make clear that law enforcement may not enter a residence for search or arrest without a warrant based on a statement of probable cause and signed by a neutral magistrate. Exceptions exist—exigent circumstances, hot pursuit, searches incident to arrest, plain view, consent—but ...
The Search for Police Racism: A Narrative of Data, Oversight, and the Reality of Police Reform in California
In 2020, following nationwide protests after George Floyd’s murder, California began an ambitious experiment: could expansive data collection and new oversight agencies reveal whether policing was systemically racist? Central to this was the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA), passed in 2015 and expanded after 2020. RIPA required law enforcement ...
On Juvenile Justice Policy Debates Driven By Untested Dogma, Not Data or Honest Timelines
Two 2026 bills—Assembly Bill 1902 by Asm. Gail Pellerin (D-Santa Cruz) and the failed “Lorenso’s Law” (AB 2040) by Asm. Alexandra Macedo (R-Tulare)—show how lawmakers are grasping for answers. But the most glaring flaws run deeper. The system’s rigid age cutoff means some offenders—many who are adults by the time ...
San Francisco’s Justice System Is Breaking Down
San Francisco’s criminal justice system may be reaching a breaking point. A San Francisco Superior Court judge recently found Public Defender Mano Raju in contempt and imposed fines after the office continued declining court-assigned cases in defiance of a prior order to stop doing so. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins says ...
Bay Area police oversight is in turmoil—and the real problem is inside the oversight system itself
Civilian police oversight was built on a simple premise: internal police discipline was not enough on its own. Independent civilian review would add transparency, improve accountability, and strengthen public trust. That model now exists in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and San Jose. But its defining feature today is not success ...
Road to Freedom – Unravelling the Riddle of David Allen Funston
California’s “elderly parole” system, created under AB 3234 and related statutory reforms, allows incarcerated people to be considered for release once they reach age 50 and have served at least 20 years. It is routinely described as a compassionate mechanism for aging inmates and prison population management. But the label ...
TSA’s Time Has Come
For all the focus on reforming Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE), the agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) most in need of defunding is the Transportation Security Agency (TSA). Founded in the wake of 9/11, the TSA was a response to the hijackers’ use of box cutters to ...
The Funston Case – The Dangerous Myth of the “Elderly Inmate”
In California, a life sentence rarely means life. With limited exceptions — death penalty cases, life without parole (LWOP) sentences, and certain murder convictions — most inmates serving life terms will eventually become eligible for release. In 2021, lawmakers passed AB 3234, lowering the age for “elderly parole” eligibility from ...
California’s Sanctuary State Paradox
Gov. Gavin Newsom has repeatedly argued that California cooperates with federal authorities to deport violent criminals who are in the country illegally—an assertion that appears to conflict with the state’s sanctuary reputation. In a recent interview with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, Newsom said that more than 10,000 criminals were deported during ...
Legislature’s Anti-ICE Measures Would Bring Unintended Consequence of Betraying California’s Veterans
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D- Hollister) and Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez (D- Los Angeles) have announced Assembly Bill 1896, legislation to bar Department of Homeland Security employees who participated in immigration enforcement during the second Trump administration from holding any public employment in California — including peace‑officer positions. It’s the most ...
On Warrants and Searches, A Man’s House Is His Castle
The Fourth Amendment and decades of case law make clear that law enforcement may not enter a residence for search or arrest without a warrant based on a statement of probable cause and signed by a neutral magistrate. Exceptions exist—exigent circumstances, hot pursuit, searches incident to arrest, plain view, consent—but ...