Steve Smith
Blog
All Crime is Local – Why National Crime Statistics Don’t Matter
The FBI doesn’t receive individual reports of crimes, rather, they aggregate the crime statistics reported by thousands of law enforcement agencies who, for ease of comparison, share a common reporting format. This gives us a bird’s eye view of national and state crime statistics, albeit with a lot of errors ...
Blog
A Cruel Moment of Clarity
The police as of this writing have not identified the 17 year-old suspect who was arrested immediately after the shooting, saying only that he is from Tracy, California. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Tuesday filed attempted murder, robbery, and other charges against the suspect. It’s an election year and the ...
Blog
Read the latest on California's growing crime problem
Public Safety on the Edge – Law enforcement in California’s Fastest Growing County
On July 22, the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC) published a research brief shedding new light on the problem of rural police staffing in California. So acute is the problem that two years ago, the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office made national news when it announced that staffing shortages ...
Blog
Learn about the latest soft on crime proposal coming from the State Capitol
SB 94 Comes Back to Life –Plan Would Release Multiple Murderers and Rapists
Yet today, the overwhelming majority of California’s violent inmates are already or will be eligible for a parole hearing and potential release. And they are being released in record numbers. It is a common misconception that California’s prisons are full of non-violent offenders. That ended with the passage of AB ...
Blog
The Prop 47 Budgetary Shell Game – Who you Gonna Believe? Them, or your Lying Eyes?
In 2014, Californians voted overwhelmingly to pass Proposition 47, known by its supporters title the “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act.” Prop 47’s advocates made a strong case, promising that both crime and incarceration rates would decline. At the same time, supporters argued that “massive” savings from ending the practice of ...
Blog
Read about rising juvenile crime rates
California’s Lost Boys – On California’s Juvenile Crime Problem
On May 18, Monterey couple Curt and Shelley Chaffee were visiting San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Shelley is an artist and was taking photographs of the park’s bison when they were robbed at gunpoint of their Nikon camera and cell phones by two male suspects. They were able to locate ...
Blog
Get the scoop on the latest CA crime data
What the New California Crime Stats Show
Among the key findings: Violent Crime: Violent crime increased by 3.3% compared to 2022 levels. Property Crime: Property crime decreased by 1.3%, but thefts and property crimes have actually increased according to victimization surveys and industry reports. Underreported Crime: 28 law enforcement agencies did not report their statistics, potentially leading ...
Blog
Will lawmakers hinder Prop. 47 reform?
Prop 47 – A Lethal Public Policy Cocktail
Not one of the ten bills pending in the state legislature even mentions dangerous drugs. The CDAA ballot initiative addresses the complexities of prosecuting serial and repeat thieves and refocuses on the root cause – increasing dangerous drug addiction and the systemic, pharmacological, and economically compulsive violence that contribute to ...
Blog
Will lawmakers take action to stop human trafficking in California?
The “Safer Streets for All Act” That Isn’t.
In 2022, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), sex worker groups, and Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) joined forces to pass Senate Bill 357, which effectively decriminalized loitering for the purposes of prostitution. Citing statistics from Los Angeles that showed over 50 percent of suspected prostitutes are black, the ACLU ...
Blog
Read the latest on the effects of Prop 47
Letter Carriers and Your Mail Became Theft Targets After Prop 47
There may be no more venerable American institution than the U.S. Postal Service. Founded by the Continental Congress in 1775, Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first Postmaster General before there was even a United States. While e-mail and commercial package delivery has cut deeply into the Postal Services market share, ...
All Crime is Local – Why National Crime Statistics Don’t Matter
The FBI doesn’t receive individual reports of crimes, rather, they aggregate the crime statistics reported by thousands of law enforcement agencies who, for ease of comparison, share a common reporting format. This gives us a bird’s eye view of national and state crime statistics, albeit with a lot of errors ...
A Cruel Moment of Clarity
The police as of this writing have not identified the 17 year-old suspect who was arrested immediately after the shooting, saying only that he is from Tracy, California. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Tuesday filed attempted murder, robbery, and other charges against the suspect. It’s an election year and the ...
Read the latest on California's growing crime problem
Public Safety on the Edge – Law enforcement in California’s Fastest Growing County
On July 22, the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC) published a research brief shedding new light on the problem of rural police staffing in California. So acute is the problem that two years ago, the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office made national news when it announced that staffing shortages ...
Learn about the latest soft on crime proposal coming from the State Capitol
SB 94 Comes Back to Life –Plan Would Release Multiple Murderers and Rapists
Yet today, the overwhelming majority of California’s violent inmates are already or will be eligible for a parole hearing and potential release. And they are being released in record numbers. It is a common misconception that California’s prisons are full of non-violent offenders. That ended with the passage of AB ...
The Prop 47 Budgetary Shell Game – Who you Gonna Believe? Them, or your Lying Eyes?
In 2014, Californians voted overwhelmingly to pass Proposition 47, known by its supporters title the “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act.” Prop 47’s advocates made a strong case, promising that both crime and incarceration rates would decline. At the same time, supporters argued that “massive” savings from ending the practice of ...
Read about rising juvenile crime rates
California’s Lost Boys – On California’s Juvenile Crime Problem
On May 18, Monterey couple Curt and Shelley Chaffee were visiting San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Shelley is an artist and was taking photographs of the park’s bison when they were robbed at gunpoint of their Nikon camera and cell phones by two male suspects. They were able to locate ...
Get the scoop on the latest CA crime data
What the New California Crime Stats Show
Among the key findings: Violent Crime: Violent crime increased by 3.3% compared to 2022 levels. Property Crime: Property crime decreased by 1.3%, but thefts and property crimes have actually increased according to victimization surveys and industry reports. Underreported Crime: 28 law enforcement agencies did not report their statistics, potentially leading ...
Will lawmakers hinder Prop. 47 reform?
Prop 47 – A Lethal Public Policy Cocktail
Not one of the ten bills pending in the state legislature even mentions dangerous drugs. The CDAA ballot initiative addresses the complexities of prosecuting serial and repeat thieves and refocuses on the root cause – increasing dangerous drug addiction and the systemic, pharmacological, and economically compulsive violence that contribute to ...
Will lawmakers take action to stop human trafficking in California?
The “Safer Streets for All Act” That Isn’t.
In 2022, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), sex worker groups, and Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) joined forces to pass Senate Bill 357, which effectively decriminalized loitering for the purposes of prostitution. Citing statistics from Los Angeles that showed over 50 percent of suspected prostitutes are black, the ACLU ...
Read the latest on the effects of Prop 47
Letter Carriers and Your Mail Became Theft Targets After Prop 47
There may be no more venerable American institution than the U.S. Postal Service. Founded by the Continental Congress in 1775, Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first Postmaster General before there was even a United States. While e-mail and commercial package delivery has cut deeply into the Postal Services market share, ...
