Crime
Commentary
After landslide victory, will Sacramento fund Prop. 36 enforcement? First signs say no.
In November 2024, California’s ten-year long experiment with Proposition 47 ended as voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 36. Its passage came as a result of voter despair over tens of thousands of drug overdose deaths, rampant and increasing crime, increasing homelessness, and a profound decline in the quality of life in ...
Steve Smith
February 24, 2025
Blog
Learn how looters are adding to trauma being experienced by fire victims
A Tale of Two LA’s
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens The toll of the recent Southern California fires is shocking. Together, the seven fires known colloquially as the “Los ...
Steve Smith
February 18, 2025
Blog
Hell on the Highways in the West
The Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) reports that cargo thefts increased 24 percent in 2024 and even more, the value of cargo theft per incident increased from $187,895 to $202,364 – an increase of 7 percent. In comparison, the average bank robbery yielded just over $4000. The value of goods ...
Steve Smith
February 3, 2025
Blog
Policing in America Just Got Harder
A somewhat obscure author of a much-forgotten book struck lexicon gold once with the quote “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” Gerald Seymour was writing about the violence and murders during the “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland and Britain when he coined the phrase in Harry’s Game, ...
Steve Smith
January 28, 2025
Commentary
State Budget Week - Learn How the Newsom Public Safety Budget Will Impact You
The Newsom Public Safety Budget: Budgets are a Reflection of Values
Governor Gavin Newsom spoke recently at Cal State Stanislaus highlighting his workforce initiatives and used the opportunity to introduce his 2025-2026 budget… State budgets are exceptionally complex documents full of granular data but a birds-eye view of spending places our tax dollars in a number of buckets of broad spending ...
Steve Smith
January 22, 2025
Blog
Prop 36 and Deterrence – Sometimes Incarceration is the Right Thing
California’s death toll to crime and drug overdoses is staggering. From 2014 to 2023, 19,396 Californians have been murdered and from 2014 to 2022, the last complete years of statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a total of 61,009 have died from fatal drug overdoses, mostly from ...
Steve Smith
January 3, 2025
Blog
Read the latest on California's growing crime problem
The De-crminialization, De-carceration, and De-legitimization Decade
The passage of Prop 47, Prop 57, the Racial Justice Act, and the progressive agenda of reducing so-called “mass incarceration” has meant that California was no longer prosecuting drug crime and a host of racial inequity arguments that have redefined crime led to dangerous criminals being released. The 2022 PRI ...
Steve Smith
December 30, 2024
Blog
Grants Pass and Prop 36 Will Help Policymakers Control California’s Homeless Crisis
Between 2007 and 2014, homelessness declined faster in California than the rest of the country – an 18 percent total decline in California compared to a 9 percent total decline in the rest of the country. And then something happened in 2014. While the number of homeless in California began ...
Wayne Winegarden
December 26, 2024
Blog
California’s Next Crime Wave – Fuel Theft
Here are a few examples: On September 27, an Inland Empire resident drove away from her job at an area hospital when her pickup truck puttered to a stop. An investigation showed her tank had been drilled and emptied. A Valero Station in Fremont lost tens of thousands of gallons ...
Steve Smith
December 9, 2024
Blog
Immigration in California (By the Numbers)
According to Pew Research, immigration ranked second, after the economy, in a top ten list of potential Trump voter concerns going into the 2024 presidential election. For potential Harris voters, immigration ranked last. Upon his Nov 6th election, President-Elect Trump made immediate plans for the “mass deportation” of millions ...
Steve Smith
December 4, 2024
After landslide victory, will Sacramento fund Prop. 36 enforcement? First signs say no.
In November 2024, California’s ten-year long experiment with Proposition 47 ended as voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 36. Its passage came as a result of voter despair over tens of thousands of drug overdose deaths, rampant and increasing crime, increasing homelessness, and a profound decline in the quality of life in ...
Learn how looters are adding to trauma being experienced by fire victims
A Tale of Two LA’s
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens The toll of the recent Southern California fires is shocking. Together, the seven fires known colloquially as the “Los ...
Hell on the Highways in the West
The Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) reports that cargo thefts increased 24 percent in 2024 and even more, the value of cargo theft per incident increased from $187,895 to $202,364 – an increase of 7 percent. In comparison, the average bank robbery yielded just over $4000. The value of goods ...
Policing in America Just Got Harder
A somewhat obscure author of a much-forgotten book struck lexicon gold once with the quote “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” Gerald Seymour was writing about the violence and murders during the “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland and Britain when he coined the phrase in Harry’s Game, ...
State Budget Week - Learn How the Newsom Public Safety Budget Will Impact You
The Newsom Public Safety Budget: Budgets are a Reflection of Values
Governor Gavin Newsom spoke recently at Cal State Stanislaus highlighting his workforce initiatives and used the opportunity to introduce his 2025-2026 budget… State budgets are exceptionally complex documents full of granular data but a birds-eye view of spending places our tax dollars in a number of buckets of broad spending ...
Prop 36 and Deterrence – Sometimes Incarceration is the Right Thing
California’s death toll to crime and drug overdoses is staggering. From 2014 to 2023, 19,396 Californians have been murdered and from 2014 to 2022, the last complete years of statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a total of 61,009 have died from fatal drug overdoses, mostly from ...
Read the latest on California's growing crime problem
The De-crminialization, De-carceration, and De-legitimization Decade
The passage of Prop 47, Prop 57, the Racial Justice Act, and the progressive agenda of reducing so-called “mass incarceration” has meant that California was no longer prosecuting drug crime and a host of racial inequity arguments that have redefined crime led to dangerous criminals being released. The 2022 PRI ...
Grants Pass and Prop 36 Will Help Policymakers Control California’s Homeless Crisis
Between 2007 and 2014, homelessness declined faster in California than the rest of the country – an 18 percent total decline in California compared to a 9 percent total decline in the rest of the country. And then something happened in 2014. While the number of homeless in California began ...
California’s Next Crime Wave – Fuel Theft
Here are a few examples: On September 27, an Inland Empire resident drove away from her job at an area hospital when her pickup truck puttered to a stop. An investigation showed her tank had been drilled and emptied. A Valero Station in Fremont lost tens of thousands of gallons ...
Immigration in California (By the Numbers)
According to Pew Research, immigration ranked second, after the economy, in a top ten list of potential Trump voter concerns going into the 2024 presidential election. For potential Harris voters, immigration ranked last. Upon his Nov 6th election, President-Elect Trump made immediate plans for the “mass deportation” of millions ...