Crime
Blog
California’s Criminal Justice Reforms – A License to Kill
In 2015 California passed AB 953, The Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) in order to “improve diversity and racial identity sensitivity” in law enforcement. It’s target – police racial profiling. The 2025 RIPA report chronicles highly granular statistics from over 4.7 million police encounters that occurred in 2023. Of ...
Blog
California’s Broken Juvenile Justice System
On March 17, Cristo Rey De La Salle High School student Derbing Gonzalez was walking to soccer practice with four of his teammates on 100th Ave in Oakland when they were set upon by an armed suspect who demanded Gonzalez’s Sprayground backpack. Gonzalez refused and, after a brief struggle, four ...
Blog
Gun Law Grade Inflation
California’s progressive led state government takes great pride in its “A” grade and 1st place amongst all states for what the Giffords Law Center calls its “Gun Law Strength” ranking. In September 2024 Gov. Newsom said: California won’t wait until the next school shooting or mass shooting to act. ...
California
Sheriff Jim Cooper – What’s Next after Voter Passage of Prop. 36
From PRI’s 2025 California Ideas in Action Conference, Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper sits down with PRI senior fellow Steve Smith to discuss what’s next in the push for stronger criminal justice policy reforms following the landslide victory of Prop. 36 combating retail theft. Plus, Ro and Tim discuss the ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
Blog
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Six ways Trump administration will change urban policy
The following policy possibilities have been derived largely from Trump’s statements. Housing. “We’re going to open up tracks of federal land for housing construction,” the real estate magnate announced on Aug. 15 at a news conference. “We desperately need housing for people who can’t afford what’s going on now.” He ...
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 ...
California’s Criminal Justice Reforms – A License to Kill
In 2015 California passed AB 953, The Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) in order to “improve diversity and racial identity sensitivity” in law enforcement. It’s target – police racial profiling. The 2025 RIPA report chronicles highly granular statistics from over 4.7 million police encounters that occurred in 2023. Of ...
California’s Broken Juvenile Justice System
On March 17, Cristo Rey De La Salle High School student Derbing Gonzalez was walking to soccer practice with four of his teammates on 100th Ave in Oakland when they were set upon by an armed suspect who demanded Gonzalez’s Sprayground backpack. Gonzalez refused and, after a brief struggle, four ...
Gun Law Grade Inflation
California’s progressive led state government takes great pride in its “A” grade and 1st place amongst all states for what the Giffords Law Center calls its “Gun Law Strength” ranking. In September 2024 Gov. Newsom said: California won’t wait until the next school shooting or mass shooting to act. ...
Sheriff Jim Cooper – What’s Next after Voter Passage of Prop. 36
From PRI’s 2025 California Ideas in Action Conference, Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper sits down with PRI senior fellow Steve Smith to discuss what’s next in the push for stronger criminal justice policy reforms following the landslide victory of Prop. 36 combating retail theft. Plus, Ro and Tim discuss the ...
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, ...
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Six ways Trump administration will change urban policy
The following policy possibilities have been derived largely from Trump’s statements. Housing. “We’re going to open up tracks of federal land for housing construction,” the real estate magnate announced on Aug. 15 at a news conference. “We desperately need housing for people who can’t afford what’s going on now.” He ...
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 ...
