Crime
			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 ...		
					
					
			
																				
			Pacific Research Institute		
				
																						
			February 24, 2025		
				
					
			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		
				
					
			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 ...		
					
					
			
																				
			John Seiler		
				
																						
			January 27, 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				
			
		Anti-crime wave crashes over crime-soaked California cities
			Anti-crime wave crashes over crime-soaked California cities by John Seiler | January 10, 2025 Like the tide moving in and out along its magnificent coastline, California’s crime policies oscillate between harshness and laxity, never getting it quite right. The crack epidemic and increase in violent crime of the 1980s led ...		
					
					
			
																				
			John Seiler		
				
																						
			January 10, 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		
				
					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 ...		
					Anti-crime wave crashes over crime-soaked California cities
			Anti-crime wave crashes over crime-soaked California cities by John Seiler | January 10, 2025 Like the tide moving in and out along its magnificent coastline, California’s crime policies oscillate between harshness and laxity, never getting it quite right. The crack epidemic and increase in violent crime of the 1980s led ...		
					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 ...