California cops get billions in funding, yet solve just 13% of crimes, new report says

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ARE CALIFORNIANS GETTING THEIR BANG FOR THEIR BUCK WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT?

Despite receiving billions of dollars in funding — including more than $25 billion in 2022 — California police are solving few crimes.

That’s the finding of a new report from the Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice, a nonprofit dedicated to researching and advocating for criminal justice reform.

The report, which can be read here, shows that the statewide overall “clearance rate” — crimes resulting in an arrest being made — was 13.2% in 2022. The clearance rate for property crimes was even lower, at 7.2%, while violent crimes were cleared by law enforcement 41% of the time, according to the report.

An interactive map accompanying the report shows that in Sacramento County, the clearance rate was even more dismal — just 10% overall, with 32% for violent crimes and a mere 5% for property crimes.

The report author, Mike Males, said in a press conference Tuesday that he launched his study in order to counter the “raft of misinformation” out there about crime in California.

While crime has spiked in recent years, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, it remains at a historic low.

Males added that he hoped his report demonstrates that despite the passage of criminal justice reforms like Proposition 47, California is not “defunding the police” or “soft on crime.”

“Many of the things you’re seeing in the national media and sometimes local, they’re myths,” he said.

A pair of California lawmakers also spoke at Tuesday’s press conference — Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, D-Oakland, whose husband Rob Bonta is California Attorney General, and Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles.

Mia Bonta said that California cannot incarcerate it’s way out of its current problems.

“We’ve tried that model for years and it didn’t work,” she said.

Bryan said that Californians are seeing “several realities” happening at the same time — a rash of petty thefts and property crimes but also crime overall being down.

As for police, Bryan said “they’re not preventing crime, they’re not solving crime.”

But did this report tell the whole story?

Brian Marvel of the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC), a pro-law enforcement organization, said in an email statement to The Bee that at first glance, “the report seems to be missing some important context when it comes to crime clearance rates.”

He said that it misses that the number of sworn police officers in the state is “well below” 1990s levels, and that Californian attitudes toward police have soured in recent years.

Marvel said that all those issues “have a massive impact” on police’s ability to deter or solve crimes.

“The report seems to employ a bit of willful tunnel vision, ignoring key factors that impact crime clearance rates to tell the story they want to tell,” he said.

Marvel added that “it takes a bit of cognitive dissonance to stand up and cry foul over crime clearance rates when (Mia Bonta’s) own constituency — Oakland — can’t keep enough officers on the streets to keep their people safe.”

He referenced the fact that Newsom had to deploy 120 California Highway Patrol officers to the region to assist with policing.

“Is she calling for increased funding for Oakland police to get enough full-time sworn officers on the streets to make up for the city’s neglectful policies? If law enforcement budgets are up as the report alleges, and they have all the resources they need, why does Oakland only have 700 officers?” Marvel said.

CALMATTERS HOSTS THE LATEST FRONT IN THE CULTURE WARS

CalMatters shined a spotlight on the California culture wars Tuesday, when the news outlet hosted a panel discussion titled “Book Bans and Pronoun Wars: What’s in Store for School Boards in 2024.”

CalMatters education reporter Carolyn Jones moderated the discussion, which featured UC Berkeley Professor Bruce Fuller and two state lawmakers — Assemblymen Corey Jackson, D-Moreno, and Bill Essayli, R-Corona.

Both Jackson and Essayli have been on the front lines of the culture wars, each authoring a bill last year that touched on some aspect of it.

For Jackson, it was AB 1078, a bill to ban school districts from banning books and educational materials that are inclusive of LGBTQ or racial minorities. For Essayli, it was AB 1314, a bill that would force school districts to out transgender and gender-nonconforming K-12 students to their parents.

Jackson’s bill was successful, and was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, himself no stranger to the culture wars.

Essayli’s bill never even got a hearing, as Assembly Education Committee Chair Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, deemed the bill not just bad policy, but one that would “potentially provide a forum for increasingly hateful rhetoric targeting LGBTQ youth.”

Essayli said that Democratic claims that his bill would harm LGBTQ youth were false, and that ruling party is going against the will of the voters.

“I disagree that parents are a threat to their children,” he said, later adding that “no one is going to love their kid more than their parent.”

The Republican lawmaker also disputed that his bill would forcibly out a student, calling it “a false narrative” that is “designed to scaremonger.” He said it only would apply if a student volunteered their gender identity to a teacher or other school staff member.

“We’re talking about life-altering, huge decisions here,” he added.

Jackson, who is part of the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, said he was tired of people “gaysplaining” to LGBTQ people about their lived experience.

He said that Essayli’s argument didn’t tell the whole story.

“There is a reason why one of the largest homeless populations are LGBTQ young people, and that is because they have been kicked out of their homes by their parents, because they came out to them,” he said.

Jackson said that “there is clear harm that is done to people,” including abuse and neglect, because some parents believe they must punish their child for being LGBTQ.

“Yes, you actually are putting young people in danger, and that danger, yes, can come from their own household,” he said.

Jackson added that the entire narrative that schools are looking “to turn children into members of the LGBTQ community” is false — that it is a political ploy to try and drum up conservative votes.

You can watch the full discussion here.

UNION BATTLE REDUX

Via Lindsey Holden...

Labor groups and a Southern California state senator are renewing their efforts to win unemployment pay for striking workers after Newsom vetoed their bill last year.

Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-Burbank, on Tuesday announced plans to introduce SB 1116, which would allow union members on strike for at least two weeks to collect unemployment insurance. The California Labor Federation is again backing the legislation.

Newsom in October opted not to sign Portantino’s 2023 bill, which the senator pushed during a summer of labor union strikes, including simultaneous work stoppages from the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild.

The governor cited issues with California’s unemployment insurance financing structure. He said expanding eligibility may increase unemployment insurance debt and employer taxes.

Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the Labor Federation, in October called Newsom’s veto “out of step with American values.”

On Tuesday, she said unemployment insurance is an “earned benefit for workers.”

“There is no reason to punish workers forced to go on strike by excluding them from this protection,” Gonzalez Fletcher said in a statement.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Here’s the hard truth. Nearly 80% of the homeless population our officers encounter suffer mental illness or addiction. Over 40% are victims of domestic abuse or sexual assault. It’s unconscionable. And California needs to act. Prop 1 does just that. Prop 1 creates new facilities to treat mental illness. Funds thousands of new mental health professionals. And builds housing to get people off the streets. It’s a moral imperative.”

- Sacramento County Sheriff (and former Assemblyman) Jim Cooper, in an ad for Proposition 1, which would channel billions in state bond funds into tackling mental health and homelessness issues in the state.

Best of The Bee:

• Nearly three years after Newsom directed it, California’s oil and gas industry regulator kickstarted a process to outright ban hydraulic fracturing, the fossil fuel extraction method known as ‘fracking,’ via Ari Plachta.

• Bonta is working with leaders of the state’s Legislative Black Caucus to add teeth to a law aimed at curbing the disproportionately high rate of Black maternal mortality, via Cathie Anderson.

• The second debate in the race to fill the seat vacated by the late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is over. How did the candidates fare? Via Andrew Sheeler.

• The four leading candidates running for a California U.S. Senate seat fought over taxes, crime, homelessness and more as the three Democrats and one Republican compete for two spots in the fast-approaching March 5 primary. Here are some of the notable true, false and somewhat true statements from the night, via Lindsey Holden.