Newsom Touts $300 Million Plan To Tackle Organized Theft

CALIFORNIA — Smash-and-grab theft incidents have continued to plague retailers around the state in recent, pushing Gov. Gavin Newsom to unveil a $300 million plan to fight organized crime this week.

The proposal is set to equip police departments with more authority to arrest and investigate those who participate in organized or flash mob style theft.

"These organized efforts have created tremendous fear and anxiety for many Californians," Newsom said during a news conference in the Bay Area on Friday.

Newsom's proposal will be presented to the Legislature in January as part of the state's budget, which is expected to be padded with a surplus for the second year in a row.

"We're doubling down on our public safety investments and partnerships with law enforcement officials up and down the state to ensure Californians and small businesses feel safe in their communities – a fundamental need we all share," Newsom said in a statement.

The governor's plan outlined the following actions:

• $18 million to build a full-time team dedicated to prosecuting those involved with organized retail theft.
• $20 million to establish a National Guard unit to combat drug crimes at the U.S.-Mexico border.
• $20 million to help small businesses affected by retail theft.
• $25 million to help law enforcement agencies sponsor gun buybacks and to encourage people to surrender firearms in exchange for money or gift cards.

"We need to send a message to these theft rings that California will not tolerate organized crime,”Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Association, said in a statement.

Republicans have criticized Newsom for Democratic-led crime initiatives that reduced sentences for theft. Critics have specifically pointed to Proposition 47, which reduced penalties for nonviolent crimes after it was approved in 2014.

Last month, the governor was lambasted by retail groups and GOP leaders when large groups of thieves assailed retailers across the state around the Thanksgiving holiday. Thieves snatched thousands of dollars in merchandise and accosted workers ahead of the busiest shopping season of the year.

Authorities believed that sophisticated criminal networks were to blame for the recent smash-and-grab string of crimes, which have left shoppers and retail employees afraid to return to the locations.

Such incidents have been observed across the state for weeks.

"We're not talking about someone who needs money or needs food. These are people who go out and do this is for high profit and for the thrill," said Ben Dugan, president of the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail.

The crime surge prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to increase law enforcement and California Highway Patrol presence in and around highly trafficked areas coming into the holiday season and Black Friday in shopping malls.

"We are going to be more aggressive still in this space to help support cities and the prosecution of folks," Newsom said. "I have no sympathy, no empathy whatsoever for people smashing and grabbing, stealing people's items, creating havoc and terror on our streets. ... They must be held to account."

The new proposal to fight theft also comes as the governor called Kern County the "murder capital" of California on Friday.

"It shouldn’t have taken increasing homicide rates, widespread news reports of smash-and-grabs, and pleas from Californians for Democrats to come to this realization," Senate Republican leader Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita (Los Angeles County) said in a statement, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Newsom's Real Public Safety Plan is about "keeping Californians safe by doubling down and allocating additional resources to fight and prevent crime," said California Attorney General Rob Bonta in a statement.

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