Bay Space prosecutors have filed greater than 1,200 felony petty theft circumstances below a tough-on-crime measure California voters overwhelmingly accredited final 12 months — however charging charges fluctuate extensively throughout the area as some counties extra aggressively make use of the brand new penalties.
Annoyed by viral smash-and-grab robberies, retailer closures and locked-up merchandise within the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost 70% of voters backed Proposition 36, which carried majorities in every of the state’s 58 counties.
The brand new regulation’s stricter penalties are proving useful in combating retail theft, in keeping with native prosecutors, regulation enforcement and retailers. However consultants say it’s too early to evaluate whether or not it’s succeeding in decreasing crime.
“We don’t have data yet that can seek to determine whether Prop. 36 has had any effect on retail theft,” mentioned Magnus Lofstrom, a coverage director with the Public Coverage Institute of California, which intently tracks crime knowledge throughout the state.
Proposition 36, which took impact in mid-December, empowers prosecutors to convey felony expenses in opposition to repeat petty theft and drug offenders. It reversed a key side of a landmark crime reform measure voters handed in 2014 that had lowered easy drug possession and most thefts of lower than $950 to misdemeanors, which usually carry little jail time.
Native district attorneys have broad discretion over the best way to implement the measure, mirrored in various charging charges within the Bay Space and throughout the state.
“The idea here is escalation and consequences,” mentioned Shin-Mee Chang, the county’s chief deputy district legal professional. “We now have tools to address repeat offenders.”
The brand new regulation permits prosecutors to convey felony circumstances in opposition to defendants with a minimum of two prior theft convictions, and to mix a number of thefts into one cost, which might result in stiffer sentences. These modifications, together with others within the regulation aimed explicitly at smash-and-grab robberies, are particularly useful in prosecuting retail crime rings that systematically goal shops throughout the area, Chang mentioned.
The felony expenses carry penalties of as much as three years in jail or jail, although judges retain discretion in sentencing and might scale back the costs to misdemeanors.
After San Mateo County, Napa County had the subsequent highest charging charge for petty theft felonies with 26 circumstances per 100,000 residents, adopted by Santa Clara County with 19 circumstances per 100,000. San Francisco, which garnered nationwide consideration for a pandemic wave of property crime, had the bottom charge: about seven circumstances per 100,000 residents.
Regulation enforcement officers credit score Proposition 36 with enabling native police and sheriff’s departments to carry repeat theft offenders in custody whereas they await the result of their circumstances.
Sutter County Sheriff Brandon Barnes, president of the California State Sheriffs’ Affiliation, one among Proposition 36’s main backers, mentioned that earlier than the measure, his deputies would typically develop annoyed when suspects have been shortly let again into the group on misdemeanor expenses. He mentioned that’s modified.
“People are starting to feel a little bit better about the work that they’re doing and the impact they’re having,” Barnes mentioned.
Nonetheless, measure backers accuse state lawmakers of undermining Proposition 36 by failing to allot sufficient cash for native regulation enforcement, probation departments, therapy suppliers and others to implement the measure. This summer time, the state Legislature agreed to $100 million to assist the regulation, which Barnes described as “insufficient.”
Felony justice advocates, in the meantime, have criticized the regulation as a punitive measure that disproportionately targets the state’s poorest residents and communities of shade.
In Alameda County, a lot of these dealing with felony expenses below Proposition 36 are accused of stealing groceries or different important objects and don’t have any connection to organized retail crime, lead public defender Brendon Woods mentioned.
“A lot of them are stealing out of poverty,” Woods mentioned. “A lot of them are stealing because of need.”
The Alameda County District Legal professional’s Workplace introduced 167 felony theft circumstances below the regulation throughout its first six months, about 10 circumstances for each 100,000 residents. It didn’t reply to questions on its charging selections.
Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Affiliation, mentioned she’s heard fewer complaints from retailers because the regulation took impact, an early signal the regulation could also be deterring crime.
Michelin additionally pointed to against the law invoice bundle the affiliation supported and the state handed final 12 months. Like Proposition 36, the laws created stiffer penalties for repeat theft offenders and smash-and-grab robberies. It additionally funds ongoing efforts led by the California Freeway Patrol to fight organized retail theft statewide, together with an prolonged crackdown in Oakland.
Native prosecutors and police now “have a whole menu of options that will be able to deter retail theft in their communities,” she mentioned.
Mike’s Digital camera retailer supervisor Matt Todd stands subsequent to 4-foot bollards put in to forestall theft on the again entrance of Mike’s Digital camera Retailer in Menlo Park, Calif., on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. The shop was robbed in April 2024 and it took six months to restore the harm to the constructing brought on by the theft. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Space Information Group)
In Menlo Park, Mike’s Digital camera retailer supervisor Matt Todd mentioned he’s heard of fewer brazen thefts focusing on native retailers and high-end purchasing facilities within the space since San Mateo County prosecutors started utilizing Proposition 36. Final 12 months, a housebreaking crew drove a automobile by means of his storefront, making off with digicam tools and inflicting about $50,000 in harm.
Through the Proposition 36 marketing campaign, the shop signed onto a petition with different retailers in assist of the measure.
“Signing petitions is about all we can do,” Todd mentioned. “We don’t have lobbying money.”
Whereas it is likely to be too early to gauge the measure’s affect on retail theft, new crime knowledge for 2025 ought to begin to develop into obtainable later this 12 months, crime consultants mentioned. Final 12 months, shoplifting continued to rise whilst most sorts of crime fell after a pandemic spike, in keeping with an evaluation of the newest obtainable statewide knowledge by the Public Coverage Institute.
How Proposition 36 finally performs out will hinge upon the urge for food of regulation enforcement, prosecutors and judges to “dust off the playbook” of tough-on-crime insurance policies of the Nineties, which led to severely overcrowded jails and prisons, mentioned Greg Woods, a criminology professor with San Jose State College.
“It depends upon the political will of those individuals to apply the law,” Woods mentioned.
