Law enforcement will get $255 million in grants over three years under Newsom proposal - Vallejo Times-Herald

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday it’s not so much the crime statistics that is driving a new plan to increase law enforcement spending as it is something else very fundamental.

Do people feel safe?

Newsom says too many are saying no, despite the drop an overall drop in crime.

To combat that problem, he said his 2022 budget will include $255 million in grants for local law enforcement over the next three years to bolster law enforcement, help prosecutors, take guns off the streets, increase police presence at retail locations and establish a permanent smash-and-grab enforcement team that will be operated by the CHP.

“Stats mean nothing when it comes to feelings,” Newsom said during a livestreamed press conference at the California Highway Patrol’s Dublin office, later adding his office is hearing more and more from people who don’t feel safe in their communities. “I want to acknowledge that anxiety, and I want to acknowledge it’s not acceptable.”

Newsom’s three-part plan to improve public safety also will include $30 million for district attorneys and $18 million for a statewide organized theft team of special investigators and prosecutors in the state Attorney General’s Office.

“It will allow us to build stronger relationships and networks in law enforcement, so we can solve these crimes,” Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said. “It will help no only in solving the crimes but prosecuting the offenders who have been terrorizing communities the way we’ve seen lately.”

Overall, crime is down this year in the state, but authorities said violent crime involving guns and retail thefts are up slightly.

Newsom said $20 million of the overall $255 million law enforcement proposal will go to a gun buyback program. He said another $20 million will go to small business owners who have been previously victimized and who have used up their insurance deductibles, Newsom said.

“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,” Newsom said, adding safety is a “fundamental need we all share.”

Asked specifically about organized retail theft and repeat offenders, he said: “There should be consequences. People break the law, they should be held to account. … As it relates to prosecution, we want to support the DA’s, we want to support the police, we want to support business owners who are fed up with it.”

Attorney General Rob Bonta, who also spoke, echoed those sentiments.

“Every family in every neighborhood in California deserves to feel safe and be safe as they live, work and play in their communities,” he said.

Newsom’s potential budget proposal includes $20 million to establish teams who will fight to keep drugs, and in particular, Fentanyl, out of the black market by more closely guarding the southern border to Mexico. The use of illicit drugs has been particularly disturbing in San Francisco, where more than 700 people died from drug overdoses last year.

The number is expected to increase significantly when 2021’s final statistics come in.

On Friday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin area of Ean Francisco over the deadly use of opioids.

“This will allow us to waive rules around contract procurement and waive zoning and planning codes to quickly open a temporary linkage site, where people with substance use issues can receive behavioral health services and get off the street,” Breed said in a Twitter post.

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source: https://www.timesheraldonline.com/2021/12/17/law-enforcement-will-get-255-million-in-grants-over-three-years-under-newsoms-proposed-state-budget

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