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Governor Gavin Newsom is talking about a sweeping crackdown on retail crime and violence one, week after a rite aid employee was shot and killed after confronting shoplifters.
However, Newsom told Fox 11 in Los Angeles that crime in California is actually declining. Appearing with law enforcement officials and mayors from throughout the state at a small business in Long Beach, the Democratic governor signed a bill to create crime task forces around the California Highway Patrol and local agencies to address organized theft rings. The bill -- AB 331 -- also re-established organized retail theft as a crime, a designation which had lapsed on July 1. It also applies to those who work with thieves to steal or receive stolen merchandise and those who recruit or organize theft rings.
"We’ve been organized in a very deliberative manner to address the issue of organized retail crime for a number of years," said Newsom. "We are doubling down on those efforts today with this bill that I’ll be signing here in a moment."