Certain categories of crime have jumped in recent years. Our editorial board asked candidates for Orange County District Attorney the following question: “Crime rates are rising. What type of approaches do you propose to deal with that situation?” Presented here are their responses.
“According to the California Department of Justice, Orange County is the safest major county in California.
Meanwhile, once beautiful places like Los Angeles and San Francisco have deteriorated beyond recognition. This is not a coincidence.
But here in Orange County, public safety is, and always will be, my top priority. Violent criminals know they will pay a severe price if they commit serious and violent felonies in our community. As your District Attorney, I’m proud to report that we aggressively prosecute violent criminals, serious felonies and hate crimes.
However, I recognize that we cannot simply handcuff our way out of the crime problem. That is why I’ve worked to invest in early intervention, job training, and programs to address mental illness and addiction. I’m proud that I helped open the county’s first homeless shelter and humanely cleared the Santa Ana Riverbed.”
“While crime rates are rising across California, crime rates in Orange County have outpaced the statewide rate. For example, from 2019 to 2020 violent crime is up 0.4% statewide but 8% in OC. Homicides in OC reached a 22-year high last year. Aggravated assaults are up 8.4% statewide but 20% in OC. Motor vehicle thefts are up 19% statewide but 35% in OC.
Furthermore, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, among the 15 largest counties in California only Fresno and Orange County saw both violent and property crime increase in 2020. While I do not believe that we should be judging the long term efficacy of policy decisions off of a spike in crime rates during a global pandemic, I do think that data calls into question the current approach to criminal justice in Orange County. And it certainly calls into question the approach of our current District Attorney who continues to ignore rising crime in Orange County.
The approach to rising crime rates must be comprehensive and wide-ranging, a mix of short term and long term strategies that keep our communities safe not just today but months and years down the road as well. For example, research tells us that to deter crime we must increase the certainty of being caught and the speed at which the justice system holds people accountable.
Increasing sentence lengths, on the other hand, has never been shown to have a deterrent effect on crime. So we must support our law enforcement officers, empower officers and investigators to solve crimes, and ensure that responsible offenders are held accountable.
Yet if we want to truly reduce crime in the long term, we must tackle the root causes of crime to prevent people from engaging in offending behavior in the first place.
We must invest in drug treatment programs, mental health services, job training, education, and so much more.
We must prevent people from becoming homeless and pave a way to permanent housing for those already on our streets.
We must support people leaving jails and prisons by tearing up the paper prison that keeps ex-offenders out of public housing, off payrolls, and away from educational opportunities. 95% of the people we send to prison come back to our communities, and over 60% of people leaving prison are rearrested within three years.
We must recognize the failures of our current approach and listen to the research and data telling us how to keep our communities safe.
For these reasons the DA has an obligation to work with the Board of Supervisors and the State Legislature to support programs and policies that support crime prevention.”
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“Propose the initiation of the ‘broken windows theory’ of community policing. The theory states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The theory suggests that enforcing the law and targeting such relatively minor crimes as vandalism, loitering, public drinking, and jaywalking helps to create an atmosphere of law and order.
Its successful deployment, however, should not involve a ‘zero tolerance’ approach but should be utilized as a method requiring a positive relationship with communities, entailing training and guidelines.
During the 1990s the theory was popularized by the New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton and Mayor Rudy Giuliani and it was given credit for greatly reducing the crime rate in the city.”