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Surging crime continues to plague California, as anyone who watches the evening news or flips open a newspaper can confirm. So what is California’s top cop, Democrat Attorney General Rob Bonta, doing about it? Here’s a look at how things are going:
2021’s Crime in California Report is more than a month late.
Traditionally, the California Department of Justice releases its required criminal statistics report in the first few days of July. The report should include key data on the previous year’s homicide and robbery rates and number of arrests, among many other things. But the 2021 report, which was expected last month, is nowhere to be found.
As Assemblyman Tom Lackey notes in his letter to Bonta requesting a status update on the missing report, “legislators, researchers, local agencies and our constituents rely on this data to make informed policy decisions about crime and public safety in California.” There’s only one month left in the legislative session and still no report.
The CA DOJ’s crime data portal has been down for over a month.
It’s not just the latest crime report that’s missing. Around the same time last month that Bonta’s office leaked the private information of 240,000 concealed carry license applicants, including at least 140 current and former judges, the department’s crime data portal also went down. And it’s been down ever since.
Bonta’s office offered no update on timing for when the portal, filled with vital public information, would be available again. They simply “apologize for the inconvenience.”
Crime is a factor in continued California exodus.
The LA Times reported on the continued exodus of Californians leaving the state, with crime being cited as a major reason.
Californian-turned-Floridian Hari “Raghavan said that their Oakland house had been broken into four times and that prior to the pandemic, his wife called him every day during her seven-minute walk home from the BART station because she felt safer with someone on the phone. After moving to Miami, Raghavan said they accidentally left their garage door open one day and were floored when they returned home and found nothing had been stolen.”
Rising prices, lack of affordable housing, a homeless crisis, failing schools and a deteriorating quality of life are also cited as reasons 352,000 Californians left between April 2020 and January 2022.
“Californians deserve safe streets and an Attorney General committed to doing the job. Rob Bonta is a shameful example of what happens when you place radical ideology ahead of public safety. This November, Californians will cast a vote with confidence that Nathan Hochman will target criminals with the same zeal that Bonta targets police officers and law-abiding citizens.” – CAGOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson
