Law Enforcement

After rash of overdoses, Senate advances bill to punish Fentanyl traffickers

A Senate panel unanimously advanced a bill on Tuesday that would significantly increase the penalties for possession of large quantities of the powerful opioid Fentanyl, a drug that has led to a wave of overdoses in Sacramento recently. Fentanyl, which is reported to

S.F. suburb’s unique anti-crime strategy has outside skeptics

Chris Reed March 31, 2016

A gritty Bay Area coastal suburb’s unique program to deter violent crime — including paying people with criminal backgrounds, using donated funds, to stay on the straight and narrow — is winning national attention. The program has its roots in

Fight flares over ‘realignment,’ Prop. 47 effects on crime

Chris Reed March 25, 2016

The battle over state policies that some call soft on crime and some see as humane and thoughtful appears to be flaring anew, with prominent law-enforcement officials on both sides. The first of the policies was Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2011 decision

Civil liberty groups fighting license suspensions for those guilty of “being poor”

Matt Fleming March 22, 2016

A band of civil liberties groups are demanding that California courts stop suspending drivers licenses for failure to pay traffic fines, a practice they argue overwhelmingly affects low-income drivers. A 2013 provision in the state budget offered major relief of fines due before Jan. 2013

Lawmaker: Expel students who engage in worst ‘sexting’

Chris Reed March 17, 2016

At a time when the U.S. legal system is facing critics from both the Left and the Right for overprosecuting mistake-prone young people and leaving permanent scars on their lives, a California lawmaker wants to allow schools to expel students

Homeless ‘human rights’ bill rankles Sacramento officials

Chris Reed March 1, 2016

In California, helping the homeless is a popular issue in some cities and some political circles. In San Diego, elected officials of both parties say they don’t just want to reduce downtown homelessness, they want to end it. In Santa

Deaths in police custody up, half attributed to natural causes

Steve Miller February 23, 2016

Manuel Ornelas died as he battled Long Beach police officers who were trying to subdue him in response to a Saturday morning call for help last September. Ornelas was apparently intoxicated and bleeding. He was subdued with an “an electronic control

ICE raids face CA resistance

James Poulos February 18, 2016

Amid a fresh wave of immigration enforcement crackdowns, several powerful organizations in California have flexed their muscle to protect or benefit those present in the state illegally. The city of Los Angeles has become a focal point for several different efforts,

Gov. Brown pushes prison forgiveness initiative

James Poulos February 16, 2016

Convinced California’s prison population still must be lowered, Gov. Jerry Brown has begun to push a ballot initiative that would forgive some felons. The initiative’s details, first announced in late January, “would amend the fixed-sentence law Brown signed in 1976, to

Spotlight uncomfortable for San Francisco police

Chris Reed February 7, 2016

The global spotlight on the Bay Area created by Super Bowl 50 couldn’t have come at a worse time for the San Francisco Police Department. The fatal December shooting of Mario Woods, a young African American stabbing suspect who was