POLICE DEPARTMENT
Proposition 47
SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS AND SCHOOLS FUND
Presented by Lt. Tracey Ibarra
Pasadena Police Department
October 6, 2014
City Council
Proposition 47 Overview
Police Department
• Proposition authorized by former State Assemblyman Robert M.
Hertzberg
• Mandate to reduce sentencing for non-serious and non-violent
felony property and drug crimes to misdemeanors convictions
• Add or modify sections to the Government Code, California Penal
Codes, and Health and Safety Codes.
• Retroactive and allows resentencing for persons currently in prison
for felony convictions to have convicts reduced to misdemeanors
and be released from prison.
• Beginning fiscal year 2016, redirects anticipated State incarceration
costs to an account to funds State Department of Education,
Victim’s Compensation and Board of State and Community
Corrections programs.
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Code and Sentencing Changes
Police Department
• Creates Penal Code Section 459(a) or 459.5 - Shoplifting
under $950
• Amends Penal Code 473 — Forgery
• Amends Penal Code 476a — Insufficient funds in Acct
• Adds Penal Code 490.2 — Relating to Petty Theft
• Amends Penal Code 496 — Poss. of Stolen Property (Including a
firearm)
• Amends Penal Code 666 — Petty Theft with prior
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Code and Sentencing Changes
Police Department
• Amends Health and Safety Code 11350 — Possession of
Controlled Substances
• Amends Health and Safety Code Section 11357 —
Possession of concentrated cannabis
• Amends Health and Safety Code Section 11377 —
Possession of a controlled substance Methamphetamine,
schedule III, IV, or V drugs (including date rape drug).
Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) estimates about 10th of 40,000
offenders annually convicted under crimes listed in Prop 47 are
sentences to prison.
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Exceptions To Modifications
Police Department
• Prop. 47 allows for felony charge (N3) only when the
person has a specified serious or violent felony.
• Specified in Penal Code Section 667 (e)(2) (c) (iv)
• Violent Sexually Offenses
• Child Molestation
• Homicide or Attempted Homicide
• Solicitation to Commit Murder
• Assault on a peace officer with machine gun
• Possession of a weapon of mass destruction
• Any serious or violent crime punishable by life
imprisonment or death
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Funding
Police Department
• Monies transferred into the fund are to be considered General
Fund revenues which may be appropriated pursuant to Article XIII
of State Constitution.
• Prohibits the Legislature from appropriating the funds to any other
purpose than those described in the proposition.
• LAO estimated net state criminal justice system savings low
hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
• However, Legislative Analyst’s Office also determined savings
from Correction’s cost may be off-set by the costs associated with
county jail sentences, community supervision and the number of
crimes affected by the measure.
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Funding Distribution
Police Department
• 25% to the Department of Education to administer grant
programs aimed at reducing truancy, supporting students
who are at risk of dropping out or who are crime victims.
• 10% to the Victim Compensation and Government Claims
Board to administer grants to trauma recovery centers.
• 65% to the Board of State and Community Corrections
(BSCC) to administer a grant program aimed at mental
health treatment, substance abuse treatment, and
diversion programs for people in the criminal justice
system.
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Impact on the Courts
Police Department
• Allows a person serving a felony sentence for any of the
previously mentioned crimes to petition for resentencing.
• Requires a court to grant a qualifying petition for resentencing
unless the court finds unreasonable risk the petitioner will commit
one of a limited specified violent felonies. (Murder, sexually
violent crimes).
• Allows person to apply to have completed felony sentences to be
re-designated a misdemeanor .
• Requires a petition or application for resentencing be filed within
3 years, or later upon showing of good cause.
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Parole & Probation Concerns
Police Department
• How the additional layer of responsibilities created by
Prop. 47 would impact an already strained public safety
system.
• How the new sentencing changes will affect counties'
ongoing efforts to implement AB 109.
• Current judicial programs - CA. Penal Code 1000 (lower level H&S
arrests placed on drug diversion program or Drug Court. Successful
completion charges dismissed as if arrest never occurred.)
• Prop 47 would restrict judicial authority for incarceration of potentially
dangerous suspect for offences once qualifying (felony).
• California realignment has identified 3Ns and released from prison
over 44,000 persons.
• Shortage of parole or probation officers and resources.
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Impact on the Jails
Police Department
• Persons resentenced under the measure shall be given credit for
time served and shall be subject to parole for one year, but court
have discretion to release without parole.
• Revocations of parole would be served in County Jails.
• Certain current state felony sentenced inmates would now be
sentenced to the county jail, misdemeanors convictions.
• Other current 1170(h) crimes would become misdemeanors,
impacting jail population, potentially reducing population.
• How will LA County implement new misdemeanors sentences,
custody verses diversion programs (Rutherford, N3, other).
• Re-hearing and re-sentencing challenges, judicial entities need
additional staff to review cases and develop mechanism to alert
probation.
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Impact on City
Police Department
Fiscal impact of Proposition 47 to the City of Pasadena is undetermined
although it will likely:
• Significant cost increase to the City Prosecutor’s Office as a result of
thousands of cases being redirected to local municipalities for
misdemeanor prosecutions verses the County District Attorney’s Office.
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• Undetermined impact on public safety due to a potential number of
increased calls for service by repeat offenses, community supervision
impacts (verses jail sentences), and the cost for directed enforcement
related to the monitoring of sentence offenders, as occurred with the
implementation of AB 109.
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Opposition to Prop 47
Police Department
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League of California Cities Position
California Police Chiefs’ Association
Former LA District Attorney Steve Cooley
San Gabriel Valley Police Chief’s Association (agreement with the
California Police Chiefs’ Association)
California District Attorneys’ Association
Nine Individual County District Attorney
California State Sheriffs Association
California Peace Officers Association
California Correctional Supervisors Association
Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone
San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman
Nine individual County Sheriffs
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Opposition to Prop 47
Police Department
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California Coalition Against Sexual Assault
California Center for Prevention of Crime
California Retailers Association
Crime Victims United
Crime Victims Action Alliance
California Republican Party
John Scribner, Trustee at Sacramento Board of Education
Many others
The Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey has not taken a
position.
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Supports of Prop 47
Police Department
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American Civil Liberties Union
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón (D)
Former San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne
Open Society Policy Center
League of Women’s Voters of California
California Council of Churches
B. Wayne Hughes Jr., businessman and philanthropist
Marin County Superintendent of Schools Mary Jane Burke
California’s for Safe Neighborhoods
Atlantic Advocacy Fund
California Teachers Association
Women’s Foundation of CA
NAACP
California Democratic Party
Reed Hastings
M. Quinn Delaney
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Recommendation
Police Department
• It is recommended that the City Council oppose
Proposition 47, the Safe Neighborhood and Schools Act
(SNSA) of 2014.
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