THE IMPACT OF REALIGNMENT ON PROPERTY CRIME:
Did we fight crime with one
hand tied behind our back?
By Chief Daniel S. Llorens, Fountain Valley Police Department
California’s latest prison reform effort known as
Public Safety Realignment or AB 109 was the culmination
of generational court proceedings and public policy lethargy.
Effective in 2011, the law only just preceded a United States Supreme
Court ruling forcing California to reduce its prison population so inmates
could secure constitutionally permissible levels of medical care.
Although not designed as an early
release program, the net effect of
realigning non-serious, non-violent,
non-sexual offenders to counties
was decarcerative. Within two years
of implementation, over 18,000 offenders found their way into local communities
by virtue of displacement in local jails or other dynamics already at work before AB
109 (Lofstrom & Rafael, 2013). Many of these offenders had previous convictions
for property-related crimes. The Attorney General reported that from 2007 to 2012
California agencies shrunk their sworn officer contingents by over 4,500 positions
(CJSC, 2014). In light of the drop in resources to hire and maintain officer staffing,
SPRING 2015 | California Police Chief
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