blog post Falling Jail Populations Have Eased Overcrowding in Most County Jails By Brandon Martin, Magnus Lofstrom Feb 15, 2024 California jails have historically faced capacity issues that required counties to release people early. However, a close look at jail populations in the wake of the pandemic shows that overcrowding is now an issue in just a handful of counties.
Fact Sheet Law Enforcement Staffing in California By Brandon Martin, Magnus Lofstrom, Andrew Skelton Jan 8, 2024 Law enforcement is funded largely at the local level, and almost half of California’s law enforcement officers work for municipal police departments. Staffing levels continued to drop in 2022, though losses vary across agencies.
blog post Gun Incidents Drive a Climb in Violent Crime Rates By Magnus Lofstrom, Brandon Martin Sep 25, 2023 Violent crime in California has been ticking up since 2019. And while the overall share of violent crimes involving guns dipped in 2022, it remains above pre-pandemic levels.
press release Majority Favor Changing Environmental Regulations in an Effort to Make Housing More Affordable Jun 5, 2023
Statewide Survey PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians and Their Government By Mark Baldassare, Dean Bonner, Rachel Lawler, Deja Thomas Jun 5, 2023 Californians name economic conditions, homelessness, and housing as the most important issues facing the state today. A majority of Californians favor changing state environmental regulations as a way to increase housing affordability.
blog post A Large Proportion of Crime Goes Unsolved in California By Magnus Lofstrom May 11, 2023 California’s clearance rates—the shares of reported crimes for which police make an arrest and refer the arrestee to prosecution—are better than those nationwide. Still, statewide less than half of violent crimes and only one in ten property crimes are cleared.
blog post Californians Fear Being a Victim of Crime, and Some Have Been Victims of Racial Profiling By Deja Thomas Mar 14, 2023 A recent PPIC Statewide Survey finds that nearly two in three Californians worry that they or a family member will be a victim of crime. Meanwhile, one in three say they or someone they know have been victims of racial profiling, with Black Californians more likely than other groups to say this.
blog post California’s Notable Declines in Law Enforcement Staffing By Magnus Lofstrom, Brandon Martin, Andrew Skelton Feb 14, 2023 California saw a sizeable drop in staffing across law enforcement agencies between 2020 and 2021, part of a longer-term decline.
blog post Concerns about Crime Are Up, Views of Police Are Down By Deja Thomas Feb 13, 2023 The share of Californians saying that violence and street crime is a problem in their community has increased from a year ago, and the share saying that the police are doing an excellent or good job controlling crime has declined. Views on crime and policing vary notably across demographic groups, including by race and ethnicity.
Report Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Arrests in California By Deepak Premkumar, Thomas Sloan, Magnus Lofstrom, Joseph Hayes Feb 7, 2023 At the onset of COVID-19, California’s criminal justice system was affected by shelter-in-place orders and other public health measures, along with law enforcement directives intended to minimize exposure to the virus. We found that pandemic arrest trends mirror mobility patterns, particularly early on. But other factors, such as a shift in policing strategies, also played a role.
