Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Deep Blue Bastions Shift Gears Toward Tougher Crime Policy

San Francisco Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Photo: Udo S.

San Francisco and Washington, D.C., both advanced tougher crime policies Tuesday after years of more lenient reforms.

Both cities defunded police in 2020 following the Black Lives Matter protests that opposed law enforcement agencies. Each city has faced backlash for certain crime increases since then, including murder, and they now appear to be reversing course by advancing initiatives that will be more strict to curtail crime.

San Francisco voters on Tuesday approved two Mayor London Breed-backed ballot measures to crack down on drugs and increase police surveillance, Politico reported.

Proposition E gives police more freedom to pursue suspects, enables the deployment of drones and surveillance cameras and decreases paperwork mandates. Proposition F compels adult welfare recipients who use drugs to go through treatment in order to obtain cash assistance.

“We want San Francisco to be exactly what the people who live here want to see,” Breed told supporters on Tuesday, according to Politico. “And that is a safe, affordable place to call home.”

Breed, a Democrat, previously advocated for defunding the police and reduced the police and sheriff departments’ budgets by $120 million. However, she has reversed course on signature crime policies as moderates entered the mayoral race against her, according to Politico.

Washington, D.C.’s city council on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill known as the “Secure DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024” to backtrack on liberal  reforms following homicides increasing to their highest point in 25 years, accordingto Axios.

D.C.’s bill establishes a new crime for organized retail theft and brings back drug-free zones and a law from the 1990s to prevent loitering, measures that Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed in October, according to Axios.

“We are a city that is committed to creating opportunity and that believes in second chances, but we will not tolerate violence and we will not tolerate criminal activity that disrupts our sense of safety and our ability to build thriving neighborhoods,” Bowser stated after its passage.

Breed’s and Bowser’s press offices did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.