Is South Lake Tahoe safer after passage of the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act?

The current crime and police officer staffing statistics in City of South Lake Tahoe is consistent with the State of California as a whole. Most of the crimes for which the Safe Neighborhood and Schools Act have mandated a reduction in criminal penalties have increased in our city. Also consistent with state-wide statistics is the reduction in numbers of South Lake Tahoe police officers available to address local crime. Our officer staffing has decreased nearly 1 percent per year over the past 30 years. For example, in 1986 our agency fielded 55 sworn police officers. Currently, we are allocated 39 police officer positions from the Chief’s position to the newest officer (a 29.09 percent reduction). Over these years the city has invested in law enforcement technologies, which help our officers accomplish more functions with fewer people. Furthermore, city leaders have also been forced to responsibly manage complex budgetary concerns amid several years of a struggling economy on both national and local levels.

We must remember that the effort to address criminal activity is a societal responsibility. It is convenient and easy, yet wholly insufficient, to hold the police solely responsible for an increase in crime. Law enforcement must adhere to the will of the people as expressed in the voting booth and by the legislative mandates handed to us by those the people have elected. The SLTPD aligns our strategies and resources to optimally meet the safety needs of our community within the boundaries of law and clearly stated will of the people we serve. Even having done so, the facts we see after the passing of the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act are clear. Our statistical results are consistent with the rest of California given the similar efforts made by professional law enforcement organizations, both large and small, across the state.

By reducing criminal penalties, and even wiping some crimes entirely from the books, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act initiated significant changes in our city. With its passage, felony charges for certain drug and property crime offenses are now handled as misdemeanors in most instances. Prior to voters approving it, advocates of the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act argued to the voters that “Law enforcement should accept that drug and property crimes still can bring appropriate punishment, while the changes leave more resources for serious felonies”. This was stated by Lenore Anderson, president and executive director of the reform group Californians for Safety and Justice. After just two years from the enactment of this measure, voters can consider for themselves whether this statement is accurate.

It is my conviction however, that the Safe Neighborhood and Schools Act is not the only influence that has impacted the current crime statistics in South Lake Tahoe. There has also been a generalized public shift in outlook regarding the priority of drug related law enforcement across the state, and locally. I will describe an example.

The year in South Lake Tahoe began with a January murder involving approximately one dozen different suspects, none of which were from South Lake Tahoe. They all came to our city to facilitate the illicit sale of 100 pounds of marijuana; a felony even after the passage of the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. Marijuana however, is a substance which has been relegated by California voters and legislators to be unworthy of focused enforcement attention or significant resource allocation from police. In fact, Californians are now determining whether to legalize its use recreationally. This marijuana activity was directly linked to a murder in our city. In other states, where marijuana has been legalized, there has actually been an increase in the illegal marijuana trade.

This marijuana matter turned instantly into a murder, and suddenly rose to the highest level of our investigative priorities. It took months of investigation with the valuable help of several other law enforcement agencies to solve and arrest many of the involved parties. It cost the city multiple tens of thousands of dollars to investigate. A murder stemmed from what most in our California society have deemed an activity which does not merit the attention and resources of law enforcement which formerly were leveraged by police. Where our agency, in partnership with other local law enforcement agencies, formerly addressed street level drug enforcement with a unified task force, we no longer do so. The South Lake El Dorado County Drug Enforcement Team has been dissolved.

Because the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools act similarly reduced or eliminated penalties for several property crime offenses, a similar reduction of law enforcement attention has resulted here as well. Our experience reveals that drug and property crimes are linked to one another. Those who abuse drugs need money. They steal in order to get that money. With law enforcement’s reduced ability to impact those who commit these crimes with an arrest, it is no surprise that drug and property crimes are on the rise while arrests are on the decline. The clear results are found in the current statistics. This statement is not intended as a judgment of whether this voter-directed change in law enforcement focus is right or wrong; merely as an example of a result of such re-alignment of police resources and investigative focus in compliance to the voting public. Addressing crime is a societal responsibility.

The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, along with the public expectation that police resources should most appropriately be diverted away from marijuana, and other drug enforcement, have caused changes for law enforcement agencies across the state. The changes, in fact, have indeed left more resources for serious felonies as proposition 47 advocates predicted; because our limited resources no longer permit focused attention on the other types of crimes which are now clearly rising in South Lake Tahoe. Our resources, formerly allocated to addressing drug and property crimes, such as those which statistics reveal have risen, can no longer be committed in the same historic measures we have employed in the past.

I hope our community members will review these statistics. They may then evaluate for themselves whether the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act has in reality made our schools or neighborhoods any safer in South Lake Tahoe. As we prepare to take advantage of our greatest American right to vote next week, it is my most sincere hope we carefully consider the people and measures presented to us. From the Presidency, to the number of petty thefts from vehicles; all of these matters hinge on a shared public responsibility to create and maintain the most perfect union and to do our own part to ensure lasting peace and domestic tranquility.