Prop 36 'greatest thing that's happened,' leads to 50% drop in retail theft at River Park

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A caller authorities instrumentality appears to beryllium stopping thieves successful their tracks aft videos of melodramatic and brazen smash-and-grabs went viral online.

"It's been the top happening that's happened for our retail," Tracy Kashian astatine Fresno's River Park said astir Proposition 36.

Kashian said the instrumentality has resulted successful a double-digit simplification successful retail transgression successful 7 months.

"We are seeing a alteration successful numbers, a profound alteration successful numbers," Kashian said. "Over 50% of the smash and grabs person decreased."

Proposition 36 stiffens penalties for retail theft, bringing it from a misdemeanor to a felony for thieves with astatine slightest 2 anterior convictions.

"The instrumentality went into effect, and it's similar everybody went connected vacation, successful presumption of the thieves," Kashian said.

But the menace persists. River Park's Drip-on-Drip sneaker store inactive leaves its currency registry unfastened successful plain show of the model aft thieves deed the retailer doubly successful 13 months. One time, a car plowed done the storefront, costing thousands successful damages...

"We person a batch of section tenants here, truthful for them to person their inventory taken and stolen, it's precise hard to retrieve from that," Kashian said.

Local instrumentality enforcement supported Prop 36, but critics raised concerns.

"If this passes, it volition perfectly nonstop america back," Jose Bernal astatine the Ella Baker Center said earlier the election.

Bernal feared it could pb to wide incarceration, sending much radical to jail, near to await proceedings successful a dilatory tribunal system.

The Fresno County Sheriff's Office present confirms its "population numbers person remained consistent."

"We were benignant of conscionable sitting here, benignant of successful limbo with, like, not a batch we could do," Kashian said. "And so, erstwhile this did travel into effect, we've seen the driblet successful numbers. So, we cognize it's working."

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