Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Initiative Summary    

INITIATIVE SUMMARY

 
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SUMMARY
 
The Safe Neighborhoods Act is a comprehensive criminal penalty and public safety funding initiative that targets criminal street gangs, felons with guns, and drug dealers with focused penalties, and provides sustainable funding to our local police, sheriffs, and prosecutors. It also increases public accountability for gang intervention and prevention programs.

Public Accountability:

  • Creates an early intervention accountability commission to evaluate early intervention and rehabilitation programs for gangs to emphasize what programs are effectively spending public funds, and what programs are wasting tax dollars so that they can be eliminated.  Taxpayers deserve this type of accountability.

Dangerous Illegal Immigrants:

  • Prohibits illegal immigrants, who are arrested for violent felonies or gang crimes, from being released on bail or on their own recognizance without a judicial hearing.

Criminal Penalties on Gangs:

  • Imposes a 10-year penalty increase on gang offenders who commit violent felonies.
  • Requires convicted gang offenders to register with local law enforcement each year for five years following conviction or their release from custody.
  • Increases penalties for possession, possession for sale, and sale of methamphetamine to the same level as cocaine.
  • Streamlines civil gang injunction process and increases penalties for violations.
  • Increases penalties for multiple acts of gang-related graffiti.
  • Requires that gang offenders previously convicted of car theft or joy riding be subject to a felony penalty for any subsequent car theft or joy riding offense.
  • Enhances penalties for individuals providing contraband to gang members in prison.

Section 8 Housing Compliance:

  • The Safe Neighborhoods Act ensures that anyone receiving public housing benefits (Section 8) who is caught buying or selling drugs, who is involved in gang activity, or illegally in possession of firearms will lose their public housing benefits.  It requires an annual criminal background check as a condition of housing benefits.

Intervention and Rehabilitation

  • The measure provides funding for local law enforcement-run after school programs.
  • Creates a mentoring and job training program to help parolees succeed upon release.

Criminal Penalties for Illegal Guns:

  • Strengthens the 10-20-Life law to penalize not only offenders who personally use firearms in the commission of certain felonies but their accomplices as well.
  • Goes after cop-killers by adding 10 years to dangerous felons who carry loaded or concealed firearms in public.
  • Adopts “Use a gun and lose a car” – when car is used in crime, gun is in the car, and registered owner is involved.

Victim Protection:

  • Protects children from gang predators by increasing penalties for gang recruitment of juveniles.
  • Authorizes admission of sworn statements by witnesses to gang crimes who die or are unavailable to testify at the time of prosecution because of flight or intimidation.
  • Protects victims by strengthening Department of Justice Witness Protection Program.
  • Establishes statewide reimbursement program for information leading to arrest or conviction of criminal offenders.
  • Creates a victim services website.

Community Policing

  • The Safe Neighborhoods Act provides the programs and resources essential to community-based policing.
  • Expands Neighborhoods Watch programs statewide.
  • Informs and involves citizens in public safety through multi-media education.

Safe Neighborhood Public Safety Funding:

  • Provides funding for GPS tracking equipment for monitoring gang offenders, sex offenders, and violent offenders.
  • Adds resources to violent gang prosecution programs at the local level.
  • Funding for county sheriffs for jails and gang enforcement.
  • Enhanced city police enforcement targeting gangs and violent crime.
  • Multi-agency gang taskforces and gang enforcement training for peace officers.
  • Resources to county probation targeting high-risk probationers with weapons and caseload ratios.
  • Multi-agency narcotic taskforces with an emphasis on border interdiction.

  

Committee To Take Back Our Neighborhoods, generously supported by Dr. Henry
T. Nicolas, Larry Rasmussen, Senator George Runner and a coalition of Law Enforcement
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Committee To Take Back Our Neighborhoods  ID#1301754