An experiment has been underway in California since November 2014, when voters approved Proposition 47: put fewer lawbreakers in jail without increasing crime. The measure converted a list of nonviolent felonies into misdemeanors, which translated into little or no jail time for crimes such as low-value theft and possession of hard drugs.
Police didn't like Prop 47 when it was on the ballot, and now many are convinced they were right to oppose it.
In Huntington Beach, a seaside city in Orange County, Officer Brad Smith says Prop 47 means more drug addicts are out, living on the street. He pulls his patrol car up behind a case in point ā a silver Volvo that serves as the home of two young heroin addicts. The officer seems to have a cordial relationship with them, even though he arrested them a few weeks earlier.
"We found heroin in the car," Smith says. "We also found stolen property from three or four victims."
[For more of this story, written by Martin Kaste, go to http://www.npr.org/2016/01/22/...lease-crime-fighting]
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