California voters will get their chance to reform a controversial law that critics blame for a surge in retail thefts and brazen flash mob robberies.
The Secretary of State’s Office announced on Tuesday that an initiative to repeal portions of Proposition 47 had acquired enough signatures to qualify for the November 5 general election.
The measure garnered more than 600,000 valid petition signatures easily surpassing the required 546,651 to become eligible for the ballot, according to the state office.
The voter-approved Prop. 47, which passed in 2014, reduced some felonies to misdemeanors and set a $950 threshold for shoplifting charges.
Supporters of the new initiative say Prop. 47 was too soft on criminals and has led to an increase in crime, including smash-and-grab robberies which are often captured on surveillance video and viewed by millions online.
However, some experts say blaming the proposition is unfair and crime statistics aren’t clear on the matter.
“We have to dispense with this simplistic narrative that reforms are what caused the crime and the crime is what causes all of the retail problems that the retail establishments are reporting,” Charis Kubrin, a professor of Criminology, Law and Society at UC Irvine told the Sacremento Bee in November.
If passed, the new initiative would raise penalties for some drug and theft offenses and increase the punishment for someone convicted of shoplifting with two or more prior theft-related convictions, the Bee reported.
The secretary of state is due to certify the initiative on June 27 unless it is withdrawn by proponents.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and other California lawmakers have opposed the measure, instead opting for their own bill package.
