Frustrated Californians May Be Ready for a Tougher Approach to Crime

Deodorant, shampoo and underwear are all under lock and key in many stores in California. Retail clerks are often told to ignore shoplifters, after a handful of store employees who confronted thieves were assaulted or killed. Video clips of smash-and-grab crews snatching armloads of merchandise have gone viral.

Californians of all political stripes have become fed up with the problems plaguing supermarkets and retail stores, not to mention car break-ins and open-air drug use. Some top Democrats, including Mayor London Breed of San Francisco, have joined conservatives in denouncing a cascade of smaller crimes that have contributed to a sense of lawlessness in major cities.

Now the state’s lawmakers and voters are weighing what to do.

With public sentiment in the state shifting toward stiffer punishment, California finds itself debating whether to roll back decade-old changes that sharply reduced the state’s inmate count and made it a leader in reducing mass incarceration.

A coalition of law enforcement figures, business owners and relatives of fentanyl addicts want to reverse the 2014 ballot measure known as Proposition 47, which reduced penalties for shoplifting and drug possession. That measure has been blamed so often for the state’s crime woes that it is among the few past initiatives that residents can identify by number — right up there with Proposition 13, the state’s landmark property tax limitation, and Proposition 209, the state’s prohibition of affirmative action.

With financial help from the giant retailers Target, Home Depot and Walmart, the coalition has gotten a ballot measure qualified for the November election that would impose harsher punishments for crimes that result in lighter charges or no prosecution today.

Many Democratic state leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have acknowledged the state’s crime problems. Mr. Newsom was captured on a hot mic in February describing a shoplifting incident at a Target store in which he witnessed a man shoplifting without being confronted by anyone. “I was like, ‘Why am I spending $380 — everyone can walk the hell right out,’” he said.