SAN FRANCISCO - AUGUST 25: San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom talks with reporters before test driving a plug-in version of the popular Toyota Prius that is one of four on loan to the city for evaluation August 25, 2010 in San Francisco, California. With sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars expected to increase in the coming years, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has set aside $5 million to increase the number of electric car charging stations to 5,000 around the Bay Area. There are currently 120 stations in the area. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Sacramento, California – Governor Gavin Newsom says California’s latest public safety push is beginning to show results. On Thursday, he announced that newly deployed California Highway Patrol crime suppression teams have made 409 arrests, recovered 156 stolen vehicles, and seized 25 firearms in just the past several weeks.
The announcement comes at a moment when California officials are eager to counter the narrative of spiraling crime rates. The state’s own data tells a more complicated story. In 2024, according to the Department of Justice, nearly every major crime category declined, with homicides and violent crimes falling to levels not seen since before the pandemic. That’s not to say concerns about public safety have disappeared. Smash-and-grab robberies, organized retail theft, and auto burglaries have captured headlines and stoked political anxiety.
The crime suppression teams, which were expanded this summer into San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento, the Bay Area, the Central Valley, and the Inland Empire, are the centerpiece of Newsom’s effort to show the state is taking those concerns seriously. The units are designed to be nimble—relying on data, targeted patrols, and intelligence-sharing with local departments. And the governor insists the early results speak for themselves.
“In just a few weeks, the CHP crime suppression teams are delivering demonstrably positive results,” Newsom said in a statement. “Thanks to their work supplementing local law enforcement, a greater sense of security is being brought to communities up and down the state.”
The examples his office highlighted are eye-catching. In Sacramento earlier this month, officers arrested two armed suspects and seized multiple firearms after responding to a 911 call. In Los Angeles County, a routine traffic stop led to the discovery of nine kilograms of fentanyl. And in Kern County, officers tracked down a stolen vehicle from Florida, recovering stolen merchandise and arresting two men with felony warrants.
The governor has leaned heavily on both money and legislation to bolster these efforts. Since 2019, the state has invested $1.7 billion into crime prevention, including $267 million last year specifically to combat organized retail crime. In August, he signed what he called the most significant bipartisan package on property crime in decades, aimed squarely at the wave of smash-and-grabs that rattled major retailers.
It is, in some ways, a balancing act. California’s crime rate remains low by historic standards, but shifting tactics among criminals have forced lawmakers to rethink how theft and violence are prosecuted. Newsom, in particular, has pushed back against critics who use crime as a political cudgel, pointing to year-over-year declines in Oakland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Data from the state’s eight largest cities shows violent crime fell by more than 12 percent in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period a year earlier.
Still, the push underscores how much policing remains both a political and practical challenge. Californians may be safer, statistically, than they were five or ten years ago. But the governor is betting that visible, headline-ready enforcement—guns seized, cars recovered, arrests made—will matter just as much in convincing people that safety is real.
