Newsom deploys ‘crime suppression’ teams statewide while mocking Trump’s threats

As he publicly mocks concerns that crime in California is out of control, Gov. Gavin Newsom is also surging law enforcement resources across the state.

Newsom announced Thursday that he would deploy new “crime suppression” teams of California Highway Patrol officers to partner with local officials in six regions: San Diego, the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, the Central Valley, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.

It’s an escalation of a strategy that Newsom has already tried in cities such as Oakland and Bakersfield, sending in state officers to assist with cracking down on retail theft, stolen vehicles and drug dealing.

And it appears closely related to political considerations, as President Donald Trump ramps up threats of military action to “clean up” Democratic-led cities across the country. In a statement, Newsom alluded to the president, suggesting that communities were better left to handle the issue themselves.

“While the Trump Administration undermines cities, California is partnering with them — and delivering real results,” Newsom said. “With these new deployments, we’re doubling down on these partnerships to build on progress and keep driving crime down.”

Crime has again become a hot-button national topic. Earlier this month, Trump deployed thousands of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. and took control of its local police force, arguing that federal intervention was needed because of unsafe conditions in the city — though reports of violent offenses are at their lowest in three decades.

Since then, Trump has publicly mulled expanding the operation into numerous other cities that he claims Democrats have destroyed, including San Francisco and Oakland.

On social media, Newsom’s provocative press team has responded by highlighting murder rates and other crime statistics from Republican-led states that are far higher than California’s.

But his latest “crime suppression” program also provides an opportunity to get ahead of Trump and show that California is already taking action with an approach that Newsom claims is highly effective. Last year, CHP officers made more than 9,000 arrests, recovered nearly 5,800 stolen vehicles and confiscated more than 400 firearms in Bakersfield, Oakland and San Bernardino, according to the governor’s office.

“These crime suppression teams will provide critical support to our local partners by focusing on crime where it happens most,” CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee said in a statement. “By combining resources, intelligence, and personnel, we can better disrupt criminal activity and strengthen the safety and security of communities across California.”

Newsom and Trump are in the midst of an ongoing struggle over the president’s deployment of National Guard troops and Marines into Los Angeles earlier this summer to quell fierce protests against immigration enforcement. The governor sued to stop what he alleges was an illegal military action, and though most of the troops have since been demobilized, a potentially precedent-setting case is still ongoing.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.