OC Register: "Is there a link between neighborhood rehab programs and petty crime in California?"

“People should be more concerned about liquor stores in their neighborhoods than drug treatment centers... [D]rug treatment centers do not impact communities any more than other commercial businesses."

The Orange County Register published an article this week on the rise of petty crime since the passage of Prop. 47 in November 2014 and possible links to the increase in drug treatment centers. The article describes the complexity of making this connection, including the lack of available data. According to Roxi Fyad, spokesperson for the Costa Mesa Police Department, “There is no statistical crime data gathered that traces back a crime to a sober living facility to show how these facilities impact crime.” 

Additionally, , promised prevention services to mitigate the effects of Prop. 47 never came through. As stated by Bernard Parks, the former Los Angeles police chief and city councilman, “They’ve been talking about all of these preventive programs that were going to be funded on the savings of all the money out of the state prison system. Find one dollar retrieved from the state prison system and invested in one of these preventive programs. It’s been a farce from the beginning.”