Elk Grove Police Chief
Works his Data Magic
W
hat does Elk Grove Police Chief Bob Lehner
do in his spare time? He devotes himself
to the serious work of gathering and
comparing police department crime data for
2015, certainly not what most of us would classify as “fun”.
But the purpose? Well that part is clear, to help Cal Chiefs
demonstrate that the rates of certain types of crime has
increased in California, but were not reflected nationally
after the passage of Proposition 47. Law enforcement has
long known that crime has increased, in many instances
drastically, since the passage of Proposition 47. What
hasn’t been available, until now, is evidence that compares
California’s crime rate to the crime rates of other states
which demonstrates that crime increases in California are
in fact a direct result of Proposition 47. The results of the
data are dramatic, even though only the first six months of
FBI data for certain sized agencies is available.
Chief Lehner is going to continue to collect data and
will add the national data from the FBI when they release
their final report sometime in the fall. “Although the final
numbers will be somewhat different when data is complete,”
says Chief Lehner, “We are confident in predicting a large
increase in crime occurred in California in 2015 that did not
occur in other states, coincident with the implementation of
Proposition 47.”
The good news is, that what law enforcement has been
saying all along can now be confirmed. But the bad news
is, that because Proposition 47 was voter-enacted, it will be
difficult to change shor