George Gascón

In 2000, he took command of the LAPD training unit at the height of the Rampart scandal.[10] He was in command of the LAPD training unit, overseeing the LAPD Academy and in-service training, during the federal government's oversight of police reforms. Even though there was a mandate for reform, then-Police Chief Bernard Parks did not allocate funding for additional training.[13] Gascón used a grant that had originally been funded to research community-policing strategies, and produced three hundred thousand additional training hours.[13]

One of his first orders as training commander was to create an ethics training manual for the LAPD.[13] He also implemented problem-based learning and posted a copy of the bill of rights in every LAPD classroom. Michael Gennaco, the former head of the United States Justice Department's civil rights division said at the time: "He fundamentally changed the way the LAPD teaches its officers about civil rights."[10]

In 2002, Gascón applied to be the Los Angeles Police Department Chief of Police. He wanted to partner with community agencies to reduce California's prisoner-recidivism rate.[13] William Bratton was ultimately appointed Chief of Police.

In 2003, he was sworn in as Assistant Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department under Chief William Bratton.[12][14] In 2004, Gascón oversaw the daily operations of the department.[10] William Bratton credited Gascón with helping reduce the rate of violent crime in Los Angeles at that time.[3]

Gascón advocated for the end of cash bail.[28] Gascón brought the Public Safety Assessment (PSA) tool to San Francisco to assist courts in making bail decisions more equitably. Initial results indicate that for the 15 months following the implementation of the PSA tool, only 6% of defendants released went on to commit a new crime while awaiting trial, roughly half the rate observed during a similarly recorded period of time in 2006 during which cash bail was used exclusively to determine which defendants were released awaiting trial.[29]

During Gascon's time as District Attorney, property crime increased by 49%. Some of Gascon's critics have blamed this increase on his office's reluctance to file charges against "High-level" offenders; during Gascon's tenure, misdemeanor charges were only filed in 40% of cases presented by the San Francisco Police Department.[30] Having worked with Gascon, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and City Attorney Dennis Herrera declined to endorse him in his bid to become the District Attorney of Los Angeles County; Breed and Herrera instead endorsed his opponent, the incumbent Jackie Lacey.[31]

In 2018, Gascón announced that he would apply California's Adult Use of Marijuana Act retroactively to every marijuana case since 1975 in order to level the playing field for those adversely affected by the criminalization of marijuana. The move cleared misdemeanor convictions and reduced felony convictions for those entitled for record relief under the act.[32] He partnered with Code for America, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, which kicked off a national movement resulting in dozens of cities across the country clearing marijuana convictions.[33]

Prop 47, which was co-authored by Gascón, reduced simple drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor in California.[34]

Gascón implemented and launched California's first prosecutorial data management system, similar to CompStat, called DA Stat.[35] This internal data collection tool is part of a trend toward "data-driven prosecution".

Gascón launched a blue-ribbon panel,[36] which was set to investigate a scandal in the San Francisco Police Department regarding allegations that homophobic and racist texts had been exchanged between 14 or more police officers in 2014.[37]

In 2016, following recommendations of both the Department of Justice and Blue Ribbon Panel, Gascón secured funding to create the Independent Investigations Bureau, which investigates shootings involving police officers, excessive force, and in-custody deaths.[38]

Gascón helped launch San Francisco's Young Adult Court in 2015.[39] He described the program as "a hybrid of the adult and juvenile justice systems tailored to the biology and circumstances of offenders 18 to 24."[39] In the program, a prosecutor refers a case to the Alternative Sentencing Planner (ASP) who determines if alternatives to incarceration in the community are appropriate.[40]

In 2019, Gascón supported San Francisco's move to close Juvenile Hall, citing studies showing that incarceration of juveniles significantly increases a young person's likelihood of recidivism and that "California's juvenile facilities aren't rehabilitating kids or making our communities safer."[41]

Gascón has taken a like approach to prosecuting youth in Los Angeles County, launching a program to spare minors from criminal charges for burglary, vehicle theft, arson, sexual battery, assault, and robbery in cases that resulted in no serious harm and involved no firearms, depending on the victims’ agreement, the offenders’ admission of responsibility, and the expectation that offenders meet their victims. This program's description in a memo drew prompt criticism from other officials, such as Sacramento Dist. Atty. Anne Marie Schubert, who called it “reckless,” and Los Angeles Deputy Dist. Atty. Jon Hatami, who noted that it failed to bar offenders who used weapons other than guns.[42] "I don’t think any reasonable or experienced prosecutor would issue blanket policies,” said Hatami, “but George Gascón has no experience … in any court.”[43] Similarly, when a 17-year-old offender in a potentially fatal hit-and-run case was sentenced to five months’ detention in a juvenile probation camp, Deputy Dist. Atty. John McKinney denounced Gascón for leniency: "I would have been considering attempted murder charges and at least assault with a vehicle.… He obviously cares more for offenders than he does for victims."[44]

Gascón coauthored Senate Bill 962, legislation requiring a "kill switch" on all smartphones sold in California.[45]

Gascón co-authored Proposition 47 that reduced many crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. Proposition 47, according to one study, has reduced the disparity in arrests in San Francisco between Caucasians and African Americans by nearly half.[46] Some have criticized the law.[47][48]

Gascón filed a civil complaint against Uber alleging that the company failed to protect riders from sex offenders and other people who have been convicted of serious felonies.[49]

Gascón expanded the DA's Charging Unit to support "weekend rebooking" in order to reduce the jail population and reduce time in custody.[50]

George Gascón was sworn in as the 43rd District Attorney of Los Angeles County on December 7, 2020.[59][60] Gascón implemented a series of policies on his first day as Los Angeles County D.A. by announcing that his office would not seek cash bail for certain minor offenses and would seek release for those currently awaiting such bail, would never seek the death penalty, and would end the charging of children as adults. He also announced plans to reevaluate any sentence for which the prisoner had already served 20 years, and to reopen several cases of officer-involved shootings that had been declined for filing from the previous eight years.[61]

In December 2020, Gascón established the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office first Crime Victims Advisory Board.[62][63] The group is composed of survivors of various forms of crime who meet regularly, seek input from the larger community, and advise the office on policies related to victims' needs in relation to the criminal justice system.[62]

Gascón is against the death penalty.[61] In 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on capital punishment in California, however the sentence was still being sought in Los Angeles County.[64] Gascón withdrew the sentence of death being sought in 17 active cases upon taking office.[65] Gascón also announced his office is reviewing cases of those on California's death row from Los Angeles County who may be resentenced to life without parole.[66]

Gascón is referenced on the 2022 Los Angeles City Council scandal leaked audio recordings of a meeting between Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, Councilmember Gil Cedillo, Councilmember Kevin de León and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera. The audio recordings gained widespread attention due to the personal attacks, racist and colorist language, and discussion of political goals. The participants were discussing gerrymandering when Martinez stated, "Fuck that guy ... He's with the Blacks", referring to District Attorney George Gascón.[67]

Gascón's policies have sparked outrage from some victims and their families, and revolt from some of his own prosecutors, who have sought to block him in court.[68][69][70] In at least one case, a criminal who received a light sentence due to Gascon's policies was recorded gloating about the lack of severity to their sentencing, not having to register as a sex offender, or go back to prison.[71]

Within a week of Gascón assuming office, a Facebook page launched to garner support for recalling him from office.[72] February 2021, an effort began to place a proposition on an upcoming ballot to remove Gascón from office.[73] While the recall's most visible supporter was former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, it was led by former District Attorney Steve Cooley,[74] as well as Desiree Andrade and Tania Owen, two women who lost relatives to violent crime.[75][76] In March 2021, the effort to recall Gascón was started after a petition was approved, to which the group would need to gather 579,062 by October 2021.[77][78] In September 2021, the recall effort failed after the group were unable to gather enough signatures for the October deadline, but the group vowed to retry at a later time.[79]

Subsequently, a third attempt to recall the District Attorney began. On June 15, 2022, the group announced that they had secured more than 566,857 signatures required to officially make the ballot, with them shifting focus onto gathering more signatures to help with any invalidated signatures.[80][81] The group behind the recall effort submitted the signatures on July 6, 2022.[82] On July 9, 2022, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk announced that the campaign had submitted 715,833 signatures, and would be conducting the verification process by using a 5% random sample of the total signatures.[83] On July 14, the Registrar announced that it has completed its check and would proceed to checking all the ballots.[84][85] On August 15, 2022, the recall petition failed as the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk stated that 195,783 signatures were invalid.[86]