UCLA Luskin Social Welfare’s Jorja Leap commented in a CalMatters article on efforts by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to influence local police agencies to change a number of law enforcement policies. Recent state intervention includes urging Oakland city leaders to change policy on police chases and the deployment of California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland and other California cities. National Guard prosecutors also have been sent to assist the district attorneys of Alameda County, San Francisco, Bakersfield and Riverside with drug cases. These efforts have drawn both support and criticism. Leap, an adjunct professor of social welfare who studies gang violence and community policing, described the state’s actions as a temporary fix for a deeply rooted problem. “We have a bunch of police chiefs who all stood up and said, ‘We can’t arrest our way out of the problem,’” Leap said. “And now we’ve got a governor going, ‘Yes, we can.’”
Adjunct Professor of Social Welfare; Executive Director, Social Justice Partnership; Co-Founder and Director, Watts Leadership Institute
Jorja Leap has been a member of the Social Welfare Department faculty at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs...
