The passage of proposition 47 reduced the penalty for a lot of felony and misdemeanor criminal charges. Prior to the proposition’s passage, whether or not a defendant would be immediately released or held in lieu of bail was determined by the severity of the crime they committed. Technically, that’s still the case, though proposition 47 reduced the penalties from jail time to being cited and released without bail for many non-violent crimes.
As the Corona Virus makes social distancing the new normal (at least for a while yet), official’s attention has turned to jails – buildings where a lot of people are kept in close proximity to one another. In an effort to stem the ever-increasing rate of infection, Los Angeles officials passed a “zero bail” policy which ordered police to cite and release criminals instead of holding them in custody in lieu of bail. Thanks to proposition 47 and the new Los Angeles policy, Glendora police were able to arrest, cite, and release the same suspect three times in one day.
According to reports, police first received a call on the morning of Wednesday April 29th about a man attempting to break into vehicles on south Grand Avenue. When police arrived, the man had taken off in an allegedly stolen vehicle. After a short chase, police located the suspect, D. Landrum, of Monterey Park. Landrum was arrested, taken into custody, cited for the crime(s) he was suspected of committing, and released. Generally, people suspected of committing grand theft auto are kept in custody pending release on bail. But, thanks to the new “zero bail”policy, police were obligated to release Landrum.
An hour later, police received another call about a man carrying a box through a neighborhood, picking up items from people’s lawns, putting them into the box, and walking away. When police arrived they discovered that the suspect was none other than D. Landrum, once again plying his trade. He was arrested, cited, and released.
Finally, at around 8:30 pm (about 12 hours after the first arrest) police received another report of a stolen vehicle. After tracking it down with the help of the LASD and CHP, officers found the driver of the allegedly stolen vehicle to, once again, be D. Landrum. He was once again arrested, cited, and released.
