The battle against Los Angeles County’s zero-bail initiative received a significant setback when an OC judge denied an attempt by cities and other entities in LA County to halt the implementation of zero-bail.
29 cities seeking to end the zero-bail initiative, citing increased danger to their communities, brought the case to court claiming that LA officials didn’t adequately consider the potential risk to victims and the general public safety of the city when making their sweeping change.
According to recently collected data, the cities may be right. A study published in 2022 by the Yolo County DA indicated an increase in crime in every single category during the implementation of zero bail. In that county, a whopping 70% arrested for a violent crime were rearrested after being released on zero bail. Additionally, an expanded study completed in February of 2023 showed, among other things, that those individuals releasd on zero bail were rearrested for 163% more crimes than those released on bail.
Unfortunately, the judge in OC felt that the cities didn’t bring enough information to the court to indicate that their public safety was being affected. However, there is a little light at the end of the tunnel. The judge gave the cities the opportunity to amend their complaint and resubmit it by Jan. 31.
Recently, Santa Clarita Bail Bonds joined the suit to help keep our communities safe. As bail bondsmen, our job not only involves getting people out of jail, but monitoring them, ensuring they make it to court at the appointed date and time, and pursuing them to bring them back into custody when they do not.
Without the bail industry, the police will have to track down and apprehend those who skip bail in addition to re-arresting numerous suspects who are no longer deterred from comitting crimes in our neighborhoods.
