LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Gov. Gavin Newsom is turning to the California Highway Patrol to help crack down on crime in some of the state’s biggest cities by assigning them to Crime Suppression Teams that will work hand in hand with local law enforcement.
“When the state and local communities work together strategically, public safety improves,” Newsom said in a statement. “With these new deployments, we’re doubling down on these partnerships to build on progress and keep driving crime down.”
How will the Crime Suppression Teams work?
That new crime-fighting help will soon be headed to Los Angeles and San Bernardino where the CHP will be sending 15-person teams of officers to saturate high-crime areas. They’ll be targeting repeat offenders and search for illegal weapons and drugs.
“We go in and saturate an area with high visibility, in-view patrols,” said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee. “We’re going to put numbers of black and white patrol cars with officers in uniform in there. It deters criminals.”
The Crime Suppression Teams are not new to San Bernardino. Part-time officers have been deployed there since 2023, and the new expansion boosts those teams to full-time.
In L.A., though, the teams are new and numerous.
“Our counterparts in LAPD are very excited about the partnership,” said Duryee. “It’s probably going to be one of our biggest number of resources. We have lot of officers in L.A. County, so it’s going to be an easy lift for us.”
Crime in L.A. is already trending downward. Both violent crimes and property crimes are down 17% from last year.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass is still looking forward to the help, writing, “The best way to address crime and other top challenges is through partnership and this is an example of that … we will continue to hold people accountable and implement comprehensive strategies to keep Angelenos safe.”
Meantime, Newsom is using the crime-fighting program to needle President Donald Trump, criticizing his deployment of the National Guard to L.A. and rattling off a string of Republican states that have crime statistics that are more than double those of California.
“There’s no question in my mind that he will likely be sending the troops into Louisiana, Mississippi to address the unconscionable wave of violence that continues to plague those states,” he said.
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