Santa Cruz County Crime & Justice Articles

Legislators weren’t able to reach a compromise that helps insurers with wildfire risk while also protecting homeowners. Interest groups hope to find one in meetings this fall.

Hate crimes were up 20 percent in California in 2022, with those against transgender, Muslim and Black people increasing especially sharply. But the state is also spending more than any other to combat such crimes, including a hotline, state commission …

A bipartisan bill to prohibit TikTok on state phones is shelved until 2024. It had breezed through the state Legislature, but the authors want to tweak the measure. It's the latest social media regulation to get stalled in California.

California prisons are badly understaffed when it comes to doctors and psychiatrists. A new contract attempts to boost retention with substantial bonuses.

California cities are struggling to hire police in a tight labor market after the COVID pandemic. Some are raising by double digits and offering eye-catching bonuses.

Psychedelics are having a moment. A nationwide push to bring magic mushrooms and other psychedelics into the mainstream is gaining traction, and some Californians want in.

More California police departments are deploying body cameras. A new court ruling restricts how prosecutors can use footage of witness accounts at trial.

Almost half of the jobs for doctors and psychiatrists in California prisons are unfilled. Now, their union says it’s ready to strike over pay even as the state faces a steep budget deficit.

A yearlong investigation shows that a $100 million-a-year rehabilitation program for former California prisoners grew with little oversight from the state corrections agency. It's unclear how many parolees wind up back in prison.

A Bay Area woman sued her husband's employer after she became infected with COVID-19. The California Supreme Court found that giving her workers' comp could set a precedent that would imperil the system.

The first-in-the-nation state-appointed task force report contains hundreds of recommendations for reparation, including a proposal that the state apologize and make financial amends for slavery and decades of racist policies.

Learning about the dangers of surveillance technology can be empowering, the Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury writes in the introduction to the new report they published June 20. Its latest 20-page look at spy tech and data collection at …

In a landmark case, California's Supreme Court will decide if cities must switch their at-large elections to a voting-by-district system after hearing oral arguments the Pico Neighborhood Association v. Santa Monica voting rights case June 27.

The population of transgender inmates in California prisoners surged by 234 percent in the years since the state adopted a first-in-the-nation policy allowing gender-affirming health care.

Learn about the charismatic leaders who founded Daughters of Bilitis, Mattachine Society, ONE Inc. and other “homophile movement” groups in the Golden State.

You have to be 18 to get divorced in California, but there’s no minimum age to get married. Child marriage survivors protested at the state Capitol, but the Legislature likely won’t act until next year.

Scotts Valley Police Department may not quite have enough officers yet to restart its investigations unit, but the patrol department is finally fully staffed, Chief Steve Walpole Jr. told the Scotts Valley City Council on May 17. This addition of …

Gov. Gavin Newsom took to his Twitter account to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would regulate gun sales and use nationwide, in a way that courts cannot change.

‘You small, pathetic man,’ Gavin Newsom wrote in a Twitter post suggesting he’d pursue criminal charges against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over recent migrant flights to Sacramento.

Programs would dispatch mental health workers, not police.