Santa Cruz County Crime & Justice Articles

California’s goal of zero traffic fatalities remains distant. Here are some common causes of deaths on the road that can be fixed, but haven’t been.

Homicide rates remain high in some of California's most Republican, Trump-voting counties. Are law-and-order policies against crime a bust? Here’s why political voting patterns are a strong indicator of violent crime in states and counties.

County asks for community feedback before beginning the search for an independent investigator

The $6 million will be used to expand mental health care, create diversion opportunities and more

Steven Carrillo, an active-duty Air Force servicemember, fell down a rabbit hole of Facebook extremism and became convinced he could start a new civil war. Then he turned his online obsession into real-life murder.

County sheriffs have tended to be predominantly white, male and politically conservative. But in California, those trends may be moving in the other direction, as recent elections and legislation appear to show.

The U.S. Department of Justice said it has seen a tenfold increase in the amount of ghost guns seized by law enforcement since 2016.

SANTA CRUZ—Santa Cruz County’s new Public Defender office began operations on July 1, and the department’s roughly 60 employees celebrated the occasion with a barbecue in the backyard of its May Avenue headquarters.  The new office includes an increased number …

California's assault weapons ban, in place since 1989, may not stand up to a new Supreme Court decision that makes it much harder for states to impose gun control. A federal court brief filed June 30 aims to strike down …

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is turning his sights on one of the most important press freedom cases, 'New York Times v. Sullivan.' Thomas says he wants to make it easier to sue media companies.

If Clarence Thomas gets his way, the Supreme Court won't stop at revoking the right to abortion. Same sex marriage, contraception and gay sex are likely to be next on the SCOTUS hit list.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that after overturning Roe v. Wade SCOTUS must now overturn decisions allowing same-sex marriage and contraception. Here's why.

The U.S. Supreme Court scaled back California's Private Attorney Generals Act, a 19-year-old law allowing workers to sue employers over labor code violations. But a new ballot initiate aims to repeal PAGA completely.

The links between homelessness and crime are complex, and the idea that unhoused individuals present a danger to their community seems to be exaggerated.

Statistics presented to the city council revealed a spike in crime during the pandemic, but SVPD say things are getting back to normal.

Burglaries nearly doubled in 2020—overall, crime fluctuated heavily during the pandemic, Scotts Valley Police Department Chief Steve Walpole, Jr. told the city council in his annual presentation. The numbers have dropped since, and thankfully, there are still no homicides to …

Do California's election results in Los Angeles and San Francisco mean this blue state is flirting with turning red? That's what the national media is trying to say. But there's a lot more to the story.

SACRAMENTO—The California Highway Patrol is embarking on a multiyear recruiting campaign to fill 1,000 vacant officer positions.  The “Join the CHP 1,000” campaign is an attempt to appeal to a wide array  of applicants “who may not be aware of …

Laura Segura, whose leadership at Monarch Services topped off a lifetime of service to the community in which she grew up, and who was as known for her fierce advocacy as she was for being an athlete, artist, friend and—for …

A Texas law that would have placed cumbersome restrictions on social media companies has been blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court, in an unusual alliance between liberal and conservative justices.