Utilizing bumper stickers, billboards and commercials on public buses, Orange County prosecutors have launched an anti-crime marketing campaign geared toward deterring individuals from committing theft there.
Specifically, that will be individuals from Los Angeles and different Southern California counties, whom Orange County officers blame for a lot of the theft on their turf.
The marketing campaign, which has been underway for greater than week, consists of adverts on buses in Los Angeles, Lengthy Seaside, Norwalk and Glendale, together with digital advertising focused at cellphones of individuals in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Imperial counties. Billboards alongside freeways and close to well-liked purchasing areas characteristic the message “Crime doesn’t pay in Orange County” in giant capital letters. Beneath, they provide these toying with the thought a warning: “For those who steal, we prosecute.”
“Over the past a number of years, Orange County has skilled a major variety of defendants coming from Los Angeles, Riverside, and different surrounding counties with the only goal of committing residential burglaries and robberies, smash and grabs, and business burglaries,” the district lawyer’s workplace wrote in a information launch.
In Might 2023, the district lawyer’s workplace introduced that it had charged roughly 140 defendants over the course of a 12 months in reference to dwelling invasion robberies and burglaries, business burglaries and smash and seize robberies. Nearly all of these people lived exterior Orange County, in accordance with a information launch printed on the time.
In a video asserting the marketing campaign, Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer took purpose at felony justice reforms, saying laws handed in Sacramento has made “the danger … far lower than the reward” for these seeking to commit crimes. Supporters of reforms have stated the state ought to proceed to place cash into packages that advance public security with out perpetuating mass incarceration.
“Sacramento could also be rolling out the purple carpet for thieves, however right here in Orange County, we’re throwing the ebook at criminals who come right here to steal,” he stated.
Spitzer has lengthy branded himself as a law-and-order district lawyer and has been vocal concerning the concern of retail and residential theft. Throughout his 2022 marketing campaign for the county’s prime legislation enforcement job, he targeted on his document of punishing criminals to stop Orange County from changing into like Los Angeles, utilizing the slogan #NoLAinOC.
Spitzer just lately partnered with state Sen. Bob Archuleta (D-Pico Rivera) on SB 923, laws that goals to extend time spent behind bars for these repeatedly charged with petty theft. The invoice, if handed, would reinstate some provisions that have been eradicated by voter approval in 2014 of Prop. 47, which turned some nonviolent property crimes into misdemeanors punishable by jail phrases of a 12 months or much less.
The billboard and bus adverts are estimated to value $150,000 and attain greater than 38 million individuals over their four-week run. The digital advertising marketing campaign is anticipated to value as much as $75,000. The marketing campaign is being funded utilizing federal asset forfeiture cash, in accordance with the district lawyer’s workplace.
