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Newsom expands California Highway Patrol anti-crime units, draws contrast with Trump troop deployment

Gov. Gavin Newsom is deploying additional California Highway Patrol units to major cities and regions across the state to expand previous crime-fighting efforts, his office announced Thursday.

Newsom said on Thursday that the additional CHP deployments are in coordination with local officials and law enforcement. His announcement sought to contrast with President Trump's recent deployments of federal troops to Washington, DC, to address crime in the nation's capital, and to Los Angeles to support immigration enforcement, both of which happened over the objection of local officials.

"When the state and local communities work together strategically, public safety improves," Newsom said in a prepared statement. "While the Trump Administration undermines cities, California is partnering with them - and delivering real results. With these new deployments, we're doubling down on these partnerships to build on progress and keep driving crime down."  

The additional CHP crime suppression teams will be deployed to multiple locations, including Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego, the Central Valley, and the Inland Empire, where officers will saturate high crime areas, target repeat offenders, and seize weapons and narcotics, the Governor's Office announced. 

A spokesperson for the Governor's Office told CBS News the deployments will build on existing teams regionally, from Bakersfield to the Central Valley, San Bernardino to the Inland Empire, and Oakland to the Bay Area.

"The new areas we are reaching into are San Diego, Los Angeles and Sacramento generally," said spokesperson Diana Crofts-Pelayo.

The CHP has long been tasked with general policing duties since the 1940s, with specialized units for narcotics, auto theft, and anti-gang operations. In 2019, the CHP created a task force to combat organized retail crime, which has been expanded since then.

In 2023, Newsom sent CHP and California National Guard units to San Francisco to help police with the fentanyl trafficking crisis and deployed CHP officers to Oakland following a series of high-profile carjackings and armed robberies. Newsom sent an additional surge of CHP officers to Oakland beginning in February 2024 and increased the number of officers in July 2024 working in Alameda County and in the Solano County city of Vallejo. CHP units were also deployed to Bakersfield and San Bernardino in April 2024.

"These crime suppression teams will provide critical support to our local partners by focusing on crime where it happens most," said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee in a prepared statement. "By combining resources, intelligence, and personnel, we can better disrupt criminal activity and strengthen the safety and security of communities across California."

In June, Trump deployed 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles, saying they were needed amid protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Newsom did not approve of the state's Guard forces being used and filed a lawsuit requesting an injunction limiting the military's role in the city.    

Newsom's announcement on Thursday comes days after Mr. Trump's suggestions that San Francisco and Oakland were among the next U.S. cities where the National Guard would be deployed, ostensibly to fight what Trump has characterized as rampant, unchecked crime. 

Last week, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, "Look at what the Democrats have done to San Francisco ... We could clean that up, too." Earlier this month, in a speech focusing on the Washington, DC deployment, Trump said, "We have other cities also that are bad ... And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore there. They're so far gone." In June, Trump had vowed to "liberate Los Angeles" from what he called "Third World lawlessness."

The rate of violent crime in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland was down sharply in 2024, and the trend is continuing this year, according to statistics compiled from each city's police departments. The Governor's Office on Thursday touted crime statistics from the California Department of Justice that indicate crime in the state was down in nearly every category last year, including violent crime and homicides.   

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