He’s a Democrat. He’s Newsom’s Sheriff. He Says California’s Crime Laws Are Failing Victims —
In the Governor’s Own Backyard.
Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper (D) is a Democrat — a former eight-year Democratic state assemblyman who was elected sheriff in 2022 and took office in the county that houses California’s state government, a few blocks from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) Capitol office. In a KCRA interview that aired July 13, 2026, and was picked up nationally by Fox News Digital, Cooper said the state’s approach to public safety is failing crime victims — not as a partisan broadside, but as an on-the-record break from his own party’s governor, inside his own party’s stronghold.
Cooper’s complaint isn’t vague. He names three specific failures: a landmark anti-retail-theft law voters passed by a landslide that arrived with almost no money attached, a child-abuse diversion bill state lawmakers let die in committee, and a domestic-violence sentencing gap he has pressed legislators to fix for years while, in his words, they “have no argument” and “just vote against it.”
Newsom’s office pushed back the same day, pointing to California’s homicide rate — now the lowest in nearly six decades — instead of “headlines.” That figure is real and doesn’t erase Cooper’s math. It also isn’t the whole story: three weeks earlier, Newsom signed one of the two bills Cooper pushed hardest for. This isn’t a clean governor-versus-law-enforcement story. It’s an accountability story with real nuance, inside one party.
- $375M — total state budget for Proposition 36 implementation — with just $50 million earmarked for court and pretrial services, the core of Cooper's “no funding” complaint · Source: California state budget; Fox News Digital
- 70% — the share of voters, in all 58 California counties, who passed Proposition 36 in November 2024 · Source: Fox News Digital; Washington Examiner
- 6 suspects — ages 17–20, charged with homicide after a Sacramento State student was shot in the backseat of an Uber · Source: KCRA; ABC10
- 56–7, 34–6 — the Assembly and Senate vote margins for AB 46, the mental-health-diversion bill Newsom signed June 29, 2026 · Source: gov.ca.gov; Riverside County DA
- Lowest in 6 decades — California's homicide rate, per Gov. Newsom's office — the counter-statistic to Cooper's criticism · Source: Newsom spokesperson via Fox News Digital
Cooper spent eight years in the California State Assembly, representing the 9th District from 2014 to 2022, before running for Sacramento County Sheriff. He won that race with 54.48 percent of the vote, defeating Jim Barnes, and was sworn in December 16, 2022. Sacramento County isn’t an arbitrary backdrop — it is the seat of California’s state government, the county where the governor lives and works and where every bill Cooper is now criticizing was written, debated, and signed.
That geography is the hook. This is not an out-of-state or Republican critic reaching for a talking point — it is a registered Democrat, elected twice by Democratic voters, standing a short drive from the Capitol dome and saying the laws his own party’s supermajority wrote aren’t protecting the people he was elected to protect. “Not enough. Not enough,” Cooper told KCRA of the state’s recent public-safety fixes. “It’s just frustrating that people are hesitant to do anything.”
Proposition 36 passed in November 2024 with roughly 70 percent support in all 58 California counties, toughening penalties for repeat retail theft and fentanyl-related offenses. Cooper says he has watched it work on the ground in Sacramento — but says Sacramento politicians who voted for it left it hollow. Of the $375 million the state budgeted for Prop 36 implementation, only $50 million was specifically earmarked for court and pretrial services, the piece of the system that actually processes the cases the law was designed to prosecute.
Cooper points to consequences, not abstractions. Six suspects, ages 17 to 20, are now charged with homicide after an 18-year-old Sacramento State student was shot to death in the backseat of an Uber earlier this year — the kind of case Cooper says demonstrates why funded prosecution, not just a tougher statute on paper, is what keeps victims safe. “The issue is no funding, no funding came with it,” Cooper said. “It is working. But without funding, it doesn’t go anywhere.”
“Not one statewide official supported it. And that's troubling.”
Sheriff Jim Cooper (D), on Proposition 36 — via KCRA / Fox News Digital, July 13, 2026
Cooper’s second complaint is a bill that never made it out of committee. Assemblywoman Maggy Krell (D-Sacramento) authored AB 433 to close a child-abuse diversion loophole, and Cooper testified in support. It died in the Assembly Public Safety Committee — the only votes to advance it came from Republicans Juan Alanis (R-Modesto) and Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale). Every Democratic committee member who could have moved it declined to.
A different, narrower bill fared better. Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen (D-Elk Grove) authored AB 46, giving judges discretion to exclude the most severe cases from mental-health diversion rather than expanding diversion eligibility broadly. It passed the Assembly 56–7 in May 2025, the Senate 34–6 in May 2026, and Gov. Newsom (D-CA) signed it June 29, 2026. It is the one bill on Cooper’s list he credits as a real, if partial, win — a case where holding the line against watering down diversion for shocking crimes actually became law.
“Some crimes are so shocking … you shouldn't be eligible for mental health diversion.”
Sheriff Jim Cooper (D), on why AB 46's carve-out mattered — via KCRA / Fox News Digital
Cooper’s third complaint runs oldest and, he says, has been the hardest to move. On July 5, 2026, deputies responded to a three-day domestic-violence assault in Rancho Cordova; the suspect, 38-year-old William Mattias Kreuzer, was shot and killed by deputies after a pursuit on Interstate 80. The victim, as is standard practice in domestic-violence cases, has not been publicly named. Cooper points to cases like it as evidence that California’s current sentencing framework doesn’t reflect how serious — and how common — domestic violence actually is.
He has pushed legislators for years to reclassify how domestic-violence offenses are sentenced, and says the response has been silence rather than debate. “They have no argument,” Cooper said. “They just vote against it.”
“Domestic violence goes on every day. Doesn't matter if you're rich or poor. Happens in every neighborhood. We have to treat it seriously.”
Sheriff Jim Cooper (D) — via ABC10, on his push to reclassify domestic-violence sentencing
“The law places limits on how long offenders can be held but takes zero ownership of the damage done to victims,” Cooper said. “We’ve got to get back to the victims.”
Cooper’s July 2026 interview isn’t his first public break with Sacramento’s crime-policy consensus. In 2023, he posted a viral criticism of a national retailer’s response to organized retail theft that drew more than 401,000 views — establishing, well before this week’s headlines, a pattern of a sitting Democratic sheriff publicly challenging how California enforces its own laws.
Cooper's viral post criticizing a national retailer's handling of organized retail theft in Sacramento County drew more than 401,000 views — cited here as background evidence of his established pattern of public crime-policy criticism, not as a reaction to the July 2026 story.
Newsom’s office didn’t stay quiet. A spokesperson told Fox News Digital the same day: “We will stick to real results, not headlines. Why don’t you ask Jim Cooper why we’ve made so much progress lowering crime rates in California?” That’s a real number — the state’s homicide rate is at its lowest point in nearly six decades — and it sits alongside, not instead of, Cooper’s funding and sentencing complaints. Both are true at once.
Cooper isn’t the only California sheriff breaking with the governor this year — Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco (R) has separately criticized Newsom’s criminal-justice record in his own campaign. But Bianco is a Republican critic in a different county making a different argument, and his case is not this one; the two shouldn’t be read as one coordinated pattern. What makes Cooper distinct is precisely that this isn’t cross-party friction — it’s a Democrat, elected by Democrats, naming specific bills, dollar figures, and a specific committee vote, three weeks after the same governor signed a bill Cooper asked for.
Proposition 36: passed with 70% support statewide — funded at $50 million of $375 million for the courts that prosecute it.
AB 433 (child-abuse diversion): died in the Assembly Public Safety Committee — only 2 Republicans voted to advance it.
AB 46 (mental-health diversion): passed 56–7 and 34–6, signed by Newsom June 29, 2026 — Cooper’s one credited win.
Domestic-violence reclassification: no bill yet — still, per Cooper, met with no argument and no vote to advance.
A Democratic sheriff, elected twice by Democratic voters, is telling a Democratic governor in a Democratic-supermajority state that its crime laws aren’t backed by the money or the votes to work — a $325 million funding gap on Prop 36, a child-abuse bill that died with only Republican votes to save it, and a domestic-violence sentencing fix legislators won’t argue against, just vote down. Newsom’s six-decade-low homicide rate is real. So is Cooper’s ledger. Sacramento is where both numbers answer to the same governor — and the same voters.
