california legislature—2025–26 regular session
ASSEMBLY BILL No. 271
Introduced by Assembly Member Hoover
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Hadwick)
January 21, 2025
An act to amend Section 463 of the Penal Code, relating to crimes. legislative counsel’s digest
AB 271, as introduced, Hoover. Crimes: looting.
Existing law defines the crime of burglary, which consists of entering specified buildings, places, or vehicles with the intent to commit grand or petty theft or a felon y. Existing la w defines b urglary of the first degree as any burglary of an inhabited building and makes burglary of the first degree punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 2, 4, or 6 years. Existing law defines all other burglary as burglary of the 2nd degree and makes it punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for one year or as a felon y. Existing la w makes the theft of mone y, labor, or property petty theft punishable as a misdemeanor , whenever the value of the property tak en does not e xceed $950. Under e xisting law, if the value of the property taken exceeds $950, the theft is grand theft, punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony.
Existing law defines any 2nd-degree burglary or grand theft, during and within an af fected county in a state of emer gency or local emergency, as specified, as looting, punishable by either imprisonment in a county jail for one year or as a felon y. Existing law makes petty theft committed during and within an af fected county in a state of emergency or local emergency a misdemeanor and requires a minimum jail term of 90 days.
99 Existing la w prohibits credibly impersonating a peace officer , firefighter, or emplo yee of a state or local go vernment agency, or a search and rescue team, as specified. A violation of these prohibitions is punishable as a misdemeanor.
This bill would make looting by the means of a 2nd-degree burglary or grand theft punishable instead as a felon y. The bill would define a petty theft committed during and within an af fected county in a state of emergency or local emergency as looting and make it punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for one year or as a felon y. The bill would require any person who in the course of committing or attempting to commit the crime of looting impersonated a peace officer, firefighter, or employee of a state or local go vernment agency, or a search and rescue team, subject to a penalty enhancement. By increasing the punishment of a crime, this bill w ould impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimb urse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state.
Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
line 1 SECTION 1. Section 463 of the Penal Code is amended to line 2 read:
line 3 463. (a) (1) Every person who violates Section 459, punishable line 4 as a second-degree burglary pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section line 5 461, during and within an affected county in a “state of emergency” line 6 or a “local emergency,” or under an “evacuation order,” resulting line 7 from an earthquake, fire, flood, riot, or other natural or manmade line 8 disaster shall be guilty of the crime of looting, punishable by line 9 imprisonment in a county jail for one year or pursuant to line 10 subdivision (h) of Section 1170. Any person convicted under this line 11 subdivision who is eligible for probation and who is granted line 12 probation shall, as a condition thereof, be confined in a county jail line 13 for at least 180 days, except that the court may, in the case where line 14 the interest of justice w ould best be serv ed, reduce or eliminate line 15 that mandatory jail sentence, if the court specifies on the record 99 — 2 — AB 271
line 1 and enters into the minutes the circumstances indicating that the line 2 interest of justice w ould best be serv ed by that disposition. In line 3 addition to whatever custody is ordered, the court, in its discretion, line 4 may require an y person granted probation follo wing conviction line 5 under this subdi vision to serv e up to 240 hours of community line 6 service in any program deemed appropriate by the court, including line 7 any program created to rebuild the community.
line 8 For
line 9 (2) For purposes of this subdivision, the fact that the structure line 10 entered has been damaged by the earthquake, fire, flood, or other line 11 natural or manmade disaster shall not, in and of itself, preclude line 12 conviction.
line 13 (b) Every person who commits the crime of grand theft, as line 14 defined in Section 487 or subdivision (a) of Section 487a, except line 15 grand theft of a firearm, during and within an af fected county in line 16 a “state of emer gency” or a “local emer gency,” or under an line 17 “evacuation order,” resulting from an earthquake, fire, flood, riot, line 18 or other natural or unnatural disaster shall be guilty of the crime line 19 of looting, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for one line 20 year or pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170. Every person line 21 who commits the crime of grand theft of a firearm, as defined in line 22 Section 487, during and within an af fected county in a “state of line 23 emergency” or a “local emergency” resulting from an earthquake, line 24 fire, flood, riot, or other natural or unnatural disaster shall be guilty line 25 of the crime of looting, punishable by imprisonment in the state line 26 prison, as set forth in subdivision (a) of Section 489. Any person line 27 convicted under this subdivision who is eligible for probation and line 28 who is granted probation shall, as a condition thereof, be confined line 29 in a county jail for at least 180 days, except that the court may, in line 30 the case where the interest of justice would best be served, reduce line 31 or eliminate that mandatory jail sentence, if the court specifies on line 32 the record and enters into the minutes the circumstances indicating line 33 that the interest of justice would best be served by that disposition. line 34 In addition to whate ver custody is ordered, the court, in its line 35 discretion, may require an y person granted probation follo wing line 36 conviction under this subdi vision to serv e up to 160 hours of line 37 community service in an y program deemed appropriate by the line 38 court, including any program created to rebuild the community. line 39 (c) Every person who commits the crime of petty theft, as line 40 defined in Section 488, during and within an affected county in a 99 AB 271 — 3 —
line 1 “state of emer gency” or a “local emer gency,” or under an line 2 “evacuation order,” resulting from an earthquake, fire, flood, riot, line 3 or other natural or manmade disaster shall be guilty of a line 4 misdemeanor, the crime of looting , punishable by imprisonment line 5 in a county jail for six months. not exceeding one year or pursuant line 6 to subdivision (h) of Section 1170. Any person con victed under line 7 this subdivision who is eligible for probation and who is granted line 8 probation shall, as a condition thereof, be confined in a county jail line 9 for at least 90 days, e xcept that the court may, in the case where line 10 the interest of justice w ould best be serv ed, reduce or eliminate line 11 that mandatory minimum jail sentence, if the court specifies on line 12 the record and enters into the minutes the circumstances indicating line 13 that the interest of justice would best be served by that disposition. line 14 In addition to whate ver custody is ordered, the court, in its line 15 discretion, may require an y person granted probation follo wing line 16 conviction under this subdi vision to serv e up to 80 hours of line 17 community service in an y program deemed appropriate by the line 18 court, including any program created to rebuild the community. line 19 (d) Any person who commits a violation of this section and who, line 20 in the course of that violation or attempted violation, impersonates line 21 a first responder, in violation of Section 538d, 538e, 538g, or 538h, line 22 shall be subject to a penalty enhancement of an additional two line 23 years, which shall be served consecutive to any other term imposed line 24 by the court.
line 25 (d)
line 26 (e) (1) For purposes of this section, “state of emergency” means line 27 conditions that, by reason of their magnitude, are, or are likely to line 28 be, beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and line 29 facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require line 30 the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat. line 31 (2) For purposes of this section, “local emer gency” means line 32 conditions that, by reason of their magnitude, are, or are likely to line 33 be, beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and line 34 facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require line 35 the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat. line 36 (3) For purposes of this section, a “state of emer gency” shall line 37 exist from the time of the proclamation of the condition of the line 38 emergency until terminated pursuant to Section 8629 of the line 39 Government Code. F or purposes of this section only , a “local line 40 emergency” shall exist from the time of the proclamation of the 99 — 4 — AB 271
line 1 condition of the emer gency by the local go verning body until line 2 terminated pursuant to Section 8630 of the Government Code. line 3 (4) For purposes of this section, “e vacuation order” means an line 4 order from the Go vernor, or a county sherif f, chief of police, or line 5 fire marshal, under which persons subject to the order are required line 6 to relocate outside of the geographic area covered by the order due line 7 to an imminent danger resulting from an earthquak e, fire, flood, line 8 riot, or other natural or manmade disaster.
line 9 (5) Consensual entry into a commercial structure with the intent line 10 to commit a violation of Section 470, 476, 476a, 484f, or 484g line 11 shall not be charged as a violation under this section. line 12 SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to line 13 Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution because line 14 the only costs that may be incurred by a local agenc y or school line 15 district will be incurred because this act creates a ne w crime or line 16 infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty line 17 for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of line 18 the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within line 19 the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California line 20 Constitution.
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