SENATE BILL No. 265
Introduced by Senator Valladares
(Coauthors: Senators Alvarado-Gil, Choi, Dahle, Grove, Hurtado, Jones, Niello, Ochoa Bogh, and Seyarto)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Alanis, Chen, Davies, Gallagher, Sanchez, and Wallis)
February 3, 2025
An act to amend Section 463 of the Penal Code, relating to crimes. legislative counsel’s digest
SB 265, as introduced, Valladares. 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 felony.
Existing law defines any 2nd degree burglary during and within an affected county in a state of emergency or local emergency, as specified, as looting, punishable by either imprisonment in a county jail for one year or as a felony.
This bill would make that crime punishable instead as a felon y. 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.
99 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) Ev ery person who violates Section 459, line 4 punishable as a second-de gree burglary pursuant to subdi vision line 5 (b) of Section 461, during and within an affected county in a “state line 6 of emergency” or a “local emer gency,” or under an “e vacuation line 7 order,” resulting from an earthquak e, fire, flood, riot, or other line 8 natural or manmade disaster shall be guilty of the crime of looting, line 9 punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for one year or line 10 pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170. Any person convicted line 11 under this subdi vision who is eligible for probation and who is line 12 granted probation shall, as a condition thereof, be confined in a line 13 county jail for at least 180 days, except that the court may, in the line 14 case where the interest of justice would best be served, reduce or line 15 eliminate that mandatory jail sentence, if the court specifies on the line 16 record and enters into the minutes the circumstances indicating line 17 that the interest of justice would best be served by that disposition. line 18 In addition to whate ver custody is ordered, the court, in its line 19 discretion, may require an y person granted probation follo wing line 20 conviction under this subdi vision to serv e up to 240 hours of line 21 community service in an y program deemed appropriate by the line 22 court, including any program created to rebuild the community. line 23 For
line 24 (2) For purposes of this subdivision, the fact that the structure line 25 entered has been damaged by the earthquake, fire, flood, or other line 26 natural or manmade disaster shall not, in and of itself, preclude line 27 conviction.
line 28 (b) Every person who commits the crime of grand theft, as line 29 defined in Section 487 or subdivision (a) of Section 487a, except line 30 grand theft of a firearm, during and within an af fected county in line 31 a “state of emer gency” or a “local emer gency,” or under an line 32 “evacuation order,” resulting from an earthquake, fire, flood, riot, line 33 or other natural or unnatural disaster shall be guilty of the crime 99 — 2 — SB 265
line 1 of looting, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for one line 2 year or pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170. Every person line 3 who commits the crime of grand theft of a firearm, as defined in line 4 Section 487, during and within an af fected county in a “state of line 5 emergency” or a “local emergency” resulting from an earthquake, line 6 fire, flood, riot, or other natural or unnatural disaster shall be guilty line 7 of the crime of looting, punishable by imprisonment in the state line 8 prison, as set forth in subdivision (a) of Section 489. Any person line 9 convicted under this subdivision who is eligible for probation and line 10 who is granted probation shall, as a condition thereof, be confined line 11 in a county jail for at least 180 days, except that the court may, in line 12 the case where the interest of justice would best be served, reduce line 13 or eliminate that mandatory jail sentence, if the court specifies on line 14 the record and enters into the minutes the circumstances indicating line 15 that the interest of justice would best be served by that disposition. line 16 In addition to whate ver custody is ordered, the court, in its line 17 discretion, may require an y person granted probation follo wing line 18 conviction under this subdi vision to serv e up to 160 hours of line 19 community service in an y program deemed appropriate by the line 20 court, including any program created to rebuild the community. line 21 (c) Every person who commits the crime of petty theft, as line 22 defined in Section 488, during and within an affected county in a line 23 “state of emer gency” or a “local emer gency,” or under an line 24 “evacuation order,” resulting from an earthquake, fire, flood, riot, line 25 or other natural or manmade disaster shall be guilty of a line 26 misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for six line 27 months. Any person con victed under this subdi vision who is line 28 eligible for probation and who is granted probation shall, as a line 29 condition thereof, be confined in a county jail for at least 90 days, line 30 except that the court may, in the case where the interest of justice line 31 would best be served, reduce or eliminate that mandatory minimum line 32 jail sentence, if the court specifies on the record and enters into line 33 the minutes the circumstances indicating that the interest of justice line 34 would best be served by that disposition. In addition to whatever line 35 custody is ordered, the court, in its discretion, may require an y line 36 person granted probation follo wing con viction under this line 37 subdivision to serve up to 80 hours of community service in an y line 38 program deemed appropriate by the court, including any program line 39 created to rebuild the community.
99 SB 265 — 3 —
line 1 (d) (1) For purposes of this section, “state of emergency” means line 2 conditions that, by reason of their magnitude, are, or are likely to line 3 be, beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and line 4 facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require line 5 the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat. line 6 (2) For purposes of this section, “local emer gency” means line 7 conditions that, by reason of their magnitude, are, or are likely to line 8 be, beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and line 9 facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require line 10 the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat. line 11 (3) For purposes of this section, a “state of emer gency” shall line 12 exist from the time of the proclamation of the condition of the line 13 emergency until terminated pursuant to Section 8629 of the line 14 Government Code. F or purposes of this section only , a “local line 15 emergency” shall exist from the time of the proclamation of the line 16 condition of the emer gency by the local go verning body until line 17 terminated pursuant to Section 8630 of the Government Code. line 18 (4) For purposes of this section, “e vacuation order” means an line 19 order from the Go vernor, or a county sherif f, chief of police, or line 20 fire marshal, under which persons subject to the order are required line 21 to relocate outside of the geographic area covered by the order due line 22 to an imminent danger resulting from an earthquak e, fire, flood, line 23 riot, or other natural or manmade disaster.
line 24 (5) Consensual entry into a commercial structure with the intent line 25 to commit a violation of Section 470, 476, 476a, 484f, or 484g line 26 shall not be charged as a violation under this section. line 27 SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to line 28 Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution because line 29 the only costs that may be incurred by a local agenc y or school line 30 district will be incurred because this act creates a ne w crime or line 31 infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty line 32 for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of line 33 the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within line 34 the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California line 35 Constitution.
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