The Business Journal's office, 1315 Van Ness Ave., is home to the largest painted postage stamp mural in the US. Photo by Ben Hensley

Downtown Fresno motorist will have the opportunity to sign a petition to amend a controversial California law on Thursday.

The Business Journal will be hosting a drive-through petition signing to amend California’s Prop. 47 at the Stamp Mural parking lot at 1315 Van Ness Ave. tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

In November 2014, California voters passed Prop. 47, which changed certain low-level crimes, such as theft and drug convictions, from potential felonies to misdemeanors.

The petition to amend the law calls for repeat thieves to be eligible for felony prosecution, allow treatment-mandated felony prosecutions for third time hard drug convictions and tackle the fentanyl crisis by going after fentanyl dealers.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, violent crime in the state is up by 5.7%, going from 468 crimes per 100,000 residents in 2021 to 495 in 2022.

The rates for robbery, which is defined as theft with force, increased by 9.9% in 2022. Aggravated assault increased by 5.2% in that same year.

California’s violent crime rate began to fall after reaching a peak in 1992 of 1,115 per 100,000 residents, and reached a 50-year low in 2014, with the number of violent crime dropping to 391.

The state’s property crime rate was up 5.9% in 2022 from 2021, and up by 8.7% from 2020, when it had reached the lowest level since 1960.