Vice President Harris was excoriated by the sheriff for refusing to give her vote on anti-crime measures in her home state

Vice President Kamala Harris is under scrutiny from a California sheriff after refusing to say whether she voted for a proposal in her home state aimed at curbing rising crime and theft in the state.

“California's Democratic leaders have long sided with criminals instead of standing up for crime victims and ordinary people,” Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told Fox News Digital. “Proposition 36 will undo some of the most damaging crime reduction policies that California Democrats have enacted. It is the most important issue on the California ballot this year and will help clean up our streets and keep our neighborhoods safe.”

“The Vice President’s reluctance to vocally support this important public safety measure is another failure in a long career of failures when it comes to keeping our citizens safe.”

Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and U.S. senator before being elected vice president in 2020, declined to respond over the weekend about her approach voted on Proposition 36. California's ballot measure would reverse criminal justice reforms made in its home state in recent years.

California's fight against crime and homelessness is a warning to the nation

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for not saying whether she voted for an anti-crime measure (Getty Images)

“I’m not going to talk about the vote because, frankly, it’s the Sunday before the election.”and I have no plans to build support for it one way or another,” Harris said. “But I chose.”

If passed, the initiative would make the crime of shoplifting a felony for repeat offenders and increase penalties for some drug crimes, including those involving the synthetic opioid fentanyl. It would also give judges the power to order treatment for people with multiple drug offenses.

VOTER frustration over crime, liberal DAS rising in California as HARRIS MUM speaks out on controversial Prop 47

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at the Jenison Field House on the campus of Michigan State University on Sunday, November 3, 2024, in East Lansing, Michigan. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The ballot measure is an attempt to undo Prop 47, dubbed the “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act” by its supporters and passed by Californians in 2014. Prop. 47 Felonies were reclassified as misdemeanors “unless the defendant had previously been convicted of murder, rape, certain sexual offenses or certain weapons offenses.”

But in recent years, retail chains and corner stores have been hit hard by thefts, robberies and organized retail crime. Prop. 36 — titled the “Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act” — aims to undo parts of Prop. 47 by increasing penalties for some crimes and could increase depending on the category.

Harris was California's attorney general at the time of Prop. 47's passage, and although she made no public comment on it, her office was responsible for writing the measure's title and summary on the actual ballot, which some residents felt was misleading .

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Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco says criminals across the country are becoming more violent and brazen than he has seen in his 30-year career.

“Frankly, we were lied to and misled by our state by not getting the name and description on the ballot,” Bianco, a prominent Prop 36 supporter, told Fox News Digital earlier this year.

“We voted for a proposal called the Safe Schools and Safe Streets Initiative, which had absolutely nothing to do with safe streets or safe schools, but contained everything that is currently bad about public safety that directly contributed to the surge Homelessness, mental health and drug addiction led directly to what we're seeing now in our serial theft cases, in our retail theft cases, and in crime problems with home burglaries and things like that.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign but did not receive a response.

Danielle Wallace and Jamie Joseph of Fox News Digital contributed to this report

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter at @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].