Democrat Kamala Harris has been sworn in as attorney general, becoming the

Democrat Kamala Harris has been sworn in as attorney general, becoming the first woman and first Asian American to hold California’s top law enforcement office.

Harris was sworn in in the courtyard of the California Museum for Women, History, and the Arts, where she told hundreds of supporters that she will be tough on crime but also “smart on crime” as an innovator.

She pledged to send prosecutors on the road to work with county district attorneys to fight environmental crimes, and said she will join with the federal government and attorneys general from other border states in a regional approach to combating transnational gangs that cross into Mexico. But Harris talked most passionately about providing help to those coming out of the California prison system, so that they don’t revert back to crime.

Harris, who is 46, is the daughter of a father from Jamaica and mother from India. She had been San Francisco’s district attorney until she won the statewide post.