(The Center Square) – Amid frequent viral videos of “smash and grab” crime sprees in California garnering national attention, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a $267 million disbursement to law agencies for combating organized retail theft. California’s adopted budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year totals $310.8 billion, and, according to Manhattan Institute senior fellow Steven Malanga, organized retail theft is responsible for a little less than half of retail theft losses nationwide.
“With an unprecedented $267 million investment, Californians will soon see more takedowns, more police, more arrests, and more felony prosecutions,” said Newsom. “When shameless criminals walk out of stores with stolen goods, they’ll walk straight into jail cells.”
If the funding is approved by the Board of State and Community Corrections, it will be dispersed on October 1, 2023, a day that coincides with Los Angeles County’s adoption of a zero-bail policy for all crimes except for capital offenses such as murder, and a select handful of felonies. According to a county-wide analysis by the Yolo County District Attorney, while California’s statewide COVID-era zero-bail policies were in place, 71% of those arrested were rearrested during that time frame, including 29% of those who were rearrested being arrested for violent crimes.
“As a result of these new release terms, law enforcement must Cite and Release or Book and Release arrestees in nearly all theft offenses, vehicle code violations, and crimes against property such as petty theft, and vandalism,” said the Los Angeles County Police Chiefs’ Association in a September 13 press release. “Offenses involving guns, sexual battery, crimes against children/ elders and contact with minors with intent to commit a sexual offense are examples of offenses subject to Magistrate Review. Magistrates will consider the crime, and a risk assessment report to determine whether the arrestee should be released with no conditions or determine the least restrictive, non-financial conditions intended to address whether the arrestee is likely to return to court. All offenses in the MR category are designated as zero bail offenses.”
In advance of the full October 1 zero-bail rollout, suspected criminals are already benefiting from the new policy; one suspect in a viral $300,000 theft from a Yves Saint Laurent store in Los Angeles was apprehended and released the same day in August with a ticket to appear in court.
The National Retail Federation says that while total annual retail shrink — losses on inventory — has remained roughly steady, organized retail crime incidents increased by 26.5% from 2020 to 2021, the most recent period for which national data is available. This means even as stores are significantly reducing losses from all other potential sources, the dramatic rise in theft is keeping shrinkage rates far higher than they should be. Theft has continued to rise nationwide, with Target reporting in November 2022 that it experienced a nearly 50% increase in theft over the previous year.
In response to increased thefts, stores have responded by hiring costly security guards, having single entrances to stores, eliminating self-checkout options, placing more items in locked containers, and even requiring staff to go into the back of the store behind closed doors to retrieve items. In Chicago, one new Walgreens has only two aisles of low-cost everyday essentials while accessing anything else, such as cosmetics or alcohol, requires making a request via a kiosk.
“Collectively, retailers are spending billions of dollars, but the problem cannot be solved by an individual store fighting cases one-by-one at the local level. If this criminal activity was unique to the retail industry, retailers would have solved it by now,” said National Retail Federation Vice President David Johnston in an essay. “Turning stores into fortresses is not the answer, and many community leaders realize that doing nothing is not an option.”
