When police arrested a specialist shoplifting chain operating out of a liquor store last spring, they calculated that the people involved had stolen at least $375,000 worth of merchandise from retailers. such as Walmart, Lowe’s (building materials store) and Walgreens (pharmacy chain). The duo that led the gang recruited petty thieves, including several with a history of arrest for drug trafficking, to brazenly enter stores, steal expensive merchandise and flee in cars with fake license plates.
Although police and prosecutors often classify shoplifting as a nonviolent crime, the gang’s sprees resulted in several physical confrontations, including one in which a gang member attacked a store employee with a stun gun. This may seem similar to the organized looting that plagued luxury stores in San Francisco and other Northern California communities recently, but this gang was operating out of Daytona Beach, Florida — and had been doing so for nearly two years.
In fact, retail crime has been on the rise in the US over the past five years, with organized criminal networks targeting stores everywhere from Woonsocket (Rhode Island) to Greensboro (North Carolina) and Grafton (Wisconsin). The National Retail Federation reported that in-store losses increased from $453,940 per $1 billion in sales in 2015 to $719,458 in 2020. The biggest increase over this period occurred not during the pandemic but in 2019, when losses total shoplifting rose to $61 billion, up from $50 billion a year ago. Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 and early 2021 moderated losses, largely because stores were closed or reduced opening hours. Now that retail has resumed, crime has risen again.
Even more worrisome is the fact that shoplifting no longer fits its traditional mold as a nonviolent crime perpetrated primarily by teenagers or adult drug users. Nearly two-thirds of retailers surveyed by the National Retail Federation said violence associated with shoplifting has increased, led by organized gangs who resell the goods they steal. Corie Berry, CEO of Best Buy (the electronics chain), recently said that crime in stores had become so pervasive that it was cutting into profits and traumatizing employees.
Like retailers, police blame some of the rise in crime on a general decrease in penalties for shoplifting. “As we witness blatant thefts, the consequences are paramount,” Laura Cooper, president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said ahead of Thanksgiving. “Without penalties and accountability, the victims will be communities and businesses will be terrorized.”
California’s recent wave of shoplifting has drawn attention to Proposition 47 — a 2014 statewide vote initiative backed by a range of left-wing and libertarian groups that, among other things, raised the criminal threshold for shoplifting. from $450 worth of merchandise to $950. Soon after it was approved, California retailers began reporting a sharp increase in retail theft, often in full view of helpless employees and distressed customers. “This is an epidemic that has far-reaching effects, and it’s scary and disturbing to witness,” a resident recently told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Amid the frenzy, national chains such as Walgreens and Target have announced they are closing their stores in San Francisco, while others have reduced opening hours. Some officials initially denied that crime was on the rise, but recent incidents forced California Governor Gavin Newsom to announce that he would increase funding to combat retail theft. Meanwhile, local officials like San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who prosecuted fewer shoplifters than his predecessor, have recently started to indict the gangs.
What has received far less attention, however, is the fact that California’s Proposition 47 was no exception among states. In the last ten years, nearly half of all states have increased their limits on retail theft. Thirty-eight states now do not consider shoplifting a felony unless $1,000 or more worth of merchandise is stolen. A 2020 National Federation of Retailers report on organized retail crime found that two-thirds of retailers in states that raised minimum shoplifting rates reported — get this — increasing retail theft. Consequently, stories like those of San Francisco became more common.
Grafton, a suburban community about 20 miles north of Milwaukee, is located just off Interstate 43 and is home to several large shopping malls—ideal targets for gangs. Two-thirds of all reported crimes in the district are now retail theft. “People are literally leaving with carts full of power tools and air conditioners,” the city’s chief of police said in early November. “They pick up and leave quietly.” In Wisconsin, the threshold for criminal theft is $2,500, one of the highest levels in the country. Meanwhile, police officers in rural Cabarrus County, North Carolina, dismantled a five-person retail robbery ring last September, finding $400,000 in merchandise stolen from stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot, including power tools still in their boxes. and small appliances. It took over 12 hours to inventory everything.
Changes to bail laws also played a role in the crime wave, retailers say. Increasingly, those who engage in property offenses—considered a nonviolent offense—are quickly back on the streets, where some are back to stealing. New York City retailers were threatened by a thief known as the Man of Steal, arrested 57 times in the US alone. first nine months of 2021, including 46 times for shoplifting. He is one of 77 habitual offenders with at least 20 arrests for shoplifting on the streets of New York City, thanks to reform of the state’s bail law, called “disastrous” by Police Commissioner Dermot Shea.
The unintended consequences of other government policies contributed to the problem. Mandatory mask wearing allows criminals to cover their faces in stores without attracting attention. The ban on single-use plastic bags made it acceptable for consumers to walk through stores with their own non-transparent reusable bags, allowing thieves to carry them in aisles and head to exits. Some use aluminum-lined bags to avoid detection by retail security systems.
The rise in shoplifting has been accompanied by a general escalation in crime, including violent crime, at a time when police resources have been dwindled. Murders alone are up 29% in the US in 2020, overwhelming police departments and making the rise in shoplifting seem like a minor issue by comparison.
Only now, after years of increasing retail theft and recent incidents of shoplifting in California, has the problem begun to get media attention — a reminder that when low-level crime grows out of control, it inevitably evolves into something more. dangerous and expensive. Retailers and law enforcement are looking for new ways to help stem theft. They would like local governments to change shoplifting laws so that the aggregate value of goods stolen from a repeat offender can count towards reaching the threshold for criminal charges, rather than simply counting the cost of goods stolen from each incident separately.
Likewise, companies and security experts want higher bails for repeat offenders, even if the crimes in question are just misdemeanors. They also want a federal law against multi-state shoplifting gangs — an increasingly common phenomenon.
Finally, physical retailers want the federal government to crack down on online sites that sell stolen goods. The rise of online retail has given organized criminals an easy way to get rid of their loot. Last summer, a security expert at drugstore chain CVS told the Wall Street Journal he hoped to close 73 online stores that were selling illegal goods worth $104 million. Stores complain that operators of large online marketplaces, especially Amazon, don’t do enough to verify that items sold on their websites are legitimate. Retailers have lobbied for a federal law requiring online sellers to disclose more information about their operations, though Amazon and other big tech companies are resisting.
Shopping this past Christmas approached pre-pandemic normality. The only question now is whether that normality will also include trawlers, thieves who have lost the shame of acting in daylight, and terrified employees and customers.
*Steven Malanga is the senior editor of the City Journal and a George M. Yeager Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
©2022 CityJournal. Published with permission. original in English.
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