Tackling retail crime is top of mind for many state lawmakers, as evidenced by the flurry of new bills taking aim at shoplifting, smash-and-grabs and retail theft.
Why the intense attention this legislative cycle? California politicians are facing new and mounting pressures to deliver solutions on rising rates of retail crime.
Shoplifting jumped by 81% in the city of Los Angeles last year — from around 6,600 reports in 2022 to almost 12,000 in 2023.
Statewide, reports of shoplifting rose around 30% between 2019 and 2022 and commercial burglary rates were up in 14 of the state’s 15 most populous counties.
“The Legislature is responding to concerns of both the business community as well as the electorate; their citizens are complaining quite a bit because they have seen retail theft happen in person or on the news,” said veteran Sacramento lobbyist Chris Micheli. “We know this is a rampant problem and it is not getting better.”
In Downtown L.A.’s Fashion District, entrepreneur Sarhra Santhiallan says she’s eager to hire a security guard for her newly opened store. While this will be a significant cost for the small business, she feels it’s necessary to protect herself, protect her products and safely stay open after sunset.
A few doors down, Mike Shirazi says he won’t open his jewelry store unless he has private security available.
“It’s getting worst every day,” he said. “We hear lots of news that people get robbed and just a couple days ago we saw a smash-and-grab.”
The uptick in theft has prompted stores to lock goods behind glass and, in extreme cases, shut down.
“In parts of my district we were risking having major retailers starting to pull out and when that happens it impacts the whole neighborhood — it impacts the workers who lose their jobs and impacts the small businesses who rely on the large retailers for foot traffic,” said Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Los Angeles. “That’s why I went to (Assembly) Speaker Rivas and let him know that I was interested in working with him on developing a strategy to combat retail theft.”
Compounding public pressure for legislative action, signatures were recently submitted for a state ballot measure that would overturn key parts of Prop. 47 and reinstate harsher penalties for shoplifting and drug possession.
Prop. 47 was passed by voters in 2014 and made the theft of $950 or less in goods a misdemeanor. The goal was to decrease incarceration rates and direct offenders into rehabilitative programs. But since then many people have soured on the bill and believe it’s to blame for the rise in retail crime.
While many Republican legislators have long called for repealing the measure, many Democratic lawmakers would prefer to create new ways to tackle theft without repealing Prop. 47 wholesale.
“People basically say ‘all of this has happened because of Prop. 47, and their focus is on repealing Prop. 47 rather than actually thinking about what is it that we really need to do in order to stop the problem,” said Zbur. “I’ve never thought that the issue was Prop 47. I think what the data shows us that the issue is we have impediments to law enforcement doing their job.”
The desire for lawmakers to craft their own solutions, as opposed to having one imposed on them via ballot measure, is also fueling the high number of bills this cycle, Micheli said.
The successful passage of these bills could prompt ballot measure organizers to withdraw the initiative or it could convince voters that passing the measure is not necessary, he added.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Zbur have introduced a seven-bill package to make it easier for law enforcement to go after repeat shoplifting offenders and organized retail crime rings.
“We need to change the dynamic in our communities by giving law enforcement the tools to address this problem,” said Zbur, “and not repeal all the criminal justice reforms that prevented people from being put in jail for long periods of time.”
The package would create a new felony crime targeting serial theft and allow separate shoplifting incidents to be aggregated to reach the $950 felony benchmark. It would also lower the threshold of evidence law enforcement officers need to make shoplifting arrests and create new incentives for offenders to enroll in mental health and substance use treatment programs.
In the state Senate, President pro Tempore Mike McGuire, D-Santa Rosa, has introduced a companion 14-bill package called Working Together for a Safer California.
The package includes bills to increase penalties on organized retail theft and crack down on the reselling of stolen goods online. It also focuses on making it easier for community members and individuals in the criminal justice system to access substance use treatment with a focus on assisting those addicted to fentanyl.
By breaking cycles of addiction, McGuire hopes to also break cycles of people shoplifting to fund their habit.
Republican legislators have lent their support to both the Senate and Assembly retail theft packages and have also authored bills of their own. For example, Assemblymember and former sheriff Juan Alanis, R-Modesto, has proposed a seven-bill public safety package.
His package includes bills to give law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to prosecute the reselling of stolen property and to protect rail lines and shipping lanes from organized cargo theft.
It awaits to be seen which of these bills will make it to the governor’s desk.
While the Democratic party has strength in numbers, it also has internal divisions over the best approach to tackle retail crime. While some legislators are ready to increase penalties for shoplifting, others believe doing so will reverse gains made on lowering the incarceration rates of Black and Brown community members.
Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, is among those sounding the alarm about bills that broadly toughen sentencing.
“We have to be very careful that what we do doesn’t further criminalize a whole race of people just because we see the face of any crime as people who are of a darker hue,” he said. “Law enforcement has a tendency to want to go ahead and lock them up and we’ve got to make sure that we move away from that.”
Jones-Sawyer advocates for using the laws on the books to go after leaders of retail crime rings.
He points to the success of CHP’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force, which has recovered more than 160,000 stolen goods valued at $4.2 million since January. Jones-Sawyer crafted the legislation to initiate the task force and introduced a bill this session to make the program permanent.
“I have the data that proves that if you have law enforcement actively working real hard to go out and arrest these individuals, crime will go down and they will be able to arrest these individuals,” he said. “This notion that you can’t go after them, that’s just false. It’s a lie.”
On the other hand, Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles, does feel that law enforcement needs legislative assistance to better address retail theft. She authored a bill that would allow police officers to make warrantless arrests for misdemeanor shoplifting offenses.
Carrillo was a strong proponent of passing Prop. 47 in 2014, but since then feels that her East L.A. district has borne the brunt of the shoplifting surge.
“Right now there’s no consequences for individuals that continue to target our small businesses,” she said. “Our mom and pop stores they want to feel protected. They want to be able to get assistance and know that, whether it’s on the city level or on the state level, we’re doing something to protect their livelihoods.”
“Right now that’s not what they feel.”