Retail Theft Increasing Amid Reduced Consequences

A recently released survey  by the National Retail Federation indicates that shoplifting and organized retail theft cost nearly $95 billion last year, doubling the losses over the past eight years.  Mike Keenan of Security Info Watch reports that while retailers are trying to address the problem by locking merchandise in cabinets and checking customer receipts at exits, state laws reducing the consequences for thieves are driving the increases.

A May 2023 report by SafeHome.org indicates that the 40 U.S. cities with populations of 500,000 or more saw a 22% increase in property crime from 2020 to 2021, while the national rate of reported property crimes had hardly changed.  Most large cities also had significant increases in violent crime.  A major enabling factor for the increase in theft has been the decline in arrests and prosecution of property crimes.  States including Texas, South Carolina, and California, which have passed laws raising the dollar amount that must be stolen before the theft qualifies as a felony, have nearly eliminated reporting, arrest and prosecution of these crimes.  In many large cities including Chicago, New York, Seattle, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, progressive  District and States Attorneys refuse to prosecute most thieves.  The head of the California Retailers Association told reporters “When they made the changes….they opened this huge loophole where there’s zero consequence for the behavior because I’m (referring to shoplifters) not going to be held accountable for going in and stealing. ”

As Keenan notes, under these pro-criminal laws and policies, shoplifting and organized retail theft have become promising careers.