California’s scaled-up efforts to combat retail crime are paying off, with law enforcement upping its recovery of stolen goods by a whopping 525 percent over the past five months alone.
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Newly released data from Governor Gavin Newsom’s office revealed that California Highway Patrol (CHP), the state’s leading agency on organized retail crime , has made 636 arrests and recovered 216,754 stolen goods valued at nearly $5.7 million since January. Compared with the same period last year, arrests have jumped 167 percent.
Since the beginning of the year, California’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force (ORCTF), made up of a network of state and local law enforcement groups, has helped recover a volume of stolen goods equal to more than half of what was reclaimed from thieves and organized retail crime crews throughout all of 2023. Since the task force was established five years ago, CHP has recovered 827,000 stolen goods valued at $43.8 million as a result of 2,600 investigations.
“Through increased enforcement efforts and strategic partnerships, our dedicated investigators continue to achieve remarkable success in combating organized retail crime in California,” CHP commissioner Sean Duryee said in a statement this week. “The significant increase in arrests and recovery of stolen merchandise underscores our unwavering commitment to protecting our communities and supporting businesses.”
The state has dedicated $1.1 billion to combatting the surge in retail crime since 2019. The funding has gone toward hiring more law enforcement and implementing measures to improve public safety, including the largest ever investment in fighting organized retail crime in the state’s history. Last September, as a part of California’s Real Public Safety Plan, Newsom awarded more than $267 million to 55 local law enforcement agencies to combat the crime wave.
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The bump in funding has led to an annual 310-percent increase in proactive operations targeting organized retail crime, as well as special operations across the Golden State to promote public safety in cities like San Francisco, Oakland and Bakersfield that have been heavily impacted by flash mobs, smash-and-grabs and run-of-the-mill shoplifting.
Amid the state’s crackdown on bad actors, a community-led coalition of business owners and California constituents is pushing for a reform of Prop. 47, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, which set the felony threshold for property crimes like shoplifting at $950. The advocacy group, known as Californians for Safer Communities, introduced a petition dubbed the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act , which would reverse Prop. 47. The measure will likely head to the polls in November in the form of a ballot initiative.
On the other side of the issue, liberal lawmakers—along with Governor Newsom—are fighting to preserve Prop. 47 as a means of combatting prison overcrowding. The California Retail Theft Reduction Act , introduced by State Assembly Democratic Caucus chair Rick Chavez Zbur in February, was unanimously passed by the Assembly in May with State Senate approval pending.
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