AURORA, Colo. -- Aurora’s tough-on-crime City Council flexed its muscle again Monday, targeting shopping carts, unlicensed, unregistered drivers, and shoplifters.
The council considered three ordinances. The first empowers the city to seize errant shopping carts strewn about the city. They also will be able to take them from a homeless person during encampment sweeps unless the person can prove the cart is theirs.
“The presence of abandoned, stolen, wrecked and/or dismantled shopping carts on public and private property creates a visual blight, is aesthetically detrimental to the community, is injurious to the general welfare of the citizens, and constitutes a public nuisance,” according to the ordinance sponsored by council member Stephanie Hancock. “The City Council believes that by establishing an ordinance that facilitates the removal of lost, stolen, or abandoned shopping carts found away from retail establishments is the best way to reduce this source of visual blight, improve the aesthetic appearance of the city and protect the health and safety of the public.”
City will impound vehicles of unlicensed, unregistered, uninsured drivers
The second ordinance, also sponsored by Hancock, gave the council the power to impound vehicles of people who drive around without a license, registration and insurance. Police say they are seeing more of this on Aurora’s streets. The mayor said during a recent police ride-along he experienced all one motorist had to show an officer was an immigration paper.
“Since the pandemic, the number of motor vehicles on Aurora’s roads with expired license plates or expired temporary registration tags has increased exponentially,” according to the ordinance. “More often than not, when a vehicle is stopped by a police officer for not having valid registration, the officer finds that the operator also does not have a valid driver’s license or insurance covering the operation of the motor vehicle as required by law.”
Without these essentials, the ordinance maintains, it is not safe to operate a vehicle on Aurora’s roads. “Members of the police department are authorized, at their discretion, to remove or have removed at their direction a vehicle from a street or any public way or place to the nearest garage or other place of safety or to a garage or other impound facility….”
A common problem
"People who meet the three criteria is much more common than you think," Mayor Mike Coffman said.
Council member Crystal Murillo did not support the ordiance, saying the towing fees are too expensive. "The cost is going to just keep piling up and they're never going to be able to pay for insurance, registration, etc."
Jurinsky praised the legislation, saying driving without a license, plates or insurance all are illegal on their own. "This is three strikes you're out."
"If you don't have your ducks in a row, get your ducks in a row," Hancock warned violators.
Shoplifters guaranteed jail time
Finally, the city removed the sunset clause of an ordinance sponsored by council member Danielle Jurinsky that sentences shoplifters to jail time even for a first offense. In February, the City Council mandated three days minimum sentence in the city jail for people who steal items worth $100 or more. The city already had a mandatory jail sentence for those stealing $300 or more worth of merchandise. For shoplifters who are repeat offenders, the bill imposed a 90-day minimum jail sentence. Those who have been convicted of shoplifting three times must serve a minimum 180 days in jail.
Council members Ruben Medina and Crystal Murillo voted against the ordinance.
Last month, council member Steve Sundberg, a small business owner, said shoplifters in the city should be publicly shamed. He made his remarks during the Planning and Community Development Policy Committee meeting Aug. 14. He did not offer specifics but hinted he and the police department may have something in the works. He likened the shaming to the public humiliation of johns on Colfax Avenue "back in the day."
In a statement to the author of this article, Sundberg said: "Of course, I would like to see more arrests for shoplifting, but as we currently face a shortage of police officers we look for other ideas. There are repeat, even daily offenses by certain people victimizing these stores and literally causing them to go out of business. We will have a sporting goods store location sadly go out of business before their lease expires because of rampant theft (Sundberg said during the meeting it is Dicks's Sporting Goods). I don’t have legislation in mind, but I’d like to see new efforts with an incoming permanent police chief and public information officers in the department. I want to demonstrate we are proactively fighting crime in the city. More actual footage of crime fighting, like what Westminster did in this situation: https://share.newsbreak.com/89ykio06.”
In May, Walmart announced it was closing its neighborhood store on Colfax in Aurora. Mayor Mike Coffman met with the retailer and agreed that city officials would meet monthly with local Walmart managers to ensure that the city and Walmart work together to reduce retail theft.
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