Sacramento, Calif. is ablaze with rumors that the City Attorney’s Office threatened a local Target store with a public nuisance citation due to a high volume of calls to law enforcement about shoplifting and retail theft .
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The Sacramento Bee reported this week that a person who had knowledge of the warning—but was not authorized to speak on the issue—named a Target location on Riverside Blvd. in the Land Park neighborhood as the store in question.
Following the report, law enforcement groups like the California Police Chiefs Association spoke out against the potential charge. The Sacramento Observer reported that the group’s president, Robert Davis, lambasted the City Attorney’s Office for the “outrageous” warning, noting that retailers should be reporting legitimate retail crime .
The kicker? City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood maintains that the supposed warning was never issued.
In an exclusive conversation with Sourcing Journal, Wood said her office didn’t threaten Target with a fine or nuisance litigation, calling the report a “fabrication” by an unknown source.
“I was as shocked as anybody else to read that the story was in my office threatened to bring any kind of enforcement action against them, because that’s just not true,” the City Attorney said. “It’s a little bit ridiculous to think that we would take enforcement action against a business for calling the police department.”
According to Wood’s office, there was a high volume of calls to the Sacramento Police Department involving the Target store in Land Park, as well as calls about issues in the surrounding area, throughout 2023.
“The police department was the one that was fielding the complaints from the neighborhood, and then they were able to get the Councilmember’s office involved,” she explained.
Sacramento City Councilman Rick Jennings met with Target corporate representatives and local police last spring and summer to develop a strategy to address the high levels of retail crime and disturbance around the store. The parties worked together to implement a process dubbed Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).
The concept takes into account a store’s physical features, from landscaping to the management of outdoor environments, as a means of deterring crime and increasing the safety of the area. CPTED programs are in place nationally, and can include the placement of cameras or the reconfiguration of store entrances and exits as a means of optimizing security and discouraging criminal acts.
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Wood said that conditions at the Land Park Target have improved since the process was put in place last year, and noted that a representative from her office was present at the meeting between Target, the police and the Councilman’s office.
She also explained that the City Attorney’s Office does, on some occasions, need to get involved in complaints against businesses.
By way of example, Wood said that if a high volume of crime, like drug dealing, is taking place outside of a liquor store, and police are forced to repeatedly respond to calls related to the disturbances without the business’ help in deterring illegal activity, a public nuisance abatement action could be filed. Such an action might take place if the business is believed to have contributed to facilitating an environment where crime can occur, and it becomes a bother or a danger to the public.
But in the case of the Sacramento Target store, Wood maintained that was not the case, calling the report “asinine.”
This is not the first time a Sacramento Target has made the news for high volumes of retail theft.
Ironically, last fall, the big-box retailer was called out publicly by Sacramento Sheriff Jim Cooper for placing “optics” above public safety. The sheriff took to X and ripped Target for preventing deputies from engaging with suspects inside the store during a sting operation, instead forcing them to wait until the thieves exited to make arrests away from the watchful eyes of shoppers.
Last fall, Target closed nine stores across the country, including three locations in the nearby San Francisco Bay Area, due to untenable levels of retail crime. The company said in September that it “cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance.”
Rising retail crime is a red-hot topic in California politics, with lawmakers from across the state scrambling to address the issue with legislative proposals. The California Retail Theft Reduction Act , introduced by State Assembly Democratic Caucus chair Rick Chavez Zbur in February, would create a new crime classification for possessing stolen merchandise with the intent to resell. It was unanimously passed by the Assembly in May with State Senate approval pending.
Meanwhile, the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act , which would reverse Prop. 47, lowering the felony threshold for property crimes, is likely headed to the polls in November.
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