50 people cited or arrested in operation against retail theft at Sacramento-area Target

(FOX40.COM) — 50 people were cited or arrested in connection with retail theft at a North Highlands Target over the past weekend, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.

The people tried to walk out with everything from a cartful of electronics to makeup kits shoved in their pockets, all with a total value of around $5,000.

Among those detained were people who had already been cited for theft and minors.

“This is a consistent problem where we’re not able to take a breath,” said Detective Ryan Drummond with the sheriff’s office.

Drummond said that the sheriff’s office’s organized retail theft team is sometimes overwhelmed by the number of operations they conduct.

“We are going to be doing these regularly. We are not done,” he said.

Law enforcement agencies across the state regularly blame a California initiative approved by voters in 2014 as one of the causes for the increasing brazenness of some of these crimes because the measure increased the threshold for what is considered felony-level theft.

Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig is helping lead the charge for reforming the way the state deals with this type of crime.

“Bring some accountability and deterrence back to the system so that we can stop this retail theft crisis,” he said.

A new initiative, known as Proposition 36, has qualified for the November ballot and, if passed, would reform how theft and other crimes could be prosecuted, including making a third offense a felony crime and allowing the value of goods in multiple thefts by the same person to be considered as one total value.

“It is a chance for Californians to change the direction on issues like retail theft,” Reisig said.

California lawmakers are scrambling to pass a package of bills in an effort to appease backers of the new proposition, hoping to convince them to drop their initiative.

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