What drove California Democrats to seek stiff bills governing retail theft? Experts explain

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Crest whitening strips, pregnancy tests, underwear and Slim Jims.

All of those were locked away behind plastic at Walgreens in Land Park. Target in Rancho Cordova encased Olay skincare lotions and several brands of razors — Gillette, Philips, Braun — in plastic boxes. And Walmart in West Sacramento barricaded nearly every brand of makeup behind clear doors.

“This is an exercise in patience today,” said shopper Paul Reed, after he sought to buy razors at Target in Land Park. The coveted Phillips razors, enclosed behind a plastic barrier, forced Reed to push a button to have an employee eventually help retrieve the item.

The changes across the retail landscape have contributed to fierce debates in the California Legislature over how to combat retail theft. Lawmakers introduced bills cracking down on so-called smash-and-grabs in past legislative sessions, but this year has drawn intense attention in a Legislature seeking to increase penalties for shoplifters. It’s an unusual twist — just last year, Democrats staved off efforts to stiffen punishments for child sex traffickers before Gov. Gavin Newsom personally intervened and an uproar ensued.

Rachel Michelin, the president of the California Retailers Association, encountered roadblock after roadblock as she attempted to persuade lawmakers to enact solutions for retail theft over legislative sessions in years past.

Her efforts grew futile, and she turned to Newsom to devote resources to combating what she saw as an increasing problem.

But this year proved different.

“We went from ‘Couldn’t get anything done,’ to now, ‘Everything is a retail theft bill,’” Michelin said, noting her trade group nearly couldn’t “keep up” as lawmakers requested the group’s endorsement of bills.

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, cemented retail theft’s prominence by creating a select committee focused on studying the cause behind it. The urgency grows as an initiative to repeal portions of Proposition 47 is headed to voters’ ballots and Democrats are in talks to add amendments to bills hoping to repeal the referendum.

Lawmakers last month sent 10 bills, addressing various components of retail theft, to Newsom’s desk.

But how did the California Legislature arrive at this junction? Criminal justice experts pointed to a number of factors

Pandemic changed rules, habits

The “perfect storm” for shoplifting unfolded just as public health safety rules loosened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Christopher Hermann, an associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Thieves can cover their faces with masks, and police didn’t interact with suspects as much due to fears of the illness, he said. And, as homicides soared, police pivoted their attention to serious crimes over responding to shoplifting incidents.

Offenders, if caught, could be released from jail and face lenient penalties and the ability to be released from jail, Hermann said.

Videos go viral. ‘Basically clickbait’

The last part of the perfect storm, Hermann added, was social media. Viral videos filmed by patrons often depict alarms blaring as several individuals grab merchandise and run. One video filmed at Nordstrom in Southern California — referenced by Herrmann — had been seen more than 245,000 times on social media and was covered by national media.

“It’s very sensationalized,” said Matthew Sotorsen, the president of the California Public Defenders Association, who also noted the influence of social media on perceptions about retail theft, “and, it’s basically clickbait.”

Indeed, half of lawmakers who authored the bills that passed last month said they believed retail theft grew as a dominant theme in part after videos of so-called smash-and-grabs accumulated widespread attention. Constituents’ concerns, from city councils to local chambers of commerce, began to also be more vocal, Michelin said.

But not every video depicting robberies or burglaries on social media are the same. There are legitimate concerns about organized retail theft in which thieves coordinate multiple people to descend on multiple different stores, said Charis Kubrin, a professor of criminology, law and society at UC Irvine.

But the debate has become riddled with false narratives that crime is responsible for problems plaguing retailers, she said.

Kubrin also said elected officials could have sought to capitalize on retail theft by politicizing it for their own purposes due the upcoming November election.

The media coverage has an outsized impact on the topic of retail theft. Michelin noted lawmakers thought their bills would get media coverage if pitched as a retail theft bill.

She’s called Senate Bill 1446, by state Sen. Lola Smallwood Cuevas, D-Los Angeles, not a retail theft bill, instead a “labor staffing” bill by creating standards for retailers.

The text of SB 1446 — calling itself a Retail Theft Prevention and Safety Act — prohibits grocery and retailers from having self-checkout options unless two machines are monitored by one employee “relieved of all other duties.” Customers may not use the self-checkout machines if they are buying more than 15 items, alcohol, tobacco and other items locked up, according to the bill.

Smallwood-Cuevas, in an interview, noted the California Retailers Association doesn’t understand the true problems behind retail theft. She said workers are facing violence while at self-checkout machines, which also are the location of frequent theft.

Retailers are proposing bills that stiffen penalties, having taxpayers foot the bill, but then don’t want to acknowledge where the problem is happening, she said.

“It’s baffling to me,” Smallwood-Cuevas said.

Tinisch Hollins, the executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice, said retail theft has gotten attention because of the media coverage and the political debate around how to address it.

Social media portrays the singular incident to a wide variety of people, even in places where there’s not an uptick in crime, she said.

What do California’s crime numbers show?

The data showing if retail theft spiked — already an underreported theft — is less clear. Commercial burglaries dropped by 9% in 2023 from last year but remain 6% above pre-pandemic levels, according to an analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Shoplifting rates remain below pre-pandemic levels, but spiked 28% from 2019 until 2023.

Trends varied widely statewide. Commercial burglaries rose in the Bay Area and Southern California saw increases, but smaller counties saw declines, according to the PPIC.

Robberies at commercial establishments in Sacramento rose 29% from 2019 to 2022, according to the PPIC.

Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Los Angeles, recalled running for his seat in 2022 when retail theft didn’t dominate his conversations. Instead, many people pleaded for help to address climate change and California’s homelessness and affordable housing crisis.

But, towards the end of his campaign, he witnessed more voters becoming alarmed about retail theft. It was driven in part by a singular high-profile armed robbery of a West Hollywood restaurant, and more people started coming to his meetings voicing their concern, Chavez Zbur said.

And, he said retailers wouldn’t lock up products — at a higher cost to their bottom line — if there wasn’t a true problem.

Reed, the recent shopper at Target in Land Park, said his previous city, Sunnyvale, didn’t have many issues with locking up products.

In Sacramento, standing and waiting for an employee had him contemplating just ordering razors online and receiving it without delays.

His willingness to throw his support behind retailers only goes so far.

“There are limits,” Reed said with a laugh.