A California commission charged with delivering recommendations to the governor and state lawmakers next year on how to curb rampant retail theft, questioned claims that state criminal justice reforms are to blame for the troubling trend.
During its second hearing Thursday, the Little Hoover Commission, an independent state watchdog agency, heard testimony from retailers and law enforcement officials about the brazen store thefts and other crimes that have been regularly featured on newscasts and led to calls to reconsider criminal justice reforms.
“It’s getting worse,” said Lynn Melillo, vice president for asset management at Bristol Farms, Lazy Acres Natural Market and New Leaf Community Markets. “There is organized retail crime, but it’s also more than that. It’s so-called consumers coming in and loading a grocery cart up and bypassing the register, avoiding the check stands, knowing there’s no consequences.”
Republican lawmakers who have criticized criminal justice reforms advanced by Democrats to reduce prison overcrowding and address social justice concerns had asked the commission to look at the reforms’ impact on retail thefts. A reform often cited is Proposition 47, which voters approved in 2014 to reduce drug and property crime penalties.
But many of the commissioners — mostly Democrats — questioned the extent of the problem and whether Prop 47, backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, and other reforms are to blame.
“For a lot of people changing Prop 47 is a huge ask,” said Commissioner Janna Sidley of Los Angeles, a former prosecutor and Democrat appointed by former Gov. Jerry Brown.
Added Commissioner David Beier, a nonpartisan commissioner and Bay City Capital managing director from San Francisco, also appointed by Brown, “I want to go to a world where Prop 47 isn’t the target.”
The commission held an initial meeting on retail theft last month. It heard testimony from Democratic and Republican members of the Assembly Public Safety Committee and a Beverly Hills retailer. Additional hearings are planned for January and February before the commission issues a recommendation.
Commissioners specifically asked for data that could be used to bolster the case for any recommended changes in the law. Commissioner and former Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti, a Newsom appointee, questioned whether the problem is more one of perception driven by ubiquity of shoppers with cell phones capturing brazen thefts on video and posting them to social media.
He and other commissioners also noted the National Retail Federation recently retracted a claim blaming organized retail crime for nearly half of the industry’s $94.5 billion theft losses in 2021. The commissioners blamed retailers for much of the losses due to understaffing and poorly supervised self-checkout lanes.
indicating that retail “shrinkage” — theft — is about as much from employee inside jobs as thieves entering the stores.”]
Sidley said retailers need to provide specifics, not just tell “what you’re feeling.”
“You indicated a problem with a particular statute, so if we’re looking to change it, we’re looking at, is that really what the problem is, or is there something else that’s driving the problem?”
But retailers and law enforcement officials told the commission that the rise in retail theft is difficult to quantify for a variety of reasons. Retailers don’t often report the crimes because they feel law enforcement won’t respond and they don’t want to incur insurance costs. Law enforcement officials say its a low priority when they have more serious offenses to contend with.
“The data you guys are asking for pretty much doesn’t exist,” said Daniel Conway, vice president of government relations at the California Grocers Association. “I think the challenge is this phenomenon is relatively new, you don’t have decades of data.”
Law enforcement officials generally agreed that Prop 47 and other recent voter or legislative reform measures have led to some problems and that tweaks would be helpful.
“Prop 47 took away some of these tools that we had in the tool belt,” said Jonathan Raven, chief deputy district attorney in Yolo County, adding the initiative “was well meaning and made some positive changes, but like many laws, there were some unintended consequences.”
Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper told commissioners the rash of retail thefts is indeed real.
“We hear from a lot of folks, academics, ‘hey, the stats don’t prove it, since then the numbers have dropped,’” Cooper said. “The only reason the numbers have dropped is because of the underreporting, the retailers don’t call us anymore.”
And while he blamed retailers in part for that, he also noted that part of the reason is there’s little consequence for retail crimes.
“We had someone walk out of a Walmart with a big screen TV, had his kid push the cart out,” said Cooper, a former Democratic state Assemblyman. “There has to be a hammer. People just go in and take whatever they want because they know there’s no accountability.”
California Highway Patrol Sgt. Manny Nevarez said an additional frustration is organized theft groups operating across county lines complicate prosecution, and that state troopers often have to “shop for a district attorney that would take on the case.”
Law enforcement officials who spoke stressed they weren’t necessarily looking to pack the prisons again.
“I don’t want to demonize Prop 47 because it was well intentioned,” said Will Rivera, assistant chief of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office criminal branch.
But Commissioner Anthony Cannella, a former Republican state senator appointed by the Senate Rules Committee, suggested diverting convicted thieves to programs for drug treatment might not be enough.
“Hopefully we can get back to punishing people too,” Cannella said.
Source: www.mercurynews.com