SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Shoplifting – also known as retail theft – is a growing issue in communities up and down California.
That’s why lawmakers have asked an independent commission to study the problem and make some bold recommendations.
In a public hearing Thursday, that commission heard from two people who have been openly critical of one another in recent weeks: Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper and Rachel Michelin, president and CEO of the California Retailers Association. They offered their perspectives on retail theft – and possible solutions.
“We’ve got to fix something. It is a major problem,” Sheriff Cooper said.
He testified Thursday before the Little Hoover Commission, an independent state oversight agency created in 1962.
Back in June, state lawmakers asked the Commission to study the issue of retail theft and provide recommendations.
Sheriff Jim Cooper is vocal about the rampant retail theft he sees across Sacramento County. In a recent week-long special operation – “Operation Bad Elf” - his office arrested 285 shoplifters, about two-thirds of whom had a violent criminal history, Cooper said. Two-thirds had also been previously arrested for theft-related crimes.
“People just go in and take whatever they want because they know they're not going to get in trouble. They know there's no accountability,” Cooper said.
He is among those who say Prop 47, a criminal justice reform measure passed by voters in 2014, is part of the problem. It made non-violent theft of up to $950 a misdemeanor.
“That's really been the big issue because you can't combine or aggregate theft. So you can go in stores many times a day, and you won't go to jail. And a lot of these folks know that,” Cooper said.
This was the second of four scheduled Little Hoover Commission meetings regarding retail theft. On Thursday, Cooper – as he has before – placed part of the responsibility on retailers and their policies about shoplifting.
“We don't get stats from the retailers; they don't call us anymore,” Cooper said. “A lot of these stores have a non-confrontation policy. ‘Hey, staff, if someone's caught stealing, just let them go. Don't do anything.’ So it's under-reported. Some stores are told not to report in.”
In recent weeks, Cooper and Michelin have exchanged public criticism.
On Thursday, however, their tone seemed more aligned. Michelin lauded Cooper’s Operation Bad Elf as “a great example of the type of operation that really sheds light on what the impact of retail theft is having on our communities...,” Michelin said. “It really highlights the collaboration between law enforcement and retailers.”
She acknowledges some stores are under-reporting the issue, but she said shoplifting is so frequent that some law enforcement agencies won’t respond.
“Law enforcement, they have internal policies on what crimes they will respond to. This creates a patchwork of policies that vary from city-to-city, county-to-county,” Michelin said.
Cooper, who testified separately from Michelin, emphasized to the commission that his office will and wants to respond.
He and Michelin acknowledged retail theft is hurting businesses and the shoppers’ experiences.
“Whether locking up products, employing off-duty police officers or security guards, putting patrol cars in parking lots, retailers are utilizing whatever tactics we can to deter retail theft, really, to protect our employees and our customers from harm,” Michelin said.
Cooper, who has spent more than three decades in law enforcement and was a California Assemblymember for eight years, told the Commission he’d like to see a change allowing prosecutors to pursue felonies against repeat shoplifters.
“A second or third (conviction) would then be eligible for a felony?” one commission members asked Cooper, clarifying his position.
“Yeah, but that still has to go back to the voters, though,” he said. Voters are the ones who can make changes to Prop 47; state lawmakers alone cannot change this statewide proposition.
Speaking of solutions, the state recently spread $267 million across 55 law enforcement agencies—specifically to combat retail theft. Michelin said the California Retailers Association pointed played a key role in securing these funds.
The funds can be spent on measures like increasing security through more patrols, adding investigative units and improving surveillance technology.
In fact, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office—which got $9.4 million of those dollars—used some of their money toward that Operation Bad Elf.
Meanwhile, the Little Hoover Commission has two more hearings on retail theft and then will eventually made recommendations to state lawmakers.
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