SACRAMENTO, California — Sacramento made the list of cities with the worst shoplifting problems.
The National Retail Federation ranked California’s capital city seventh in the nation for metropolitan areas impacted by organized retail crime, tying with Chicago.
Sacramento has been in the top 10 for cities affected by retail theft since 2018, however the city is working toward solutions.
Anyone who's been to a shopping center parking lot recently has likely seen one of the mobile surveillance centers. It's a square base with a pole full of thermal infrared cameras with sirens and strobe lights.
David Studdert, business development officer with LiveView Technologies, said it’s a growing answer to retail theft in Sacramento.
“Moving the same style of technology you find inside the store out the doors, so we do a lot of video analytics,” said Studdert.
One of those tools is at the Target off Broadway, but they are located across Sacramento.
“We service about 93% of the top 50 retailers across the United States,” said Studdert.
The high demand is due to its success rate of recent testing in two cities.
“We measure the crime index prior to deployment and then after deployment which was about a six-month window, and during that time, we saw a 40% reduction in shoplifting,” said Studdert.
Ryan Allain, director of government affairs for the California Retailers Association, said businesses need all the deterrents as Sacramento has become a hub for organized retail theft.
“We see these organized rings move up and down the I-80 corridor between here and the Bay Area but also on the 5 and 99 in the Central Valley,” said Allain.
Allain said, as far as solving the problem, it’s currently a blame game.
Law enforcement said stores don’t report, and stores say there’s no prosecution because the amount stolen must be over $950 to be a felony crime. Anything under $950 is a misdemeanor.
“There’s really no punishment for it, or it’s difficult for law enforcement and prosecutors to work within the parameters. We need to bring back accountability,” said Allain.
The California Retailers Association said they plan to work with the legislature again when they return in January, focusing on when someone commits petty theft with a prior to create a diversion program for them.
According to the National Retail Federation, about 70% of stores are seeing an increase in incidents, and it's a repeat offender a majority of the time.
For the full National Retail Security Survey, view the PDF below.
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