Hidden costs of organized retail crime and shoplifting

OPINION:

There is no question that crime in many parts of the country has increased over the past few years. A shift in how scores of local governments approach criminal justice matters has led to policies that reduce penalties, restrict law enforcement and misdirect resources. This has benefited those committing crimes while leaving everyday law-abiding Americans to suffer.

While we are all well aware of the high-profile, dramatic and violent incidents that garner the most attention and make headlines, in many instances, most Americans have felt the impact of these policies in the seemingly mundane. Specifically, retail theft, including organized retail crime and opportunistic shoplifting, has reached unprecedented levels.

The most direct effects of these crimes are felt by the business owner whose property and livelihood have been damaged or stolen, but the ultimate impact is far more widespread. Entire communities suffer the consequences as armed private security guards are increasingly stationed in neighborhood stores and routine household items are moved behind locked glass. These inconveniences quickly manifest into higher prices and crime-related store closures, which have occurred with alarming frequency over the past several years.

Consider, for instance, one of the hardest-hit retail store categories: pharmacies.

Local neighborhood pharmacies offer vital services, access to health care, prescriptions, over-the-counter medications, first-aid supplies and dozens of everyday necessities. However, after years of growth, America’s leading drugstore chains are closing stores in hundreds of places around the country. One of the leading causes of these closures is unsustainable loss because of retail theft.

Unfortunately, many of these closures occur in lower-income neighborhoods, leaving those communities without easy access to pharmacy services. As criminals rob these stores past where they can afford to remain open, this spate of forced closures creates what experts call pharmacy or retail “deserts” — large areas where access to drugstores, grocers and other retail outlets is severely limited or nonexistent. These thieves are not merely stealing goods from a store but denying their law-abiding neighbors access to daily essentials.

It is not hard to see why this is happening. Most of these closures occur in and around large urban areas that are struggling under the leadership of politicians, prioritizing a skewed concept of “civil justice” over public safety. This translates into lenient attitudes and policies concerning crime, unreasonable constraints on law enforcement and prosecutors unwilling to hold offenders accountable even when they are arrested. In several large cities, liberal prosecutors are actively declining to pursue charges against shoplifters.

It is not just local prosecutors and city councils. Several states have unfortunately adopted policies that serve to enable these crimes. Since 2000, at least 39 states have raised the value of stolen goods necessary to trigger a felony charge, meaning a thief can steal much more before facing severe penalties (provided the local prosecutor even elects to pursue the case). In California, the felony threshold for shoplifting was raised in 2014 from $450 to $950. Steal $800 worth of goods from a pharmacy in San Francisco, and you are at risk of nothing more than a ticket.

This combination of bad policies provides an environment conducive to the proliferation of retail crimes. Add to that mix a culture of leniency and tolerance of shoplifting — to the point where store employees have more to worry about if they intervene in an attempted robbery than the criminals do — and you have created what amounts to a perfect storm enabling organized and opportunistic retail theft.

Something needs to be done, and soon. Capital One has estimated that nationwide retail theft loss will grow from an unacceptable $121.6 billion in 2024 to more than $150 billion by 2026. At the more human level, we are forcing pharmacists and others in these stores to enforce laws and safety while distracting them from what they want to do: provide medical care to the community. The results speak for themselves: 50% of retail workers have reported witnessing theft, 33% have faced violence directly and 40% say they fear for their safety daily.

Ignoring what some consider “low-level crimes” inevitably leads to bigger criminal problems. Left unchecked, retail crime threatens entire communities. Solving it will require a concerted and coordinated response, starting with laws that address the problem realistically and hold offenders accountable while providing law enforcement with sufficient resources to fight it effectively. Policymakers at all levels need to recognize the true cost of retail crime and take decisive action. If politicians fail to confront the issue, then perhaps it’s time for the people to take it to the ballot themselves and start taking back their communities.

• Paul Pazen is a former chief of the Denver Police Department.