Several state legislators and Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a bipartisan effort to crack down on organized retail theft Tuesday.
The package was aimed to strengthen public safety, protect shoppers and business owners and deliver real quality of life improvements across California explained Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas.
“These seven bills will sharpen Californian’s ability to tackle organized crime head-on and to address retail crime and hold perpetrators accountable who commit crime,” stated Bonta. “Seven bills that will make sure California remains the best place to live, work, to do business, raise a family. The only way to crack down on organized crime is to have an organized response and be more coordinated and unified.”
Bonta called these bills “real solutions” that move the needle.
Assemblymember Juan Alanis (R-Modesto), the lone republican, highlighted his bill.
“The retail theft issues we are talking about did not appear overnight and are not going to be solved overnight. I am proud to be co-authoring several bills in this package today and to be the lead author on AB 1972 which will help specifically with cargo theft. This bipartisan effort will seek to address some of our states issues with retail theft,” said Alanis who said more work also needs to be done.
Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Pal Alto) called this a package created by a culmination of listening to the public and a common sense approach o the realities over the past few years—noting the San Francisco Bay Area has had some of the largest shoplifting rates and that San Mateo County had the highest rate of shoplifting in 2022 which was 52% increase compared to 2019 rates.
Berman’s bill, AB 3209, will authorize a court to impose a Retail Crime Restraining Order for a theft offense, vandalism within the store, or battery on an employee within the store.
“The common sense solution provides a new enforcement tool to keep stores, customers and workers safe while also ensuring there are sensible guardrails to ensure we are not exasperating the issues of poverty,” stated Berman.
Meanwhile, Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks) declared California has had enough.
“Across California, shoppers and retailers are frustrated with the impacts of organized retail theft. Californians have had enough. Our role as legislators is to give law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they need to address these sophisticated retail theft rings which operate across large regions of California,” explained Irwin noting these criminals are making it harder for consumers to find the products they want and need and threaten safety while shopping.
Irwin introduced AB 1779 which would no longer limit the jurisdictional rules for the above crimes to criminal actions brought by the Attorney General. Includes: theft, including petty theft, grand theft, and shoplifting—basically allows law enforcement to create a single case in a single court regardless of multiple counties being involved.
“This tool was key for prosecutors between 2019 and 2021 but shortsightedly sunset,” explained Irwin. “The restoration of this tool to the Attorney General in 2022 was an important first step but with more multi-county cases than the department of justice can effectively pursue we must fully leverage our district attorneys.”
Assemblyman Reggie Sawyer-Jones (D-Los Angeles) shared that in 2017 he authored AB 1065 which targeted organized retail theft to target organized crime rings and was attacked—it continued to grow since. Meanwhile, he highlighted that 63% of District Attorney’s offices reported 0 organized retail theft convictions last year.
“Some of the largest counties in the state including Sacramento, San Bernardino, and Riverside County reported single digit organized retail theft felony convictions,” said Sawyer-Jones. “By comparison, the Los Angeles County District Attorney, one who is considered soft on crime, filed 367 organized retail theft cases.”
Sawyer-Jones advocated that when they give law enforcement the tools and they use them, they are successful—his bill, AB 1802, ends the sunset of his original bill creating the task force to address retail theft.
“I cannot make law enforcement and prosecutors take advantage of the work I have done but I can assure you they are effective when I do,” stated Jones-Sawyer.
Meanwhile, Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria (D-Fresno) shared how her bill will address retail crime and theft. Under AB 1960, it addresses property loss by creating sentencing enhancements for taking, damaging, or destroying property in the commission or attempted commission of a felony.
Tuesdays press conference was held to announce a series of bills that had already been previously introduced. And none of them touch on Prop 47 reforms.
The bills include:
- AB 1794 – An Act Relating to Crimes
- AB 1779 – Theft: Jurisdiction
- AB 1802 – Retail Crime Task Force Sunset Extension
- AB 1960 – Sentencing enhancement: Property Loss
- AB 1972 – Organized Retail Theft (Cargo)
- AB 2943 – California Retail Theft Reduction Act
- AB 3209 – Retail Theft Restraining Order
Not everyone was impressed with the press conference, Assemblyman Bill Essayli issued the following statement in response to Attorney General Rob Bonta and Speaker Robert Rivas‘ Prop. 47 legisative package announcement:
“The public knows very well that crime is out of control and Prop. 47 is to blame. The questions is how to fix it. We cannot trust the group of people that broke our public safety system to fix it. That’s why I stand with law enforcement leaders like Riverside District Attorney Mike Hestrin and Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco in support of the ballot initiative which will actually fix Prop. 47,” commented Assemblyman Bill Essayli. “The power is with the People and they will have their chance to actually fix Prop. 47 on the ballot this November.”
Related Stories:
- March 21 – The STOP Act Aims to Combat Retail Theft
- Jan 30 – Assemblywoman Soria Announces Retail Theft Legislation
- Jan 24 – Bill Seeks Stronger Penalties for Retail Theft Crimes
- Jan 3 – Bill Would Count Prior Convictions When Determining Penalties for Retail Theft Crimes
3 comments
The fact that Bonta can say that “California remains the best place to live, work, to do business, raise a family” shows what a bag of hot air he is. He apparently has difficulty understanding that he is in the executive branch of government and not the legislature. The primary function of an attorney general is to enforce laws – not sponsor legislation.
Here again we have the progressive libs trying to cram the crime toothpaste back into the tube (and take credit for it) when they’re the ones that squirted it out in the first place with all the soft-on-criminals policies.
Open closed state prisons back up.
Roll back AB-109
Roll back Prop 47
Roll back Prop 57
Going after organized retail theft only is BS. The majority of theft happens like every day multiple times at every Safeway, where thugs roll out wagon loads of liquor without paying. Only there is rarely video of that. One gets the feeling this legislation is only to reduce the viral videos of large gangs looting because that makes the politicians look bad.