Retailers in California are joining forces with online marketplaces and the state’s top law enforcement agency to stop the spread of retail theft in the state.
Outlined in the document are commitments to resolving the problem and the methods by which the group will investigate organized criminal activity.
Retailers declared their intent to report all incidents to local authorities, maintain video recordings and documentation related to crimes, and communicate with all stakeholders and investigators about trends and changes in their effective enforcement techniques.
For their part, online marketplaces agreed to train staff on how to monitor suspicious activity, report it, and maintain records, while collaborating with brick-and-mortar retailers and law enforcement.
“Today’s announcement demonstrates California’s resilience and tenacity in tackling these challenges,” Bonta said. “Whether it is law enforcement, online marketplaces, or retailers—we will not tolerate organized retail crime in our state.”
The agreement follows a number of legislative efforts to address retail theft, with two passing last year.
Senate Bill 301, which took effect in January, regulates online marketplaces by requiring that all sellers with annual sales of at least $20,000 provide bank account or payee identification information to the company hosting the sales platforms, creating a trackable database of individuals potentially selling stolen items that can assist investigators and prosecutors handling theft cases.
Another piece of legislation, Assembly Bill 1700, broadens the definition of organized retail crime by including any theft involving more than one person with the intention of reselling stolen goods and creates a reporting process to identify items being fenced—the act of reselling stolen merchandise—online.
Other bills were unsuccessful, including Assembly Bill 1708—designed to reinstate petty theft and increase penalties for those with multiple theft convictions, and allow for the aggregation of stolen amounts to equal the state’s current $950 felony threshold—being denied by the Assembly Public Safety Committee earlier this year.
Such was “to provide consequences to repeat offenders who continue to go into our stores and steal,” Rachel Michelin, president and CEO of the California Retailers Association, told The Epoch Times by email on June 21.
The committee has been scrutinized by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle for holding back bills related to retail theft, criminal activity, and fentanyl distribution this year.
While disappointed with the lack of progress on AB 1708 and steadfast in its disapproval of Proposition 47—a law passed in 2014 recategorizing many felony offenses to misdemeanors, including theft under $950—the association is looking forward to working with those interested in solving the problem, according to Michelin.
“We are always open to collaborating with any policymakers who want to work with us to protect our employees, customers and neighborhoods in which we operate from the growing problem of retail theft,” she said.
Online marketplaces play a unique role in the process, as many items are stolen from retail establishments and resold on various platforms, including eBay, Amazon, Etsy, and others.
Lego sets and other items with value that are relatively easy to sell and difficult to track make up most of the items targeted by organized criminal rings, and eBay is a favored platform for reselling stolen products due to its ease of access and large customer database, according to experts.
The online sales and auction giant is well aware of the situation and is one of those who signed the agreement with Bonta.
“eBay is committed to providing a secure online shopping experience to millions of people globally and has been very serious about battling stolen goods,” Zhi Zhou, chief risk officer at eBay, said in the press release announcing the collaboration. “We have zero tolerance for criminal activity on our platform and are proud to support Attorney General Bonta and other online marketplaces in this effort to curtail organized retail theft and support criminal prosecutions against those who try to use our platform to sell stolen goods.”
Assisting effort is a network of technology executives at TechNet—a bipartisan innovation economy group located in Washington, D.C.—providing data and expertise to allow for comprehensive analyses.
“Organized retail crime not only jeopardizes consumer safety, but costs businesses billions annually,” Lia Nitake, TechNet’s deputy executive director of California & the Southwest said in the press release. “Our members have invested significantly in technologies, personnel, and processes to help stop bad actors from harming consumers and businesses.”
Since 2020, retail crime has risen in the state, with some businesses in San Francisco fleeing in record numbers due, in part, to unprecedented theft.
Multiple charges have been filed this year against organized criminal elements involving thefts exceeding $1 million. Suspects were charged in February with overwhelming employees and preventing customers from entering multiple Apple retail stores in 11 counties across the state between August of last year and January and reportedly stealing thousands of dollars worth of tablets and phones from each location.
Another group was charged in March with stealing Xbox and Acer products from trucks at facilities belonging to Microsoft located throughout California—including Tulare, Tehama, Kern, and Los Angeles counties—with two suspects remaining at large following arrests in February, according to the attorney general.
The California Highway Patrol was tasked with investigating organized retail theft in 2019 and identified three areas where the crimes were occurring: the Bay Area, the greater Los Angeles area, and the region encompassing Orange and San Diego counties.
In collaboration with the state’s Department of Justice, the highway patrol developed a task force for each of the three regions to help combat the issue.
Statistics from the National Retail Federation estimate the economic loss of such theft at $30 billion per year nationally.
