With videos going viral showing smash-and-grab robberies at luxury retailers and businesses statewide reporting high levels of criminal activity, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Sept. 12 that more than $267 million in grants is slated for distribution to 55 cities and counties to facilitate arrests and help address such issues.
“Enough with these brazen smash-and-grabs. With an unprecedented $267 million investment, Californians will soon see more takedowns, more police, more arrests, and more felony prosecutions,” Mr. Newsom said in a press release announcing the funding. “When shameless criminals walk out of stores with stolen goods, they’ll walk straight into jail cells.”
Sheriffs’ and police departments across the state, and one probation department, applied for the funding and are in line for grants of up to nearly $24 million each.
The money is intended to increase arrests by utilizing surveillance technology, establishing new task forces, training loss prevention officers and retail theft investigation units, and improving communication and cooperation with businesses and community members, according to the press release.
While focused on organized retail theft, vehicle and catalytic converter thefts are also targeted by the grant proposals.
Grants will be provided through the Organized Retail Theft Prevention Program—established by the state in 2022—and overseen by the Board of State and Community Corrections, with a vote scheduled for Sept. 14 to approve the funding recommendations.
Orange County asked for approximately $15 million to fund its sheriff’s efforts to install surveillance cameras and to create a catalytic converter etching program—where vehicle identification numbers are etched onto devices to discourage theft by making the items potentially trackable by investigators.
The Irvine Police Department requested more than $5 million to create a data collection center, driven by advanced technology, to help reduce not only retail but motor vehicle theft as well.
Additionally, Anaheim Police reported a 47 percent increase in retail theft crimes over the last 18 months and requested more than $6 million to establish a task force and boost investigations by 500 percent.
Fresno Police filed a multi-agency proposal that brings the department together with the Clovis Police and Fresno County Probation departments, and the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office to establish what is being called the Fresno Metropolitan Area Organized Retail Task Force asking for more than $23 million in grants.
San Francisco Police would receive more than $15 million for “blitz operations” focused on retail crime in commercial areas including Union Square, investigations of stolen items being sold on the street, increased training, and community engagement.
District attorneys across the state will also receive access to grant money, with those in 13 counties—including Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, and San Francisco—currently recommended for funding of amounts up to approximately $2 million each.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón did not receive a grant, though it is unclear if his office applied for funding.
Recent efforts to address criminal activity follow the governor’s establishment of the California Highway Patrol’s Organized Retail Theft Crime Task Force in 2019.
The group has made over 1,240 arrests and seized nearly $31 million in stolen merchandise by conducting more than 1,850 investigations since then, according to the press release.
National Guard members were also recently deployed to address growing problems with crime and drug abuse in San Francisco, and the governor tripled the number of California Highway Patrol officers deployed in Los Angeles in August to help combat organized retail theft.
