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Last week, the Californians for Safer Communities Coalition announced that it had submitted over 900,000 signatures to qualify the Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act to appear on the November ballot, far more than the 546,651 required to be submitted. The measure, if approved by voters, would allow retail thieves who have multiple theft convictions to be charged with a felony for any theft, regardless of the dollar amount. In addition, the measure would allow prosecutors and law enforcement to charge offenders for the total value of property stolen across multiple thefts.
In 2014, California voters approved a ballot measure, known as Proposition 47, that increased the dollar amount for property thefts to be qualified as felonies from $400 to $950. Since the measure’s approval the state’s 10 largest counties have seen a rise in commercial burglary, with counties like Orange (98%), Los Angeles (62%), and Santa Clara County (61%) seeing the biggest increases, according to data from the Public Policy Institute of California.
The Homeless, Drug Addiction, Retail Theft Reduction Act enjoys broad support from not only retailers and district attorneys, but also Democratic Mayors London Breed of San Francisco and Matt Mahan of San Jose.
In speaking in support of the measure, Mayor Breed said, “The Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act will make targeted but impactful changes to our laws around fentanyl and help us tackle the chronic retail theft that hurts our retailers, our workers, and our cities.”
Governor Gavin Newsom (D) remains committed, however, to pursuing a legislative path towards amending Prop 47. In January, Newsom called on lawmakers to enact a series of new laws that expand criminal penalties for professional retail thieves and provide law enforcement and prosecutors tools to combat the rise in theft. The Governor’s proposed budget also included $373.5 million to be spent on efforts to combat organized retail theft.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D) and the Select Committee on Retail Theft have been the main drivers in the legislature on addressing organized retail theft. Nine bills that address aspects of organized retail theft unanimously advanced out of the Assembly Committee on Public Safety this month.
The primary bill in the package (AB 2943), co-authored by Speaker Rivas and Asm. Rick Chavez Zbur (D), would allow police officers to make an arrest for shoplifting without directly witnessing the alleged crime. It would also make it easier for law enforcement to aggregate multiple thefts into a felony grand theft charge. Similarly, another bill (AB 1990) allows police officers to make an arrest without directly witnessing a crime and does not require the police officer to release a person for which there is probable cause that the person shoplifted, unlike other misdemeanors.
Theft aggregation is a big focus of the bill package. AB 1794 specifies that takings from multiple places or victims can be aggregated to charge someone with grant theft. The bill also allows retailers to directly submit alleged shoplifting reports to a district attorney. Another aggregation bill (AB 1179) permits the consolidation of specified theft charges, as well as all associated offenses, occurring in different counties into a single trial if the district attorneys in all involved jurisdictions agree.
New ideas on how to combat retail theft have also been considered. One bill (AB 3209) would create a retail establishment restraining order that could be ordered against a criminal on trial upon petition or during sentencing for specific theft-related offenses, including organized retail theft. Legislators also introduced a bill (AB 1960) to enhance sentences of one to five years that must be applied when a person takes, damages or destroys property of a specified amount during the commission or attempted commission of a felony.
Legislation also seeks to increase funding for organized retail crime investigations. A bill (AB 1845) would create a new grant program for law enforcement agencies and district attorneys to apply for additional funding to investigate and prosecute crimes related to receiving stolen property. Another bill (AB 1802) would eliminate the sunset date for the organized retail theft statute.
These bills must pass out of the lower chamber by the crossover deadline of May 24 in order to advance to the Senate. Newsom and legislative leaders are motivated to show voters that lawmakers are serious about confronting retail theft. However, as the coalition to reform Prop 47 moves to the next phase of its campaign, expect retail theft and general violent crime to be a major election issue for Californians this November.