California Gov. Gavin Newsom was praised by retail lobby groups Tuesday after he called for new legislation to expand and stiffen criminal penalties for theft and property crimes, such as organized retail theft.
“Building on California’s existing laws and record public safety investments, I’m calling for new legislation to expand criminal penalties for those profiting on retail theft and auto burglaries,” said Newsom in a statement.
“These laws will make California safer and bolster police and prosecutor tools to arrest and hold professional criminals accountable.”
The chief executive officer of the California Retailers Association, Rachel Michelin, praised the effort, calling it “yet another huge step in the right direction on tackling this problem.”
“Cal Retailers applauds the Governor for continuing to lead on the issue of Organized Retail Crime and working collaboratively with retailers on legislative proposals that provide real, tangible solutions to serial theft and Organized Retail Crime in California and prioritizing the safety of our consumers, employees, jobs and economy,” Michelin said in a statement.
“Organized retail crime” has been a popular topic since a April 2023 report from the National Retail Federation claimed that retailers were losing hundreds of billions of dollars to theft rings.
However, in December the lobbying group quietly retracted its claim from the widely-cited report after it was debunked by the trade publication Retail Dive, which revealed that faulty data had been used to arrive at the highly inaccurate figure.
According to Retail Dive, the California Retailers Association used questionable numbers from another national lobbying group, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, to come up with its own claim that organized retail crime in the state accounted for $3.6 billion in annual retail losses.
