New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday the rollout of a long-awaited plan to clamp down on retail thefts in his city following a massive crime wave of thefts at pharmacies and department stores that is costing businesses millions of dollars.

The NYPD has been overwhelmed by the number of shoplifting arrests it is being forced to conduct. Adams contends that a third of all those arrests involve the same 327 seasoned criminals. Once they found out they could get away with the thefts, the criminals stepped up their operations.

“Last year alone, 327 repeat offenders were responsible for 30 percent of the more than 22,000 retail thefts across our city,” Adams asserted. “This hurt our businesses, our workers, our customers, and our city.”

According to the mayor, the new plan implements a streamlined way for businesses to report shoplifting to the NYPD. It also establishes a neighborhood retail watch program and creates a specialized task force to respond to shoplifting incidents.

(Video Credit: CBS New York)

The Precision Repeat Offender Program, or PROP, is one of a series of proposals in the 33-page “Combating Retail Theft” report released Wednesday. The plan addresses those who have made a career out of retail theft in New York City. The report was released months after Adams convened a Gracie Mansion summit on the problem last year and promised to find solutions to it.

Walgreens and other retailers have started putting products in locked transparent plastic displays in an attempt to foil shoplifters who are trying to steal everything they can get their hands on.

New York has not helped itself by electing a leftist district attorney who has instilled bail reform rules that let thieves right back out on the street because they have committed what is viewed as a nonviolent crime. That alone has acted as a literal get-out-of-jail-free card for criminals.

“I believe that in order for any type of substantive impact, any type of such an impact in regards to the retail steps would have to come from the legislature,” state Assemblyman Michael Tannousis noted, according to the New York Post.

“It would have to allow judges to be able to set bail on repeat offenders and increase their discretion,” he said. “And any type of plan that the mayor puts forth, although it may be well-intentioned, is going to be at a significant disadvantage because our judges do not have the discretion to be able to set bail, or detain someone that continuously commits these types of crimes.”

Adams claimed that his plan will call for prevention and intervention strategies to address the underlying causes of retail theft. But some feel his efforts sound vague and they don’t appear to address the actual root causes of the crime spree.

Shoplifters and organized crime rings prey on businesses that have already taken a hit due to #COVID19. Our comprehensive plan will beat back retail theft through a combination of law enforcement, prevention, and intervention.

Read more: https://t.co/G2D2txUylL pic.twitter.com/Ko6jjxvkV4

— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) May 17, 2023

According to the Daily Mail, an analysis of the 327 repeat offenders did not identify them but showed that some of them conducted shoplifting as a way to make a living and that many are members of shoplifting-to-order rings. Others shoplift because they are addicts or suffer from mental illness.

“Shoplifters and organized crime rings prey on businesses that have already taken a hit due to COVID-19, but, with this comprehensive plan, we’re going to beat back on retail theft through a combination of law enforcement, prevention, and intervention,” Adams proclaimed on Wednesday.

“This plan will help us invest in diversion programs and in underlying factors leading to retail theft, works upstream to stop some of the factors leading to a crime before one takes place, trains retail workers in de-escalation tactics and security best practices, and takes numerous actions to increase necessary enforcement against repeat shoplifters and deter organized crime rings perpetrating these thefts,” he vowed.

He also asserts that the plan will “reassure our store owners that we know they are essential to our city, and we have their backs.”

NYC Mayor Eric Adams announces a “plan to combat retail theft,” including a “precision repeat offender program” where businesses can flag security incidents to law enforcement & a “neighborhood retail watch” for businesses to “share real-time intelligence” with each other & NYPD: pic.twitter.com/Y9IuT691gF

— Andrew Giambrone (@AndrewGiambrone) May 17, 2023

The mayor’s office reported that citywide shoplifting complaints jumped 44 percent from 2021 to 2022. At the end of 2022, petty theft of items valued at less than $1,000 had jumped 53 percent at department stores and chains, according to an analysis by researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Drug stores were hardest hit with double the number of thefts in 2022 compared to 2019. Incidents jumped from 6,031 to 12,343 according to researchers. Thefts from chain stores jumped a whopping 91 percent over the same period, surging from 11,673 to 22,250.

NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael Lipetri said repeat offenders are driving the numbers to skyrocket.

“Of the arrests this year of retail theft, 70% of arrestees this year have been arrested for prior shoplifting complaints,” Lipetri asserted according to the New York Post. “We have individuals that have been arrested over 30 times just this year targeting the same businesses.”

Theft from major retailers across the nation has hit an all-time high causing many outlets to shut down in those respective areas.

In 2021 retailers lost a combined $94.5 billion to theft and inventory loss. Organized retail crime incidents skyrocketed by 26.5 percent in the same year, according to the 2022 National Retail Security Survey.

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