Is California making progress in addressing the rise of retail theft? 

That’s a question a new report is attempting to answer.

Reported retail theft has increased in California in recent years, growing by around 11 percent between 2014 and 2023. Current levels, however, remain below historic 1980s highs. 

In response to mounting public concern on this issue, the state is implementing new laws aimed at reducing retail theft, primarily by making prosecutions easier and increasing punishment for offenders. 

A new report from the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, or LAO, suggests that stronger oversight of these efforts, bolstered by enhanced data collection, is needed to assess whether the state is successfully curbing retail theft. 

This echoes the Little Hoover Commission’s call for an evidence-based approach to address retail theft in our state. 

The LAO report, Retail Theft in California: Looking Back at a Decade of Change, surveys a decade of changes — both inside and outside of the criminal justice system — that could have contributed to higher rates of retail theft. This includes reforms to increase prosecutorial flexibility through Proposition 47 or the expansion of store policies directing staff to not engage with suspected shoplifters.
 
The report concludes with a framework for enhancing legislative oversight of implementation of new enforcement and prosecutorial tools to reduce retail theft, including whether and how they are being used, and if promising practices are being shared and adopted. 

It also offers suggestions to better understand the outcomes and efficiencies of various strategies, such as whether reported retail theft is going down and by how much the justice system costs changed. 

It notes, however, that pursuing this research will require better and more complete data, and, in some cases, more rigorous analysis.
 
Last year, the Little Hoover Commission learned retail theft is not always reported and it’s challenging to estimate how frequently it actually occurs. At the time of the commission’s study, the state did not collect or track data on organized retail theft.
 
In its report, Retail Theft: A Data-Driven Response for California, the commission called on the state to mandate and appropriately fund the collection of detailed data to help California leaders and researchers better understand the circumstances around retail theft and the people involved in it. 

Specifically, the commission called on the California Department of Justice to expand its existing data initiatives to include:

• Circumstances surrounding the crime.
• Demographics on those arrested.
• Law enforcement response times.
• Whether and what charges prosecutors filed.
• Final case outcomes.
• The offender’s rehabilitation, reentry and recidivism.

Next, to build understanding and guide development of future solutions, the Commission urged the state to collaborate with universities or other nonpartisan research institutions to fund in-depth studies on:  

• Retail theft preventative measures and effectiveness.
• Underreporting of retail theft.
• Commercial victimization.
• Economic impact of retail theft.
• Drivers of public perception of retail theft.
• Fencing of stolen goods.

Without comprehensive data on retail theft, California lacks a vital tool to understand the effects of this crime or how to best stop it.

To read the commission’s full report on retail theft implementation and find more information about the commission’s work on the subject, visit its website.