New Jersey Wants to Enact New Retail Theft Law
Neighboring states of New York & Pennsylvania have already done so

Retail theft getting out of hand in NJ: Would this law help?
Retail theft has become an extremely profitable criminal enterprise in New Jersey and some lawmakers have had enough. A bipartisan measure introduced in the New Jersey Legislature aims to disrupt a pattern of coordinated cash-and-grabs by increasing penalties for those responsible.

Theft cost retailers more than $112 billion nationwide in 2023, according to the National Retail Federation. New Jersey lost an estimated $200 million in sales taxes.

"Our neighbors in New York and Pennsylvania have recently implemented new initiatives to crack down on organized retail theft resulting in these bad actors to target New Jersey instead," said Sen. Holly Schepisi, R-Bergen. "It is incumbent that the New Jersey Legislature move swiftly to fight this scourge."

Under the proposed law, being the leader of an organized retail theft would be upgraded to a crime of the first degree. That's punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $200,000, or both. The bill also upgrades penalties for a ringleader's failure to pay taxes on the items that were stolen.

Extended prison sentences, meanwhile, would be allowed for repeat offenders. Prosecutors can go back one year to aggregate shoplifting violations when determining the degree of the offense.

The legislation also upgrades penalties for thefts that turn violent. Anyone who assaults or injures a retail employee faces jail time and/or a fine.

The bill also establishes a special unit within the Division of Criminal Justice related to retail theft, imposes packaging requirements to combat gift card fraud, and establishes a disorderly person's offense for individuals who help with the online sale of stolen goods. wpgtalkradio.com


CA's Effort to Fight 'Violent Sledgehammer Crimes' & Flash Mob Attacks
Stiffer penalties for smash-and-grab retail thefts signed into law in California
Smash-and-grab retail thefts that result in major damage to businesses will bring longer sentences in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law Thursday.

Assembly Bill 1960, authored by Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Salinas), mandates enhanced sentences for people convicted of taking, damaging, or destroying property valued at over $50,000 during the commission of any felony, including retail theft.

The bill also targets large-scale fencing operations, and the enhanced sentences will also apply to those who receive or resell stolen property. In a press statement Thursday morning, Newsom said the new law joins other recent legislation giving California some of the strictest retail and property crime laws in the nation.

Last month, Newsom signed a package of bills Friday targeting organized retail theft and property crimes that included stricter punishments for repeat offenders. Rivas' bill was characterized as the final piece of the legislative package.

"Violent 'sledgehammer crimes' and flash-mob attacks by organized gangs must stop now. I authored this new law to hold appropriately responsible those who damage stores and property, because our business owners and workers should not have to live in fear that these crimes will come to their doorstep," said Rivas in a prepared statement.

According to the Governor's Office, California has the 10th toughest threshold nationally for prosecutors to charge suspects with a felony, $950. Forty other states require higher dollar amounts for suspects to be charged with a felony, including Texas ($2,500), Alabama ($1,500), and Mississippi ($1,000), the office said. msn.com


Robberies Down 6% Nationwide in 2024
Real-Time Crime Index Shows Nationwide Trends

The Real-Time Crime Index launched recently with data from more than 300 agencies nationwide. It's designed to show national crime trends as they develop from as many agencies as possible with as little lag as possible.

This category includes "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear." Robbery is considered a violent crime under UCR Part I categorization but a property crime under NIBRS. It is considered a violent crime in RTCI.

The RTCI is a sample of reported crime data from hundreds of law enforcement agencies nationwide which mimics national crime trends with as little lag and the most accuracy possible. Crime statistics are inexact, but sampling agencies in this way is a proven method for accurately measuring trends while waiting for national crime estimates published each year. Standardizing the offenses collected and time periods measured from hundreds of agencies makes it possible to evaluate trends up or down as they develop.

Not all crimes are reported to police, and the RTCI can only measure those offenses that are reported to police. Crime data is inherently imprecise with frequent (usually small) variations between different data sources. This methodology is designed to ensure that crime trends are being captured accurately even if the exact figures reported either publicly by an agency or by the FBI may differ depending on the available data source.   realtimecrimeindex.com


More Store Lockups
Tired of retail theft, more Rite Aid stores in SoCal are locking up products
As the smash-and-grab trend plagued business across Los Angeles, more big retailers are stepping up security to keep their merchandise safe.

The Rite Aid store on Long Beach Boulevard in Compton is one of the stores that began to lock up almost every single item under lock and key.

From paper plates, to candy, Ziploc bags and soda, products that are under $10 were all locked in the store shelves.

"It's better that way, I guess," Gary Hildreth, a Compton resident, said, while acknowledging shopping takes longer because of the locked shelves. "It takes a little bit over 10 minutes for them to help me. They have to let you in to get it."   nbclosangeles.com


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Backlash Over Amazon's Latest Return to Work Push
Amazon employees blast Andy Jassy's RTO mandate: 'I'd rather go back to school than work in an office again'

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy positioned the 5 day in-office policy as a better way to work

Amazon employees are slamming the company's return-to-office policy and plotting their exit less than 24 hours after CEO Andy Jassy announced that they must return to the office five days a week from January. While some Amazon workers are ripping into the company's toughened RTO policy on social media, others are even blasting their employer in the company's internal Slack channel.

"Please do note that this is (in a lot of cases) significantly more strict and out of its mind than many teams operated under pre-COVID," one staffer wrote on Slack, according to Business Insider. "This is not 'going back' to how it was before. It's just going backwards."

Employees aren't just talking about quitting, a small few have already changed their status on LinkedIn to #opentowork as they openly search for more flexible jobs.

"Amazon has announced 5 day RTO, which is unfortunate because I'm interested in working for a living, not live-action role playing and virtue signaling," an Amazon Web Services engineer posted on the networking platform.

"If you have remote opportunities available, please message me. Nothing is off the table. I'd rather go back to school than work in an office again."  fortune.com


Online shopping will drive holiday sales growth
The holiday retail sales season will see an increase between 2.3% and 3.3% but online holiday sales will be more robust, growing between 7% and 9%, compared to the 2023 season.

The projections are from Deloitte research which projects holiday sales will total $1.58 trillion to $1.59 trillion during the November to January time frame, according to a press release on the holiday retail forecast data.

In 2023, holiday sales grew by 4.3% in the same period. retailcustomerexperience.com


Pitney Bowes Global Ecommerce laying off more than 1,200

Staten Island, NY: Man wanted for questioning in connection to theft of $27K ring from Macy's
The NYPD is looking for an individual sought for questioning in connection with the theft of ring from a New Springville department store. It was reported to police that on Sunday, Sept. 15, at around 2:25 p.m., an unidentified individual entered the Macy's, located at 2655 Richmond Ave. The individual then allegedly asked to see a ring valued at approximately $27,500. When a store employee placed the ring on the counter, the individual allegedly took the ring and fled the location on foot, traveling southbound on Platinum Avenue, according to a statement from the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.  silive.com


Albuquerque, NM: APD issues arrest warrant for repeat retail thief accused of $21K theft spree
Albuquerque police are looking for a man with a history of committing retail theft. Now, they have a new warrant for his arrest for a series of thefts at the store Lululemon. "Because at the end of the day, if we can get them to stay behind bars then we're hoping that these types of incidents happen less and less," says APD Deputy Commander Joshua Hawkes. He's talking about one of their top offenders who now has a warrant for organized retail crime. He has been identified as Ferron Mendez. "He has the seven incidents for organized crime with the Lululemon store and it totaled over $21,000 worth of merchandise," Hawkes says. Police say Mendez had stolen products from the Lululemon Store in the Uptown shopping center multiple times. Hawkes says Mendez would sometimes steal with a man and, in other cases, with a woman who police are still trying to identify.  krqe.com


Irvine, CA: Southern California suspects burglarize Target, hide $1700 of stolen goods in baby stroller

San Bernardino County, CA: Suspects flee on bus after stealing $2,800 of items from Southern California store

Baraboo, WI: Lake Delton Police searching for men involved in $2K theft from Michael Kors