Shoplifting Surged 22% From 2022 to 2023
Crime Trends in U.S. Cities: Year-End 2023 Update

As store traffic picked up since the pandemic, so has shoplifting, though there were fewer reports last year than in 2019, per the Council on Criminal Justice.

Shoplifting, defined as “theft by someone other than an employee,” fell 2% last year compared to 2019, but jumped 22% from 2022 to 2023, according to an updated crime report from the Council on Criminal Justice released Thursday.

Most incidents involved one or two shoplifters, rather than the two or more that the National Retail Federation defines as organized retail crime, per CCJ’s research.

There were more assaults in stores in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2019, and shoplifting incidents involving an assault amounted to about 1% of that.

Unsurprisingly, shoplifting plummeted amid the lockdowns and social distancing protocols of the height of the pandemic. As customers have returned to stores, however, so have thieves.

In 2019, the annual number of reported shoplifting incidents was 237.8 per 100,000 residents, in the 25 cities analyzed in the report. In 2020 that dropped to 183.4 and the next year it was 170.1. But as store traffic picked up, reports of shoplifting followed, with 190.4 incidents per 100,000 in 2022 and 232.8 last year.

“The rise in shoplifting and robberies, offenses committed to acquire money or property, could reflect a return to normal living conditions and daily routines, which increased the opportunities to commit certain types of offenses,” report authors Ernesto Lopez and Bobby Boxerman wrote.

Crime data has been notoriously difficult to gather and evaluate, and the CCJ authors themselves offered several caveats. The 38 cities they looked at in order to assess the prevalence of 12 types of criminal activity “are not necessarily representative of all cities in the United States,” for example. The data on shoplifting came from 25 cities.

Plus, the researchers said they obtained the crime data from online portals of police departments, and warned that the classifications of offenses vary somewhat across the cities, and that not all cities report data for each crime.  retaildive.com counciloncj.org

RELATED: Homicide, Gun Assaults, Most Other Violent Crimes Fall in U.S. Cities but Remain Above Pre-Pandemic Levels


Will Theft & Shrink Data Become Clearer in 2024?
7 reasons why everyone's confused about shrink and theft
Despite years of attention on retail crime from business groups, media, prosecutors and political leaders, retailers are starting off 2024 understanding less about the issue than before. Here are seven issues that complicate the discussion of shrink and retail theft.

1. Reported retail crime is going down in many areas, including cities singled out as especially troublesome for stores. For these and other reasons, some shoplifting may be considered organized retail crime or vice versa, if it’s categorized at all. Often, law enforcement or even a retailer’s own staff disagree on how to categorize an event.

2. Self-checkout is an inventory sieve. Lost merchandise from self-checkout causes more shrink than organized retail crime in many stores, according to Congressional testimony last year from CCIA’s Wagener. A 2022 study from the University of Leicester in England estimated that self-checkout in the U.S. and elsewhere causes between one-fifth and nearly one-quarter of all unknown store losses.

3. Employees steal more goods and money than any other type of theft. Theft by employees accounts for nearly a third of all shrink, and the NRF considers it “just as concerning for retailers as other forms of theft."

4. Shrink isn’t the biggest hit to margins, even at retailers citing it as a major problem.

5. Many related costs are not factored into shrink or theft reports. It’s possible that the financial consequences of theft are up significantly, even if actual crime rates or shrink levels aren’t. There also may be costs from preventive measures like beefing up security personnel or technology.

6. The threat of violence is a major risk that complicates loss prevention. The prevalence of guns in the U.S. makes confronting thieves in stores potentially deadly, complicating retailers’ approaches to loss prevention, according to a number of crime and retail experts.

7. Cargo theft is an under-appreciated aspect of retail crime. retaildive.com


More Policing & Financial Incentives for Stores to Improve Safety
In effort to alleviate fears of business owners and customers, New York state working to combat retail theft
As retail theft continues to climb, state leaders are pushing for more policing, and tax credits for businesses that improve safety. Organized shoplifting is costing businesses billions, and creating anxiety and fear for customers and store owners.

"Retailer is just open game. Walk away with anything. No one is going to challenge," Kahn said. Statewide, retailers lost $4.5 billion last year. The cost was passed on to the consumer, said Matt Cohen, president and CEO of the Long Island Association. "Simple shoplifting has really graduated to organized, sophisticated crimes. It's like the Wild Wild West out there," Cohen said.

Some retailers and civic groups met with Gov. Kathy Hochul in Albany and said they are pleased with her new proposal to budget a commercial security tax credit. "There are some tax credits that can be used for stores to upgrade their safety equipment," said Kent Sopris, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores.

Business owners who invest in qualified retail theft prevention expenses would get substantial tax credits, working with state police and district attorneys. "I have stores in blue areas and red areas. This is not a political thing," Sopris said.

Shoplifting is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Merchants on Long Island suffering through a 35% spike in larcenies want an increase in penalties. There are now pending bills in Albany to create a statewide office to combat retail theft and to increase penalties for repeat offenders. cbsnews.com


Retail Theft Up 16% in Los Angeles
Officials propose license plate readers & $500K investment in cameras

Violent crime down, property crime up in Los Angeles
Authorities in Los Angeles are touting a citywide drop in violent crime in 2023, based on statistics released on Wednesday. Homicides were down 17% over 2022 and, overall, violent crime was down 3.2%, according to a Los Angeles Police Department.

Property crime, however, climbed 3.5% over the prior year, and thefts citywide, including retail theft cases, were up 16%. There were 137 flash mob robberies throughout the city in 2023, officials said.

With the new year, officials are proposing new crime mitigation strategies to help curb some of the city’s most common crimes. One step already taken by authorities is the creation of the Organized Retail Crime Task Force, which made more arrests in 2023 than any previous year, LAPD said.

Among other proposed measures is a pilot program for license plate readers introduced by City Councilman John Lee, whose District 12 covers the northwestern portion of the San Fernando Valley.

Parts of the San Fernando Valley reported massive upticks in crimes, including a neighborhood in Lee’s district north of Rinaldi Street which reported a 103% increase in burglaries in that area, LAPD said.

The motion would allocate $500,000 to the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting and LADOT to begin implementation of the cameras. ktla.com


Fear Sweeps Oakland As Violent Crime Surges
Violent crime in Oakland rose 21% last year. Residents worry it will define the city
Reports of violent incidents rose 21% last year compared to 2022, while robberies climbed 38% and burglaries ticked up 23%. For the second consecutive year, the city logged 120 homicides. Fear seemed to ripple through every neighborhood — including Grand Lake, with its leafy sidewalks and buzzy shopping corridors.

Already in 2024, crime has shaped Oakland politics, fueling recall campaigns and calls for more police officers. City leaders are mired in a protracted and often divisive search for a new police chief, which has dragged on for nearly a year. Feelings of fatigue, desperation and outrage have reached a fever pitch.

“It’s pure fear,” said Father Jayson Landeza, the pastor of St. Benedict Catholic Church in East Oakland, and a chaplain with the Police Department. Downtown, many businesses no longer accept cash, fearing it makes them more vulnerable to robberies.

This month, the Oakland Police Department rolled out a new strategy to quell the chaos. Top department officials dismantled a Violent Crime Operations Center that former chief LeRonne Armstrong formed in 2021, aiming to centralize resources so that police could focus on Oakland’s most serious crimes: shootings and killings.  sfchronicle.com


50% Decrease in Law Enforcement Deaths
Line of Duty Death Statistics for 2023
In this month's Roll Call, we present an overview of the 2023 annual statistics for officer Line of Duty Deaths (LODDs). The trend in declining LODDs has continued, but despite a notable drop from the numbers in 2022 and 2021, law enforcement remains one of the most perilous professions in America. The following data underscores the significant sacrifices made by officers in protecting American citizens over the past year.

In 2023, 124 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty, a 50% decrease from 2022. The cause breakdown from our major cause categories are:

• Gunfire – 47 • Automobile crash – 22 • Vehicular assault – 10 • 9/11 related illness – 8 • Heart attack – 7 • COVID19 – 6 • Duty related illness – 5 • Struck by vehicle – 4 • Fall – 3

• Motorcycle crash – 3 • Aircraft accident – 2 • Assault – 2 • Drowned – 1 • Fire – 1 • Gunfire (Inadvertent) – 1 • Struck by train – 1 • Unidentified – 1 odmp.org

One City Goes Above & Beyond in PD Funding - But Crime is Still Up
Alameda went far beyond what other cities were willing to pay to recruit officers. Did it pay off?

The force is nearly back to full strength, but crime is up and arrests are down

In Alameda's rebuilding effort, its police department was willing to go further with financial incentives than any other city in the country, offering $75,000 in signing bonuses to new officers last year. Ten months later, the recruitment plan has worked, but it has yet to be reflected in the city's crime statistics.

Between 2022 and 2023, robberies and burglaries in Alameda increased by 18.4% and 14.7%, respectively. Petty theft, embezzlement and fraud, and vandalism all increased, whereas assault, drug offenses and DUI's fell. Arrests in Alameda also fell 16% between 2022 and 2023.

Although the Alameda department is almost fully staffed, with only one vacancy per squad, Joshi said he would still prioritize patrols over community policing roles and that they would need at least a year to judge results. mercurynews.com


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