The Great Debate: How to Curb Theft Without Turning Off Shoppers
Retailers try to crack down on rising theft while not angering shoppers
In the past six months or so, CVS, Target and other retailers have been locking up more everyday items like deodorant and laundry detergent as a way to reduce theft. Some shoppers are now back to shopping online or visiting stores where she doesn’t have to wait for someone to retrieve products.

Across the retail landscape, businesses have been putting items under lock and key as a quick way to stop thieves. Some are considering extreme measures, including Rite Aid Corp., whose chief retail officer Andre Persaud told analysts on an earnings call late last year that it’s looking at “literally putting everything behind showcases to ensure the products are there for customers who want to buy it.” It’s also considering using off-duty police officers at some of its stores.

But by trying to solve one problem, these businesses may be creating another: turning off shoppers with overreaching measures.

For consumers of color especially, the stepped-up security measures risk alienating a population that already feels overpoliced. That could unravel some of the inroads that chains like CVS, Sephora and Walmart made in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, when they promised to avoid racially biased practices like locking up products only for Black customers.

It’s unclear how much money retailers are losing due to organized retail crime -- or if the problem has substantially increased. But the issue has received more notice in the past few years as high-profile smash-and-grab retail thefts and flash mob robberies have garnered national media attention.

But while high theft in stores depletes inventory and limits sales, locking up items also reduces sales — by 15% to 25%, according to Joe Budano, CEO of Indyme, a technology company that sells retailers security devices.

Store workers, meanwhile, face the pressure of trying to do their jobs while also monitoring theft.

Some retailers are coming out with less intrusive solutions to store theft. Home improvement retailer Lowe’s has followed Home Depot in testing technology that unlocks power tools when shoppers buy them at the cash registers instead of resorting to keeping the items in cages. apnews.com


Crime Crisis in America's 'Murder Capital': Businesses & Customers Fearful
Mardi Gras in 'Murder Capital': New Orleans residents concerned crime crisis creates 'fear factor'

New Orleans was named the new 'murder capital' in September 2022

New Orleans is celebrating its first Mardi Gras after being named the "murder capital" of the country, and some residents are concerned how that new nickname could impact the world-renowned festival for which the city has become known across the globe.

The Big Easy saw 277 homicides in 2022, the highest number that city has seen since 1996, according to the Metropolitan Crime Commission. In September, the city was named the "murder capital" after surpassing St. Louis in homicides per capita, and the killings haven't slowed since then.

So far in 2023, homicides are up by 14% when compared to 2022, but shootings, carjackings and armed robberies are all down when compared to this point in 2022.

Mardi Gras, which takes place on Feb. 21 this year, is widely seen as an annual economic boom for the city as around 1 million people visit the city, New Orleans & Company Senior Vice President for Communications Kelly Schulz told WWL-TV. But some residents who spoke with Fox News Digital say they're concerned that the Big Easy's crime crisis could make it hard for the city to reap the full benefits from the world-renowned festival.

The surge in tourism is forcing Democrat Mayor LaToya Cantrell and the New Orleans Police Department to bring in up to 200 more officers from around the state to help patrol the Mardi Gras parades.

Mary Murdock, co-owner of Betsy’s Pancake House in New Orleans, told Fox News Digital that customers have told her they simply avoid coming to the city because of crime, a sentiment that otherwise devoted Mardi Gras goers could share. foxnews.com


Specialized Crime-Fighting Teams Taking Heat
Calls for reform give way to the reality of America's crime surge

Amid Criticism, Elite Crime Teams Dwindled. Then Cities Brought Them Back.

The Scorpion police team whose officers are charged in the death of Tyre Nichols has been disbanded. But Memphis wasn’t the only city to turn again to specialized teams to fight a new surge in crime.

The last two years have seen yet another significant shift in policing in many American cities, experts say, as the calls for reform and accountability have given way to demands for aggressively confronting a new nationwide rise in violent crime.

Cities like Memphis are once again commissioning specialized crime-fighting units to tackle the spikes in crime that accompanied the coronavirus pandemic, a strategy that has had some success in bringing down homicides, thefts and other crime in targeted neighborhoods but that risks returning, critics say, to the problems of the past.

The Scorpion unit in Memphis, five of whose officers are now charged with murder in Mr. Nichols’s death, quickly developed a reputation for pretextual traffic stops and aggressive treatment of detainees after launching in November 2021, and the department announced last month that it was disbanding the unit.

The new or revamped units in Denver, New York, Atlanta, Portland and elsewhere are a reflection of how much has changed since the racial justice protests of 2020.

But as violent crime rose in 2020 and 2021, he said, the mind-set changed: “Now we’ve got to show the numbers.”

The new or rebranded units are sometimes variations of a strategy known as “hot spot” policing, a tactic that has been shown to produce small but measurable reductions in crime. Denver, for example, saw a reduction in homicides and shootings in three of the five “hot spots” targeted by new police units last year, when the city saw an overall reduction in homicides of 15 percent.

Some of the cities bringing back specialized police teams say they will be able to avoid the mistakes of the past with strict controls, better training and stronger oversight. nytimes.com


Philadelphia's 'Crime Emergency'
Philly mayoral candidates say they'll declare a crime emergency
Nine Democrats are vying to replace Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, and nearly all of them have said they will do one thing he would not: Declare gun violence a citywide emergency. But it remains to be seen what such a declaration would do.

Federal and state officials have long declared states of emergency to unlock new funding and mobilize response teams following natural disasters or civil unrest. But in Philadelphia, emergency declarations at the local level do not automatically lead to new dollars or personnel.

That means the impact of such a declaration would largely be defined by the mayor who implements it, and several candidates say they'd use the measure to ensure the full weight of the government is behind tackling shootings.

"The goal would be to activate all the departments to stabilize our communities so that people could feel safe," said Rebecca Rhynhart, a mayoral candidate who as city controller pressed Kenney to declare an emergency, to no avail.

Emergency declarations have been part of a political playbook for years, and elected officials have used them at times to signal that a chronic problem has become imminently dangerous. In December, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency over homelessness.

And they've been used in Philadelphia before. In 2008, former Mayor Michael Nutter's first action in office was signing an executive order declaring a citywide "crime emergency" that directed the police commissioner to develop a public safety plan in consultation with other department heads. kdhnews.com


Community policing and vote for police district councils becoming a focus of upcoming election, candidates for mayor
As the nation grapples with the police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, and as Chicagoans prepare to vote for mayor Feb. 28, crime remains at or near the list of top issues candidates are sparring over with a few weeks to go before votes are counted.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is seeking another term and standing by her record on public safety and her handpicked Chicago police superintendent, David Brown. Homicides were down last year from 2021, but still higher than pre-pandemic levels and the years before Lightfoot took office.

Most of her challengers have seized on that fact, pledging to fire Brown and push a focused return to community policing as a major initiative, saying many city residents feel unsafe and blaming crime for Chicago’s slower-than-desired recovery from COVID-19 shutdowns. Paul Vallas was among those to stress the strategy at candidate appearances last week.

Chicago is, for the first time, set to have local police councils, and voters will see candidates for those posts by district on their ballots. Three representatives from each of the city’s 22 police districts will be responsible for collaborating with department officials on community-policing issues. chicagotribune.com


S.F. to barricade Mission District street over sex work: ‘Out of control and dangerous’
The scene on Capp Street, in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District, had become dire: presumed sex workers lining the sidewalks and spilling into roadways; traffic choked bumper to bumper throughout the night; and eruptions of violence, including at least one pistol whipping, according to officials and residents.

In response to increasingly desperate pleas from neighbors, city officials plan to install barriers this week along a strip of Capp between 18th and 22nd streets where the problems appear most concentrated.

“It’s absolutely out of control and dangerous — not just for the sex workers, but for the community,” explained Ronen, whose district includes the Mission. She described the planned closure as an experiment somewhat resembling San Francisco’s “Slow Streets” configurations, in which bollards limit the number of vehicles on the road, but allow residents to have access to their garages. sfchronicle.com


CA small businesses see homelessness and crime as obstacles

Santa Clara Co. leaders hope gun violence team can save lives, get firearms off streets

US: 104.5M Cases - 1.1M Dead - 101.6M Recovered
Worldwide: 676.3M Cases - 6.7M Dead - 648.8M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 362  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 830

COVID-19 & Remote Work Has 'Transformed' Entire Cities
A new era of remote work has pushed a New York property magnate to consider giving up some of his office buildings
The COVID-19 transformed the landscape of entire cities, including the city that never sleeps. Offices shut down en masse in early 2020, and after an initial adjustment period, many employees found that they enjoyed working from home. So much so that bringing them back into the office has proved difficult.

Some companies, like Disney and Starbucks, have insisted that workers return to the office. But others like Meta and Amazon, dropped plans to move into their Manhattan offices. Now, one of New York City’s real estate tycoons says he recognizes the rise in remote work, and is considering alternate uses for some of the office properties on his portfolio.

“There’s going to be some buildings that aren’t going to be competitive as office buildings, and we need to be disciplined about developing an alternative plan and being able to execute them,” he told Fortune.

Rechler says that one option for properties which couldn’t adapt to the realities of remote work was to convert them into residential or commercial buildings while working with their lenders. And if that didn’t work, RXR would consider relinquishing ownership of such buildings. fortune.com


NYC COVID Vaccine Mandate Ends
Mayor Adams ends COVID vaccine mandate for NYC workers
Mayor Adams announced Monday that he’s rolling back the city government’s longstanding coronavirus vaccine mandate — and opened the door to rehiring hundreds of municipal workers who got fired for refusing to comply with the public health rule.

The mandate, which has since November 2021 required all members of the municipal workforce to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, will officially end this Friday after the city Board of Health ratifies the move, Adams said in a statement. That means proof of vaccination will no longer be a condition of employment for current and prospective city workers, ending one of the city’s last COVID restrictions.

Adams said the major pandemic policy reversal is justified because 96% of the city’s more than 300,000 municipal workers are now fully vaccinated.

“This is the right moment for this decision,” Adams said. “I continue to urge every New Yorker to get vaccinated, get boosted, and take the necessary steps to protect themselves and those around them from COVID-19.” nydailynews.com


‘We still don’t know it’s over’: will Covid surge after US ends emergency?

Lawyers for U.S., Navy Seals battle over revoked Covid-19 vaccine mandate