San Jose’s organized retail theft unit submitted 20% more cases in the first quarter than all of last year. Here’s why the police say that’s progress

With more manpower and resources dedicated to investigations, the San Jose Police Department says it is making progress on combatting organized retail theft ahead of the busy holiday season, and sending more cases for prosecution.

The department’s investigative unit submitted 20% more cases to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office in the first quarter of this fiscal year than all of last year — an increase police anticipated due to the high prevalence of previously unreported cases, which law enforcement officials are attempting to rectify.

“We have some great momentum, and are looking forward to a serious reduction in retail theft,” Lt. Brent McKim said. “The criminal population knows if they commit retail theft in San Jose, there will be serious consequences.”

Like other major cities in the state, San Jose faced an epidemic of theft, prompting several large big box retailers to close. Some police and government officials have blamed the rising crime on Proposition 47, which made thefts under $950 misdemeanors. Adding to the problem, government officials have struggled to get enough data to understand the scope of the issue, as some retailers said they have given up on reporting every crime.

To tackle the growing issue, the state legislature passed a bill two years ago to commit more resources to retail theft enforcement.

The San Jose Police Department was one of 38 recipients last year to receive three years of grant funding from the California Board of State and Community Corrections, out of 114 departments that applied. The Campbell and Palo Alto police departments and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office also received funding from the state.

Overall, the state gave out $242 million to police and sheriff’s departments, and an additional $25 million to district attorney’s offices to bolster the efforts to curb retail theft.

San Jose’s award was $8.5 million, which the department has used to staff a retail theft unit and deploy 300 automated license plate readers. During this fiscal year — which began in July — the department also plans to add two more investigators.

While a police department report released last week showed that reported incidents of retail theft increased by 25% between the last two fiscal years, law enforcement officials have made a number of high-profile arrests for suspects implicated in multiple crime sprees.

In March, an arrest for $700 in theft at the Plant Shopping Center led investigators to discover that the suspect had allegedly committed 39 prior thefts, and more charges were added.

City and police officials also credited the grant funding when they recently announced the arrest of a 41-year-old man connected to 113 retail theft incidents throughout the city at major retailers like Home Depot, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Target.

“Retail theft harms our economy, levies a theft tax on working families, and makes us all feel less safe,” Mayor Matt Mahan said in a statement earlier this month. “I want to thank our Police Department’s Organized Retail Theft Detail for leaning in and using the resources we have available to hold bad actors accountable. We need to give our law enforcement agencies across the state of California more tools to address this crisis head-on.”

Along with added financial resources, the state has taken steps over the past year that will give law enforcement officials and prosecutors more teeth to ensure accountability. A package of bills signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in August implemented stricter penalties for serial shoplifters and thieves. Voters also overwhelmingly passed Proposition 36 this month, which will roll back some provisions of Prop 47, including adding a tougher approach to repeat offenders.

But to truly understand whether its efforts are working, city officials will have to continue gathering more reliable data from retailers.

“Obviously, these reports were coming in way before Prop 36 passed,” District 4 Councilmember David Cohen said. “The numbers were growing, so there was something about the grants we received and the work we’re doing that’s leading people to file these reports. I’m glad that we’re getting more accurate data.”

McKim credited the retail theft unit with engaging retailers and revisiting previous cases to see if they could connect suspects to other previously reported or unreported crimes.

“As we got the detail off the ground and have been working with the retailers, they’re reporting much more of the crime being committed,” McKim said. “It isn’t unusual for as many as half of the thefts committed by a particular suspect to be unreported by the retailer, and that’s for a number of reasons.”

The city also wants to improve the ease of reporting retail crimes. Instead of a police or community service officer going out to take reports, which could take hours and even days, the department will roll out a single-store pilot program to allow online reports and evidence submissions in the coming months.

The department has selected the Target store at the Plant Shopping Center as its guinea pig, hoping that if successful, the reporting system could extend to other retailers in the coming months.

“I think the most effective method for communicating that we’re tough on crime is prosecution,” McKim said. “Once word gets out that we’re not open for business for thieves, then I think it will start to go down. I think we’ve started to see some of that.”