California passed its anti-shoplifting legislation, but will it actually help retailers?
This story was originally published on Modern Retail’s sibling publication Glossy.
While the presidential election results on Tuesday night have understandably eaten up much of the public conversation, election night also brought with it numerous changes to legislation across the country. In California, the passage of Proposition 36, which would impose harsher penalties for crimes like shoplifting, will have a major impact on the retail business, for good or ill.
The proposition passed with 70% of the vote in California on Tuesday. It will undo several of the provisions set in a 2014 law that downgraded the punishment for various petty crimes like shoplifting and drug possession. The new law will increase those punishments in an effort to curb shoplifting and the spread of drugs like fentanyl.
Proponents of the proposition have pointed to the narrative that has taken hold in retail over the last year: that an unprecedented wave of petty crime was significantly eating into businesses’ bottom line.
Whether that’s actually true is murkier. While last year some cities like New York and Los Angeles have seen an increase in larceny offenses, which include both petty shoplifting and organized retail crime, most cities have seen a decline. That includes San Francisco, where larceny offenses fell by 5%, despite the city’s status as a poster child for rampant petty crime. Additionally, larceny offenses, in general, have fallen significantly over the last 30 years, dropping by more than 50% since 1990.
Still, retailers’ reactions to shoplifting have become increasingly apparent to consumers.
“All consumers have experienced this impact,” said Juan Pellerano, CMO of the retail tech company Swap. “Try walking into a CVS without needing assistance to unlock basics like toothpaste or deodorant.”
But Pellerano said it’s unclear if the proposition will significantly reduce theft. Instead, he said, a broader police presence in shopping districts would likely have a more immediate effect on crime rates than increased punishments.
Opponents of the proposition argue that Prop 36 will take more public money away from other programs and funnel more people into the state’s prison system, all while doing little to make California safer. The ACLU, which opposed the proposition, will “work to prevent Proposition 36 from becoming a tool or an excuse to dismantle decades of progress on criminal justice reform and common-sense public safety policies that the ACLU has long pursued,” stated Abdi Soltani, executive director of the ACLU of Northern California, in a press statement on Wednesday morning.
“The broad coalition of organizations that opposed Prop 36, including business, labor, teachers, law enforcement and front-line healthcare workers, will continue to advocate for smart and effective criminal justice reform and public safety solutions that work for all communities,” Soltani said.