Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho announced Tuesday that his office has created a retail theft prosecution unit that includes a full-time investigator and a prosecutor who will work on cases from beginning to end.
Ho said he believes having officers focused on one specific case and then seeing it through to completion will help eradicate retail theft, a recurring problem in Sacramento and across much of California.
“We have a full-time investigator and a prosecutor who is assigned to prosecute those cases vertically … collaborating with our law enforcement partners in the investigation process, our business community, all the way to the prosecution and the conviction of the case,” Ho said.
Ho told reporters in front of a Walmart Supercenter in South Sacramento that the new unit had a soft launch two months ago and has filed 35 criminal cases.
Ho’s office is working with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, the Sacramento Police Department, the California Highway Patrol, several trade associations, and retail businesses in the area as part of this all-hands crackdown.
Ho, who beat out a George Soros-backed opponent in 2022, was accompanied by Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper at the press briefing. The men said they were frustrated that stores have been forced to lock up everyday items such as toothpaste, razors, and deodorant to deter theft and that the process led to lengthy wait times and other inconveniences for paying customers.
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“We as Californians have to change that, and obviously this is going to go a long ways to prosecute these folks and hold them accountable,” Cooper said. “Vertical from beginning to end makes a big difference. [Prosecutors are] vested. They know the case in and out.”
California Highway Patrol Chief Mike Dust said the state is putting $373.5 million toward fighting retail theft over the next four years. He added that CHP conducted 21 blitz operations in Sacramento, Placer, and San Joaquin counties in the last four months of 2023, which led to 116 arrests and the recovery of $325,000 worth of goods.
