Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is touting a $267 million investment to help officials in combating organized retail theft in the Golden State.
Newsom promoted the $267,118,293 recommended by the state to be awarded to 55 law enforcement agencies for fighting retail crime in California. The recommended funding will be voted on by the Board of State and Community Corrections on Wednesday and will be distributed to agencies on Oct. 1.
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“Enough with these brazen smash-and-grabs. With an unprecedented $267 million investment, Californians will soon see more takedowns, more police, more arrests, and more felony prosecutions,” Newsom said in a statement. “When shameless criminals walk out of stores with stolen goods, they’ll walk straight into jail cells.”
The California governor’s office says that grants of up to $23.6 million would be sent to 41 police departments and sheriff’s offices, in addition to a probation department, for various initiatives, including increasing arrests, creating new task forces, and installing more advanced surveillance technology.
The funds would also provide 13 district attorneys’ offices with up to $2.05 million to establish “new teams dedicated to prosecuting organized retail theft.”
Retail theft has also seen an uptick in several places across the country, leaving business owners, large and small, to feel abandoned by lawmakers who they say have done little to help fix the problem.
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Increased crime and theft in San Francisco and Los Angeles have been blamed for several businesses closing stores in both cities. The National Retail Federation says that San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Sacramento have been “hot spots” for organized retail crime in recent years.
Newsom has also previously touted the $800 million in funding, which works to “improve public safety and crack down on retail crime,” in the state’s annual budget.
