Mayor Eric Adams recently unveiled a plan to combat rising retail theft in New York City that will include “diversion programs” for non-violent offenders, training retail workers in de-escalation, and “resource kiosks” in stores.
His administration will also create a repeat offender program to keep track of recidivism and facilitate stronger prosecutions by the five district attorneys’ offices, establish a retail watch for businesses neighboring each other, and establish a retail theft task force, according to a press release.
“Shoplifters and organized crime rings prey on businesses that have already taken a hit due to COVID-19, but, with this comprehensive plan, we’re going to beat back on retail theft through a combination of law enforcement, prevention, and intervention,” Adams said. “Last year alone, 327 repeat offenders were responsible for 30 percent of the more than 22,000 retail thefts across our city. This hurt our businesses, our workers, our customers, and our city.”
The kiosks will be installed in stores for the benefit of underprivileged community members who are prone to crime like shoplifting, the plan suggests. They will “connect individuals in need to critical government resources and social services.” Adams did not announce any specific constructive action to actually crackdown on shoplifting, although he said there would be a “combination of increased law enforcement efforts and enhanced social service programming and resources to prevent shoplifting, particularly by individuals struggling with substance use disorders, serious mental illness, homelessness, or poverty.”
“Manhattan is the retail capital of the country, and we need our business community to thrive,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said. “Retail theft has increased city-wide and nation-wide since the pandemic, and we must continue to work together to drive down shoplifting. However, there is encouraging news – for the first time since the pandemic, retail theft has begun to decline in Manhattan.”
Bragg, a progressive prosecutor, has faced intense backlash for his support of lax law enforcement policies, such as bail reform, which many critics have blamed for fueling the crime wave in New York City. He has come under fire for charging Marine veteran Daniel Penny, who is white, with manslaughter in the death of the black mentally unstable career criminal Jordan Neely, who was harassing and intimidating subway passengers. Some critics have claimed that Bragg should have brought the case to a grand jury, which would have discovered that Neely menaced passengers on the train, that Penny was one of a few passengers to intervene in the altercation, and that the incident was not likely racially motivated.