Smash-and-grabs, California, and the limits of criminal justice reform

Walk down Rodeo Drive with Todd Johnson, and he’ll point out security measures that are helping one of the world’s luxury centers prevent “smash-and-grab” thefts assailing shopping districts from New York to San Francisco.

Stepping close to the Gucci storefront window, he taps his knuckle against the thick glass. “Bulletproof,” says the president of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce. It explains why burglars who took a sledgehammer to nearby Louis Vuitton and Saks Fifth Avenue last month were not able to bash their way into the stores before police arrived. Strolling further along the holiday-festooned boulevard, Mr. Johnson points to a tiny camera atop a traffic light. The city has upwards of 2,000 cameras – more per square foot than any city in the world, he says. “You can’t get in or out of our city without being seen.”

Then there are the things not visible to the eye: a police response time of under three minutes, and more hires, too. The police also coordinate closely with merchants, city leaders, and law enforcement agencies across the greater Los Angeles area. After an alert from the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department – and a citizen report of suspicious vehicles in the heart of Beverly Hills – Beverly Hills police arrested four suspects from a “flash mob” robbery over the Thanksgiving weekend. The suspects matched the description of a small swarm of people who descended on a Home Depot and fled with sledgehammers and crowbars. The store was 30 miles away.

“The dots were connected,” says Lt. Giovanni Trejo of the Beverly Hills Police Department.

A wave of smash-and-grabs reported in New York, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay Area finally rolled into greater Los Angeles on Nov. 18 – with 11 such incidents in just over a week. And yet none of 14 people arrested, including the Home Depot suspects caught in Beverly Hills, is still in custody. That telegraphs a lack of consequences, say many in retail and law enforcement. Lack of accountability, they explain, encourages brazen criminal acts and is causing many to question criminal justice reforms led by progressive prosecutors such as George Gascón in Los Angeles and Chesa Boudin in San Francisco – both of whom have voters clamoring for a recall.

“We have a number of cases ready to go. We need prosecutors to prosecute these organized retail theft cases. That sends a message: ‘There will be consequences,’” says Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Association.

Organized retail crime is nothing new, says Ms. Michelin, but it’s been taken to “a new level” with these mob thefts. According to a self-reported 2021 online survey by the National Retail Federation this year, about 69% of retailers said they had seen an increase in organized retail theft over the past year. They cited reasons such as the pandemic, changes to sentencing guidelines, and the growth of online marketplaces.

Similarly, 65% said gangs involved in organized retail crime are more aggressive and violent. That puts employees and shoppers in danger and has a traumatic effect on them, said Los Angeles Police Chief Michael Moore at a press conference last week. He noted that when he recently patrolled a retail area on foot with other officers, he saw a couple of women working behind a store counter start to duck down – fearing a police presence meant something bad was happening.

Organized response

Retailers are responding by sharing intelligence, hiring more private security and off-duty police, pulling high-end merchandise from their windows, stationing employees and security at entrances, and using high-tech devices, like GPS locators on merchandise to track stolen goods.

Store owners, public officials, and law enforcement are also joining forces. As Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf told CNN recently, the thieves are coordinated, so “we need to be coordinated as well.” She says her city, which cut police, needs more officers, and state and federal law enforcement need to step up with resources and coordination.

Retailers have worked closely with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his staff to reestablish an organized retail crime task force, and the state has boosted funding dedicated to the problem. Last month, he directed the California Highway Patrol to increase its presence near major retail sites. In the Bay Area, hit particularly hard, prosecutors have formed an alliance to combat organized retail theft.

Bruce Chase, assistant sheriff for patrol operations in Los Angeles County, remarks that “everybody wants a simple answer, but it is really more complex.” He cites a number of factors: deprivation during the pandemic, the civil unrest of 2020 in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a police officer, the movement toward police reform, and communities in turmoil. “This general sense of lawlessness takes hold and the criminal element comes behind so that they feel emboldened to take advantage.”

In the case of the 14 suspects no longer in custody, a key factor is a pandemic-related policy of “zero bail” for some arrestees that was established by the Los Angeles County Superior Court to reduce the jail population. Police Chief Moore wants that changed.  

Perception vs. reality

The issue now, as Assistant Sheriff Chase sees it, is the perception, fact-based or not, of no consequences. In an effort to end mass incarceration and inequity in the justice system, the new Los Angeles County district attorney, Mr. Gascón, has instituted reforms that drastically reduce prosecutions of low-level crimes. These reforms, says Mr. Chase, are “colliding” with a moment in which opportunists and street gangs are seizing the day with smash-and-grabs. “Thieves take calculated risks,” he says, and right now, “they feel they can get away with it.”

In a press conference marking his first anniversary this week, Mr. Gascón, flanked by progressive prosecutors from other states, argued that there is no connection between his policies and a perception of rising crime in the county. Despite the high-profile smash-and-grabs, robberies and burglaries are down in Los Angeles and the county compared with 2019. Nationally, burglary was down in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period a year ago. But murders are up substantially in the city and county – just last week, a beloved philanthropist, Jacqueline Avant, was killed in her Beverly Hills home. Nationally, a dozen cities have hit all-time high homicide records.

In California, much of the debate relating to retail theft is focused on a ballot measure passed overwhelmingly by voters seven years ago. The sentence-reducing measure, Proposition 47, lowered theft with a value less than $950 from a possible felony to a misdemeanor. Charges are often not pressed. The measure was co-written by Mr. Gascón and supported by then-Lt. Gov. Newsom. 

Last year, voters continued their support for this reform by overwhelmingly rejecting a proposition that would have lowered the felony theft threshold to $250 for repeat offenders. However, Ms. Michelin, of the California Retailers Association, would like to tweak the law to allow for the aggregation of theft amounts for suspects who go from store to store.  

She also says that Prop. 47 took away the ability to send some convicted thieves to a diversion program. A common tactic in organized retail crime is for criminals to tap homeless people and people with drug or alcohol addictions to do the stealing for them. These are good candidates for diversion, rehabilitation, and work-training programs that could benefit retailers, says Ms. Michelin. “We’re very much a second-chance industry. We can’t do that because of Proposition 47.”

News reports linking smash-and-grabs to the sentencing reductions of Prop. 47 greatly disturb Charis Kubrin, a professor in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine. “We do not need to undo the criminal justice reforms, particularly Proposition 47,” she says. 

Research, including her own, shows no connection between lowering sentences for theft and rising crime rates, she says. Since 2000, at least 39 states – including California – have safely raised the threshold required for a felony theft, according to a 2018 Pew study. As Dr. Kubrin points out, smash-and-grabs are happening even in states that don’t have a law similar to Prop. 47, such as Illinois and Minnesota. And the profile of many of the smash-and-grabs is that they are high-end, far exceeding the felony requirements. A better idea than rolling back reforms, she says, is to crack down on the online marketplaces where stolen goods are sold. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Kubrin has kudos for law enforcement authorities who are stepping up patrols and coordinating across jurisdictions. “They were very quickly mobilized and are trying to figure out what’s going on.” Yesterday, Los Angeles police announced six more arrests for flash mob incidents.

Praise from a retailer

Back in Beverly Hills, clothier Duke Hagenburger has nothing but praise for the way the city is handling the threat of smash-and-grabs. In addition to a beefed-up police department, the city has two security companies that patrol, as well as undercover “ambassadors” to keep an eye on things, he explains.

“The level of proactiveness in the marketplace is super effective to keeping these things down,” says Mr. Hagenburger, the dapper general manager of this Isaia boutique, a custom menswear business based in Italy. And in the instances that have occurred, the law enforcement response has been quick and effective, he says.

Leaning casually on a table in front of a wall of handmade, seven-fold neckties, Mr. Hagenburger notes that he hasn’t taken any extra security measures because he doesn’t feel he needs to. The city is clearly communicating its proactive and reactive strength, so that people understand it’s a safe place even in this environment, he says. “It is frankly the reason that we are in business in this market.”