California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced a $267 million investment to target retail-related crime, part of his Real Public Safety Plan to fight crime across the state.
"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."
Organized retail crime incidents have become "particularly acute" in California, according to Retail Industry Leaders Association President Brian Dodge.
"As it relates to crime and organized retail crime, California is truly in a league of its own," Dodge recently told FOX Business. "It's terribly upsetting, terribly frightening and a problem that has been growing exponentially over the course of the last several years."
According to the National Retail Federation, organized retail crime caused businesses to lose $100 billion in 2021.
The $267 million would be spread across 55 cities and counties to "hire more police, make more arrests, and secure more felony charges against suspects," according to Newsom's plan.
Individual sheriff's offices and police department will be awarded over $23 million each in funding to be used for creating "fully staffed retail theft investigative units, increase arrests, install advanced surveillance technology, train loss prevention officers, create new task forces, increase cooperation with businesses and the community, target criminals in blitz operations, as well as crack down on vehicle and catalytic converter theft."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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