DAs, retailers say California needs stronger shoplifting law

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Spurred by a recent run of large-scale smash-and-grab robberies, prosecutors and retailers are pushing back on assertions by California's governor and attorney general that they have enough tools to combat retail theft in the wake of a voter-approved easing of related laws.

“We cannot function as a society where we have told people over and over again that there is no consequence for stealing other people’s property," said Vern Pierson, immediate past president of the California District Attorneys Association and El Dorado County's district attorney.

“We feel a little bit like we’re under assault," California Retailers Association President and CEO Rachel Michelin said separately.

Shoplifting has been a growing problem, Michelin said, but recent large-scale thefts in California and elsewhere across the nation in which groups of individuals rush into stores and take goods in plain sight or smash and grab from display cases is ”raising it to a whole new level.”

California is hardly alone, with similar brazen incidents seen in Minnesota, Chicago's North Michigan Avenue and North Rush Street and many other locations.

Authorities in Oak Brook, Illinois, for instance said 14 people entered a Louis Vuitton store in the Chicago suburb last month and filled large plastic bags with clothing and other items worth more than $120,000.

National retail groups last month estimated the annual losses to be in the tens of billions of dollars. Some states’ attorney generals are supporting a congressional bill that would require more prevention efforts by large online marketplaces, where experts say many of the stolen goods are fenced.

The thefts have become a political issue as well, particularly in California, where critics place blame on progressive policies...