A large share of the shoplifting crimes in New York City are committed by the same people, according the New York Times (NYT).
Roughly a third of the city’s shoplifting crimes were committed by the same 327 people. This cohort accounted for over 6,000 arrests and rearrests, according to reporting by the NYT. The report also claims 18 department stores and 7 department chains accounted for 20 percent of the targeted locations. (RELATED: Woman Accused Of Shoplifting Has Emergency C-Section After Getting Shot By Walgreens Employee, Police Say)
Law enforcement have said a slate shoplifting rings have wrecked havoc on the city’s retail, and lax bail laws have made it very difficult to hold them to account.
300 people committed most of the shoplifting in a city of 9 million. A useful reminder that most crime & violence is committed by a tiny number of people, and that nearly every effective social or policing problem has to be hyper targeted or it will fail.https://t.co/v7FQYZwhfr
— Chris Blattman (@cblatts) April 15, 2023
The report states that the escalating level of robberies and violence in the city have cast a chill over the city’s shop owners.
“Every day, they’re going into work as they usually do and they’re not sure if the person walking in is there to rob them, going to steal from their store or start an issue where it just escalates to a point where they can’t control it,” a shopkeeper told NYT.
Shoplifting has been a major problem for retail stores in recent years. In December of 2022, Walmart CEO Doug McMillion said that theft would cause the retailer to raise prices and shutdown certain stores.
“If that’s not corrected over time, prices will be higher, and/or stores will close,” McMillion said.