“Walgreens also supports the various external efforts of policymakers and advocacy groups, including proposed ballot measures, legislation and funding that will help foster a safer environment in the communities we serve.” “Walgreens has taken a number of steps to address safety in our stores,” the company said. Similarly, Walgreens expressed its support of the proposal in a statement to CNN. “We believe these tools are what is needed to help communities enforce the law and improve safety for all.”Ī boarded-up Walgreens is open for business near the Westfield San Francisco Centre in 2023. “The Homeless, Drug Addiction, Retail Theft Reduction Act is a balanced community safety approach with effective tools to allow judges to use their discretion to hold individuals accountable for repeated retail theft offenses,” Walmart said in a statement. It dontated $2.5 million to the committee sponsoring the measure. Walmart, which has 144 Supercenters and more than 100,000 employees in the state, is the top funder of the ballot initiative. The proposal has garnered predictable support from big retailers. Under the new proposal, “an offender with two prior convictions for theft can be charged with a felony, regardless of the value of the stolen property.” It would also allow prosecutors to add together the value of property stolen across multiple thefts to exceed the $950 threshold for a felony charge, and create harsher punishments for organized retail theft rings. The situation was so dire last year at one Walgreens store in San Francisco, employees resorted to padlocking frozen foods. From 2019 to 2022, San Francisco saw an increase in shoplifting by 24%, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, which used data from the state’s Department of Justice to examine the problem. It’s a leniency compared to many other jurisdictions that some argue has led to skyrocketing theft in recent years. Targeting chronic and repeated retail theftĬurrently under Prop 47, if someone steals less than $950 in merchandise, in most cases they will be charged with a misdemeanor. But it appears destined to be decided by voters: The proposal needs fewer than 547,000 signatures to get on California’s ballot in November, and organizers tell CNN they have 75% of the signatures needed. Gavin Newsom opposes the proposal, arguing the system is sufficiently tough on crime. But it has support from a handful of Democratic mayors, too.Īlthough Democratic Gov. Many of the proposal’s backers are exactly who you’d expect: district attorneys, Republican lawmakers and big chain stores that have been lashing out against a Covid-era rise in shoplifting that last year subsided. For the first time in ten years, California voters could get the opportunity to change a controversial law aimed at criminal justice reform.Ī new proposal, called The Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, would roll back parts of Proposition 47, approved by California voters in 2014 to reduce overcrowding in jails by reducing punishments for some crimes, like theft and drug possession.
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