A California district attorney has threatened to punish a Target store for repeatedly reporting in-store thefts in the crime-ridden state.
Sacramento City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood’s office said the retail store at 2505 Riverside Blvd. in Land Park will be fined and charged with public nuisance if it continues to call police when there is a theft at the store.
A person familiar with the incident, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said The Sacramento Bee city officials warned that an administrative fine would also be levied.
Legal action against a business for reporting a crime has prompted lawmakers to add an amendment to a retail theft bill that makes such threats illegal.
Sacramento City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood (pictured) has issued a warning and will be charged with disorderly conduct if Target at 2505 Riverside Blvd. in Land Park continues to call police when there is a theft at the store.
Alexander Gammelgard, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, who testified at the Assembly’s first meeting on retail theft in December, seemed surprised by the recent news, explaining that “there’s no place for that.”
‘YO … (I was) also surprised that someone would try to make a fuss about someone calling to report a legitimate crime,’ he told the Bee.
Wood’s office and the Sacramento Police Department reported ABC45 News They did not know that such a threat had been made.
Under the Proposition 47 initiative that passed in 2014, lower-level crimes were established as misdemeanors and a felony threshold of $950 was set for shoplifting.
But many opposed the voter-approved plan, believing it has been responsible for the rise in theft in their state.
Governor Gavin Newsom has reportedly been working to toughen penalties for retail theft crimes by introducing a package of 14 bills specifically addressing the issue later this year.
Newsom is working alongside Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and state Sen. Mike McGuire. They believe their legislation will help minimize retail theft crimes, rather than overhauling changes to Prop. 47, according to the outlet.
However, California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D., announced in June that she was gathering signatures to place a measure to reform Proposition 47 on the November ballot.
A couple is seen entering Target in Auburn before surveillance footage captures them robbing the retailer.
They were accused of exchanging merchandise in boxes
Retail theft has been on the rise in the state of California.
On Friday, nearly 100 robbers looted a gas station in the middle of the night in Oakland, an incident that was captured on surveillance footage.
The raid came just days after Oakland’s progressive mayor boasted of a drop in crime in the crime-ridden city.
In June, nearly twenty thieves broke into a jewelry store in broad daylight at the Hacienda Shopping Center in the 700 block of E. El Camino Real near Sunnyvale, California.
The thieves smashed the jewelry display cases with hammers and other weapons and were later arrested.
A couple was arrested at a Target in Auburn in 2021 after being accused of swapping merchandise in boxes, CBS News Sacramento reported.
Sacramento’s Democratic District Attorney Thien Ho filed a lawsuit against the Democrat-led city in September 2023 for failing to clean up homeless encampments, raising tensions between city leaders.
After filing the lawsuit, Ho said, “We“We have more homeless people in Sacramento than in San Francisco. The community is on the brink of collapse.”
According to police data obtained by The Bee, there were 375 calls related to robbery, theft and shoplifting in 2023, up from 175 in 2022 and 87 in 2021, reported from three different Target locations in Sacramento.
However, most of the calls did not result in a crime report, an arrest or a citation.
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