Sacramento Legal Dept. Threatens Target for Reporting Theft Crimes

A California Target has been threatened with fines by Susana Alcala Wood, the city attorney, for chronically reporting thefts and bringing attention to the city’s high crime rate.

 If the retail establishment at 2505 Riverside Blvd. in Land Park continues to contact the police in the event of a theft, it will face fines and perhaps charges of public annoyance. 

An anonymous source informed the media that city authorities had threatened to levy an administrative punishment in addition to the criminal charges but preferred to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation.

Legislators in the state learned about the city’s warning and other like incidents around the state and amended a measure to criminalize retail theft, making it illegal for authorities to threaten companies in this way. 

In an effort to address retail theft, state senator Mike McGuire, assembly speaker Robert Rivas, and Governor Gavin Newsom have proposed a package of fourteen laws that would increase the punishments for such acts.

The California Secretary of State declared last month that petitioners had collected more than enough signatures to include a reform proposal to Proposition 47 on the November ballot. Proposition 47, a 2014 voter-approved initiative that reduced penalties for drug and theft charges in the state, is credited with the infamous chronic theft problems in California. 

Debates about measures to reduce crime in the state erupted at the Capitol in Sacramento, which is controlled by Democrats, just after the proposal to amend Prop 47 was passed. Opponents saw the measure as Democrats’ “poison pill” to dissuade voters from voting to amend Prop 47 in November on the grounds that doing so would repeal anti-crime laws.

An alarming number of robberies have occurred at Californian retail establishments recently. For example, in June, around twenty thieves stormed a jewelry store in a disturbing “smash and grab” robbery. This type of robbery has been all too common in the crime-ridden cities of California, as well as criminals boldly filling shopping carts and defiantly marching out of stores past checkout counters.

In September 2023, the city of Sacramento was sued by Democratic District Attorney Thien Ho for failing to remove homeless encampments, further inflaming tensions between the city’s Democratic leadership and the homeless population.