By: Ilana Siyance
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is unveiling an effort to combat shoplifting, as Big Apple retailers reel from repeated attacks.
As reported by the NY Post, the DA, who has recently come under fire for a soft-on-crime stance, is now targeting repeat offenders in shopliftings and smash-and-go robberies. On Sunday, the president of a top business group announced the rollout in an interview on Cats Roundtable on WABC 770 AM radio talk show. “It is a plan to reduce retail theft In Manhattan: Shoplifting and smash-and-go robberies. Something we very much need!” Kathy Wylde, President of Partnership for New York City told host John Catsimatidis. “They’re going to be focusing on a much closer working relationship with the NYPD to aggressively identify those folks who have high rates of recidivism,” she continued, “you know, it’s a relatively small number of relatively well-organized people who are committing most of these robberies that have so much increased in the recent years.”
These kinds of broad-daylight robberies have been plaguing retailers across NY since the pandemic began. The DA’s office has been criticized for liberal views since he took office in January, and for not requesting bail for many felonies including shoplifting. There has even been talk of ousting Bragg, as was done this month in San Francisco, when far-left District Attorney Chesa Boudin was voted out.
Wylde, who leads Partnership for NYC, which represents over 300 business leaders, says she has been working with Bragg and small business owners on a plan to fight shoplifting since January. The plan being rolled out with Bragg includes “focused deterrence,” Wylde said. This will feature pre-trial detention for alleged thieves who have prior felony convictions, multiple open cases and have missed court dates in the past. Bragg’s prosecutors will also upgrade numerous misdemeanors charges classifying them as felonies, Wylde said. The effort will take place with the help of retailers and merchants, who are being asked to keep records and security footage, to estimate how much an offender has swiped overall. This would help lock up a serial shoplifter even before the trial.
“That instead of to get to a felony it’s been if you took less than $1,000 worth of goods, it was still not a felony. Now, if the store keeper is able to keep the records and have the camera shots, [the district attorney] will be able to aggregate repeat offenses,” Wylde explained. “So, somebody who thought they were being cute by stealing $999 worth of goods will now be in a position where they’re going to go to jail.”
As per the Post, this year bold daytime robberies included a heist of a team of seven thieves who walked in and out of The Real Real on Madison Ave and 71st Street stealing about $500,000 worth of handbags and jewelry. “It’s very much an organized crime model,” commented Matthew Bauer, president of the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District.
Wylde also noted that Manhattan prosecutors will also start targeting fencing operations—or the purchasing of stolen goods. If there is less of a market for stolen goods, this will also help deter shoplifting. “So that’s the kind of thing [the district attorney’s office] is going to be breaking up,” she said.
