Thursday, 31 October 2024

Target Location Allegedly Warned It Would Be Charged For Reporting Theft To Police

100 Percent Fed Up
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The Sacramento City Attorney’s Office allegedly warned a Target location it would face a public nuisance charge for reporting theft to police.

“A person with knowledge of the warning, but not authorized to speak publicly due to the fear of retaliation, told The Sacramento Bee that city officials threatened the Target at 2505 Riverside Blvd. in the past year with an administrative fine,” The Sacramento Bee reports.

“A Sacramento police spokesman confirmed the location — a site that prompted heavy ire from Land Park residents due to repeated crimes — when asked about the apparent warning,” the outlet added.

If the reports are confirmed, the only logical path for Target is to leave Sacramento.

Why would any business want to operate in a city where reporting theft is considered a nuisance?

“Officials in Sacramento CA threatened to sue Target for reporting too many crimes to the police and being a nuisance (+300% increase in reported retail crimes from 2021-2023), while many state politicians in CA’s Capitol argued that ‘the official data on retail theft is not dispositive of a crisis’ nor worthy of much tougher laws to deter & punish repeat thieves,” Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig said.

“This type of hypocrisy in CA’s ruling class is exactly why 900k people endorsed the citizens’ initiative to allow the voters to fix it themselves in Nov 24!” he added.

The Sacramento Bee reports:

The alleged warning issued by Sacramento city officials — and similar actions by other cities across the state — prompted lawmakers to add an amendment to a retail theft bill that would outlaw such threats made by authorities. Pursuing legal actions against businesses for reporting crime brought heavy criticism from law enforcement.

“I … (was) also surprised that anyone would ever attempt to make a nuisance case out of somebody calling to report a legitimate crime,” said Alexander Gammelgard, president of the California Police Chiefs Association while testifying in December at the Assembly’s first retail theft committee meeting. “I don’t think there is a place for that.”

The City Attorney’s Office and the Sacramento Police Department were not aware of any threats of litigation, Tim Swanson, a spokesman for the city of Sacramento, wrote in an email.

It’s unclear why City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood’s office would allegedly resort to issuing such a warning to any business seeking help from police. Swanson did not grant multiple interview requests to the City Attorney’s Office over a period of about a week.

Clark Kelso, a professor of law at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law, said “there is no question” that city attorneys have every right to pursue a public nuisance charge against businesses in which owners know the property is dangerous.

From The Center Square:

Last year, Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper, a Democratic former member of the State Assembly, said local Target stores had requested assistance from his department to “help them with shoplifters, mostly who were known transients.” Cooper said the department could not contact, handcuff, or arrest individuals within the store, and would have to do their work “behind the store” and “in the rain” because corporate management did not “want to create a scene” for people to put on social media and cause “negative press.”

Target crime reporting in California has been the subject of national attention. When one Target location in San Francisco began reporting all of its crime, the county’s shoplifting doubled, with the single store responsible for half of shoplifting reports. This incident suggests underreporting of theft could be significantly obscuring the extent of theft in the state.

Target, along with Walmart and Home Depot, are the top financial backers of November ballot measure Proposition 36, which would reform the state’s reduced prosecution of drug dealing and theft to more strongly prosecute serial thieves and drug dealers. It also would create a “treatment-mandated felony” crime class that allows individuals to get treatment for mental health or behavioral issues and receive shelter instead of going to prison. Proposition 36 is endorsed by the California District Attorneys Association, the California State Sheriffs’ Association, the Republican Party of California, and some top Democrats including San Francisco Mayor London Breed, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.


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