The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office’s annual “Shop With a Cop” event last week drew droves of last-minute gift-givers out to the area’s shopping centers and malls. But behind the scenes, the county’s Organized Retail Theft Task Force (ORCTF) was conducting a crackdown on opportunistic shoplifters.
Staged at the Pacific View Mall in Ventura, the aptly named “Shoplift With a Cop” sting was organized in cooperation with loss- and asset-prevention teams from the center’s Target, JCPenney, and Macy’s stores, as well as Allied Security, which provides services for the mall at large. The blitz led to the arrest of 37 individuals and the recovery of nearly $2,000 in stolen property, the Sheriff’s office announced Tuesday.
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In total, 21 adults and 16 juveniles were arrested during the weekend blitz. In addition to uncovering stolen apparel from brands like Champion, Levi’s and Puma, law enforcement seized burglary tools and various narcotics including fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine.
According to the ORCTF, which is made up of detectives from various agencies within Ventura County, “This effort highlights the significant shoplifting challenges affecting not only the mall but also businesses across the county.” Over the Black Friday shopping weekend last month, the Ventura County ORCTF conducted a similar operation at the Camarillo Premium Outlets in Camarillo, Calif., which led to the arrest of 20 individuals and the recovery of $9,000 from stores like Nike, Calvin Klein, Old Navy and Lacoste.
To carry out Shoplift With a Cop, ORCTF teamed with members of the Sheriff’s West County Special Enforcement Unit, the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigations, the Ventura Police Department and patrol deputies from the Thousand Oaks and Camarillo stations.
Such targeted stings have become “common strategies” deployed by law enforcement in order to pinpoint specific affected retail establishments, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said. Often, store loss prevention staff are in on the planning and execution, and the ORCTF said it urges retailers experiencing a high volume of illegal activity to engage.
In the wake of the historic $267-million California Retail Theft Prevention Grant Program, which was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in fall 2023, task forces aimed at dealing specifically with organized retail crime have been set up across the state.
The Golden State is far from the only place in the nation where organized retail crime is on an upswing, though a study from the National Retail Federation released this week shows that three major California cities—Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento—ranked in the Top 10 for retail organizations impacted by the issue.
Organized retail crime (ORC)—wherein multiple suspects coordinate efforts to steal from stores—is becoming a more prevalent form of theft. According to the group’s research, 62 percent of retailers say multi-person thefts with two to three individuals are a bigger worry in 2023 than the previous year, and 76 percent named ORC as a growing concern. Their fears aren’t unfounded; retailers that have the ability to track ORC on average saw a 57-percent increase in incidents from 2022 to 2023.
On the whole, shoplifting activity is becoming more commonplace. Retailers across the U.S. reported a 93-percent increase in the average number of annual shoplifting incidents in 2023 from a 2019 baseline, and a 90-percent uptick in dollar loss due to retail theft over the same period.
