San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan told the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday that her office has had “great success” going after organized retail crime.
It has prosecuted more than 330 people for organized retail crime in the past three years, accounting for more than $3 million in-store losses, she said.
“But this is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.
They’re prosecuting mostly “boosters” — the people physically stealing the goods — but can’t reach the people in charge, Stephan told lawmakers.
“We cannot get through as a county prosecutor to the level of the organized criminals that are pulling the strings and that are responsible for reselling the products,” she said.
Stephan asked the lawmakers to create a national database to track organized retail crime.
The national scope and implications of organized retail crime is unclear. There’s no standard definition or way of tracking it.
Still, it’s been used to justify recent tough-on-crime decisions, like the deployment of the National Guard to Memphis, a majority-Black city.
It also fueled the passage of Proposition 36, which has funneled hundreds more San Diegans each month — disproportionately Black — into already overcrowded jails, according to analyses of San Diego County Sheriff’s data by Voice of San Diego.
In May, Stephan’s office announced a sentence of six years for a man convicted of organized retail theft.
He stole about $19,000 dollars worth of goods.
His incarceration will cost taxpayers about $780,000.
