looking for those suspects
reporting in Baytown Sabirah
Rayford KPRC. 2 news. >> Amy Davis here with you now.
>> Amy Davis here with you now.
You know the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce is now calling retail
theft a national crisis and
that 54% of small business
owners have experienced an increase in shoplifting last
increase in shoplifting last
year. Much of it stemming from
organized crime. Joining us now
to talk about this is Neil
Bradley executive vice
president and chief policy
officer with the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce. Good Morning.
Thanks for talking with us this
morning.
>> Good morning. And it’s great
to be with you.
>> Yes, so tell us how big of
an issue retail theft is
nationally and then can you
talk about what you’re seeing
here in the Houston area?
>> You know, as you just
mentioned, the majority of small business owners reported
small business owners reported
that they’ve seen an increase
in retail that in their stores.
We can actually want to find
the dollar amount. When you talk about larger retailers
talk about larger retailers
for every billion dollars in
sales, about $700,000 is lost
to a team. That’s these days. That’s an increase of 50% in
That’s an increase of 50% in
just the last 5 years. We are
friends of the National Retail
Federation. I’ve actually
multiple juice and is in the top 10 in terms of Warren eyes,
top 10 in terms of Warren eyes,
retail crime last year. And so
that means that the folks in
Houston are seeing more of these smashing round jobs.
these smashing round jobs.
More as these large, that and
that consumers there are
suffering from the higher
prices and the destruction is
being lost.
>> Yeah, I want to talk about
that a little bit. But first, I mean, you mentioned
mean, you mentioned
smash-and-grabs and I was even
thinking about that as an
organized theft ring. But it is
I mean, they’re organized when
they go in all together and
sort of get in, get out.
But I mean, also, I think a lot
of these things go on to the radar as far as the rest of
radar as far as the rest of
consumers go not seeing it
because it might be organized
sort of return fraud, things
and those type things in included in retail theft that
included in retail theft that
you guys are looking at.
>> Those are included in retail
that happened. You know, that
that has been kind of a
consistent problem. You know,
the the old fashioned
shoplifting that we think about, you know, that the team
about, you know, that the team
was trying to get away with
something or someone who’s
really in dire straits or, you
know, the return good staff where we release and
good staff where we release and
the increases in what we call
organized retail These are just
trying to send it to says the
same thing when people behind
runs for u N Crime rates. He said now what they’re doing
He said now what they’re doing
is they’re going out with a
list of goods that could be
stolen, their work, including
people that go into stores because steel these goods and
because steel these goods and
then they’re selling non to
unsuspecting consumers. And
so this is really taking on an
organized element on it.
That’s why the numbers have
gotten so high. That’s why this has become a national forests.
has become a national forests.
>> talk a little bit about.
I mean, obviously it turning
the businesses to lose
inventory get paid for it. But I mean, how is it impacting
But I mean, how is it impacting
our city? And in other people
here individually,
other customers.
>> What will let let’s start
with the most tragic story,
which is the folks who work
in these retail stores. You know, they they get up and go
know, they they get up and go
to work and they’re trying to
do the best job they can.
They didn’t sign up to be a
law enforcement officer. They didn’t sign on to deal
They didn’t sign on to deal
with folks who are coming in
often an
increasingly armed trying to
snake away with as much as they
possibly can. And so, Sally, various parts of the country,
various parts of the country,
we’re seeing a lot of these
tests turned violent now for
the rest of us. What it needs
is higher prices were paid for
those stolen goods and the prices that we pay for
prices that we pay for
everything else. You know, we
just saw a national a coffee
chain closed 16 stores across
the country. Not because they didn’t have a customer demand.
didn’t have a customer demand.
I’m not for any other reason.
Other than a crime was all in
effect in those stores and they
couldn’t operate in that these people lost their jobs, used
people lost their jobs, used
to work in that store. And that
is the local community no
longer has the benefit of that.
All the shop. We’re seeing this
Ripley all across the country.
>> I mean, it’s so why I say you said in the last 5 years,
you said in the last 5 years,
it certainly seems like we’ve
seen an increase since the
pandemic. And since retailers
and stores have opened back
up. But
why such an increase in such a pretty short period of time
pretty short period of time
to think.
>> It’s an important things.
over the course of the last 2
decades lost a lot of states
have changed their last name precinct. That threshold.
precinct. That threshold.
I would someone gets prosecuted
as a felony for back. What
we’ve seen is that these crime syndicates and recognize this.
syndicates and recognize this.
We samples of these going hit
with calculators out of the
way, not about and stolen goods because they know that it’s
because they know that it’s
under the threshold. They won’t
get prosecuted. And so the
pandemic also meant that the
prosecutors had to choose what
they were going after. And
there was basically this open sign that
basically this open sign that
was put retail that you can get
away with it. That combined
with them online marketplaces,
which would allow these
criminal syndicates to sell.
We students and frankly
criminal scottsmoor. They
recognize where they could make
money and where they can get
away with it without being
prosecuted, which is why we
Congress are state legislators
and local officials to close
these loopholes so that there’s
no place to sell the goods.
And so the people who are doing
this are prosecuted. >> Yeah, absolutely. Should not
>> Yeah, absolutely. Should not
be the cost of doing business
anywhere. It sounds like a
national sort of problem for
lawmakers to handle. But is
there anything that that states can do about it in Texas?
can do about it in Texas?
>> So absolutely what we need,
what we’re seeing, both
Republican states and Democrats
states do is I’d what we call
aggregation statute says someone is caught stealing $100
someone is caught stealing $100
worth of goods in the morning
and then they’re not against
doing somewhere else in the
afternoon on and one more time that evening, rather than
that evening, rather than
creating. That is 3 separate
offenses, not of which are
prosecutable aggravated when
we know that individuals are
part of these primaries that’s treated by organized crime and
treated by organized crime and
go after we’ve seen great
changes in the laws in states
like Illinois and Florida to go
after the Saints would like to
see that in every state and
then high risk of almost like passing legislation that, you
passing legislation that, you
know, your customer so that
people can sell the stolen
goods anonymously involved
online.
>> Jeez yeah. So then it’s
going to be officers walking
around calculators to try to figure out this thief stole
figure out this thief stole
this in the morning. And this
in the afternoon. Where can
people go to learn more about
the problem and possible solutions?
>> I hope those will go to the
U.S. chamber dot com slash
retail that U.S. chamber dot
com slash retail that you learn about some of the solutions,
about some of the solutions,
but also what this is costing a
law abiding citizens. What’s
causing people there in Houston
and across the nation.