New California laws aim to reduce smash-and-grab robberies, car thefts and shoplifting

SACRAMENTO, California — California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bipartisan package of 10 bills aimed at cracking down on robbery and property crimes, making it easier to catch repeat shoplifters and car thieves, and increasing penalties for those who operate professional resale schemes.

The move comes as Democratic leaders are trying to prove that they tough enough against crime as they try to convince voters to reject the proposal a voting measure this would result in even harsher penalties for repeat offenders of shoplifting and drug possession.

While shoplifting is a growing problem, large-scale thefts, in which groups of individuals brazenly enter stores and take merchandise in plain sight, have become a crisis in California and elsewhere in recent years. Such crimes, often captured on video and posted on social media, have drawn particular attention to the problem of shoplifting in the state.

The legislation includes the most significant changes to tackle shoplifting in years, the Democratic governor said. It allows law enforcement to combine the value of stolen goods from multiple victims to impose stiffer penalties and arrest people for shoplifting using video footage or witness statements.

“This gets to the heart of the matter, and it does it in a thoughtful and judicious way,” Newsom said of the package. “This is the real deal.”

The legislation also cracks down on cargo theft, closing a legal loophole to make prosecution easier. car thefts and require marketplaces like eBay and Nextdoor start collecting bank accounts and tax identification numbers high-volume sellers. Retailers could also obtain restraining orders against convicted shoplifters under one of the bills.

“We know that shoplifting has consequences, big and small, physical and financial,” Sen. Nancy Skinner, who authored one of the bills, said Friday. “And we know we must take the right steps to stop it without returning to the days of mass incarceration.”

Democratic lawmakers, led by Newsom, tried unsuccessfully for months earlier this year fight to maintain a tougher crime initiative off the November ballot. That ballot measure, Proposition 36, would make it a felony for repeat shoplifters and some drug charges, among other things. Democrats feared the measure would disproportionately criminalize low-income people and those with substance abuse problems, rather than targeting leaders who hiring large groups of people to steal goods to resell them online. Lawmakers’ legislation would instead allow prosecutors to combine multiple thefts at different locations into one felony and toughen penalties for smash-and-grab and large-scale resale operations.

Newsom went as far in June as proposals to introduce a competitive measure on the ballot paper but drop the plan a day later. Proposition 36 is supported by a coalition of district attorneys, businesses and some local elected officials such as San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.

The package had bipartisan support in the Legislature, though some progressive Democrats did not vote for it, citing concerns that some of the measures were too punitive.

How to address crime in California has become increasingly difficult in recent years for Democrats in the state, many of whom have spent the past decade supporting progressive policies to depopulate prisons and invest in rehabilitation programs. Newsom’s administration has also $267 million spent to help dozens of local law enforcement agencies increase patrols, purchase surveillance equipment and prosecute more criminals.

The issue has reached a boiling point this year amid mounting criticism from Republicans and law enforcement officials, who point to viral videos of large-scale thefts in which groups of individuals brazenly storm into stores and carry off merchandise in plain sight. Voters across the state have also been angered by what they see as a lawless California where retail crime and drug abuse are rampant as the state grapples with a homeless crisis.

As the issue might even influence the composition and control of Congresssome Democrats broke with party leadership and said they supported Proposition 36, the tough-on-crime bill.

It’s difficult to quantify California’s retail crime problem due to a lack of local data, but many point to mass store closures and everyday items like toothpaste being kept behind plexiglass as evidence of a crisis. The California Retailers Association said it’s difficult to quantify the problem in California because many stores don’t share their data.

According to a study by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, crime figures show that the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles saw a steady increase in shoplifting between 2021 and 2022. The state’s attorney general and experts said crime rates in California remain low compared to decades-old highs.

The California Highway Patrol has recovered $45 million in stolen property and arrested nearly 3,000 people since 2019, officials said Friday.