Shoplifting skyrockets by 24% across US even as most other crimes fall to pre-pandemic levels

NY POST ^ | July 25, 2024, | Alex Oliveira

[dennisw]

Shoplifting has spiked across the country so far this year — even as many major crimes like homicide dropped back to pre-pandemic levels, a major national crime study showed.

Rates of shoplifting rose an average 24% during the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year, according to the Council on Criminal Justice’s (CCJ) Mid-Year Crime Report released Thursday.

The study reviewed crime statistics from 23 cities across the US, finding shoplifting has steadily been on the rise since the country began emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic around 2022.

Shoplifting has gotten lots of attention in recent years, as alarming videos have spread online showing gangs of hooligans staging brazen “smash-and-grabs” where they overwhelm a store and make off with armloads of goods at once. Others show thieves flagrantly snatching merchandise time and time again.

The problem has become so prevalent across the country that pharmacies and big box stores have begun locking up their aisles up with barriers to curb thievery — much to the frustration of honest customers.

Ernesto Lopez, a senior researcher with CCJ who helped compile the report, noted that a sharp increase could come in part because stores are reporting shoplifting more frequently due to the heavy attention on the problem.

[Lizavetta]

Here in Southwest Florida nothing is locked up. Nothing.

No vagrants, tents, "encampments", beggars. It's simply not tolerated.