The National Retail Federation claims Los Angeles is the top city in America for organized retail theft. That led KNX News to host a town hall to study and understand the issue.
Mike Simpson and Charles Feldman moderated Smash & Grab: Stealing the Season, a one-hour special, and welcomed a panel of experts to discuss the topic.
Panelists included:
- Todd Spitzer, Orange County District Attorney
- Marc Beeart, Director of Fraud & Corruption Prosecutions at the L.A. County District Attorney’s office
- Lt. Sergio Perez, Coordinator of the California Highway Patrol Retail Theft Task Force
- Tinisch Hollins, Executive Director, Californians for Safety and Justice
- Charis Kubrin, Criminologist, UC Irvine
The National Retail Federation recently retracted claims that organized theft was responsible for $94 billion in annual losses. However, panelists at the town hall said actually calculating the figure is a difficult exercise.
Law enforcement officials attempted to impress upon KNX News listeners just how serious the problem is.
“Every single time an individual goes into a business and creates this level of havoc, they need to be prosecuted,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
“You can’t really get a handle on how to solve a problem until you know what the extent of the problem is,” added Charis Kurbin, a Criminologist at UC Irvine, “these are the numbers, how widespread it is, and all of that additional information which is not just noise, but a precursor to solving a problem, in my opinion.”
