Anyone with sticky fingers this holiday season be forewarned: the District Attorney’s Retail Protection Partnership is cracking down on shoplifting in a big way.
The game-changing effort has dealt a crushing blow to recidivist shoplifters, leading to lengthy sentences, according to Suffolk DA Ray Tierney. “When criminals target our local businesses, they are not just stealing merchandise,” Tierney said. “They are threatening jobs, driving up costs for honest consumers, and destabilizing neighborhoods that depend on these stores. Our message is clear: retail theft in Suffolk County will earn you jail time, not a revolving door.”
Following the elimination of cashless bail by the state’s Democrat legislators and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, retail crime had become a career path, sometimes a family affair. Incidents of shoplifting, smash-and-grab crimes, and people just helping themselves have skyrocketed. The cost of government-approved thievery, according to the National Retail Federation, is in the billions.
Faced with the lax bail system, Tierney partnered with store owners and created innovative ways to put perps behind bars. In just the past year, the RPP has grown to include many of the largest retailers in Suffolk County, including Target, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Ulta, Marshalls, Stop and Shop, Walgreens, Macy’s, CVS, TJX, and Burlington, Tierney reported.
The law enforcement members of the Partnership include Assistant District Attorneys, District Attorney Detective Investigators, members of each of the Suffolk County Police Department’s seven police precincts, and members of the Suffolk County Police Department’s District Attorney’s Squad.
The prosecutors implemented a strategy of “aggregation,” allowing for the value of the products stolen in numerous misdemeanor thefts to be added together to result in a felony charge. For example, one defendant was charged with 10 separate counts of Petit Larceny, a misdemeanor, for stealing from the same Walmart store in Yaphank between February 2024 and April 2024. Once the RPP identified the defendant as the perpetrator in all 10 incidents, prosecutors aggregated the incidents into one count of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a Class D felony, for which he now stands indicted, Tierney said.
Another strategy was the drafting of a new Trespass Notice, to be served by the police upon a shoplifting offender at the time of their arrest, giving notice to the shoplifter that they were no longer legally permitted to enter the store. Subsequently, if the shoplifter returns to that same store, the offender can then be charged with the crime of Trespass, or Burglary in the Third Degree, a Class D felony.
In August of 2023, a defendant stole merchandise from a Walgreens in Riverhead, was apprehended, charged with petit larceny, and served with a Trespass Notice. The defendant returned to the same Walgreens in December 2023 and stole additional merchandise. On this second occasion, in addition to another petit larceny charge, law enforcement charged the defendant with Burglary in the Third Degree based on the Trespass Notice.
Tierney also showed his mettle in cracking down on retail theft when he busted a Newark, NJ-based crime ring after they stole $94,000 worth of high-end merchandise from an East Hampton Balenciaga store. The perps, who distracted an employee and dashed out with expensive handbags, were sentenced to between three and seven years in prison.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, staying true to the destructive criminal policies of the Progressives, vetoed a bill that would have established a state task force to combat retail theft. The measure, which received support from both sides of the aisle, was drafted in response to shoplifters and smash-and-grab thieves who have unleashed a crime wave under the cover of the soft-on-crime Democrats.
“Retailers throughout the state are extremely disappointed to learn that Governor Hochul vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have established the New York State Organized Retail Crime Task Force,” said Melissa O’Connor, President and CEO of the Retail Council of New York State. “Stores that invest in New York communities lose $4.4 billion to retail theft, and this illegal activity certainly has community safety implications.”
Sadly, stores in Suffolk have resorted to keeping popular theft items under lock and key, with shoppers having to be escorted to the register when purchasing more expensive goods after they are unlocked. The situation has caused national retailers to bail out of various locations.