Organized Retail Crime Means Empty Shelves at Drug Stores; Seniors Can’t Buy Necessities
By Dan Murphy
Yonkers Police Commissioner John Mueller told the Yonkers City Council at their meeting on Nov. 23 that shoplifting in the major retail drug stores in the southwest portion of the City, (Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS) has become “a considerable problem and a big time, repeat offender, recidivist crime,” and that because of bail reform, Judges cannot keep repeat offenders behind bars and they are released, only to commit the same shoplifting crime at the same drug store, the next day and week and month.
“The vast majority of shoplifters in Yonkers are repeat offenders, and in our three area pharmacies the bi product is the shelves are becoming empty and the elderly can’t find the items they need to purchase to live,” said Mueller, who said that overall, shoplifting arrests are the same as last year, but that repeat offender arrests are on the rise,.
“We believe that a multi-faceted solution is required that would include changes to the existing bail reform and how we can hard target some of the affected areas. The vast majority of shoplifters are a small subset of the criminal population. The same person goes into a pharmacy, steals, gets arrested and then is released, and the judge has no latitude to hold them. And when we have to repeatedly arrest the same person for shoplifting, we have limited resources and can’t be spending time somewhere else,” said Mueller, who also asked the retail pharmacies to step up their security and enforcement in their stores.
Also at the council meeting, the heads of the South Broadway and Downtown Waterfront Business Improvement districts told the council that the shoplifting in their members businesses have become a serious problem.
Doug Horsting, head of Rite Aid’s Asset Protection Program, gave the council a bleak assessment of how bad the problem has become. Calling it “organized retail crime”, he said “I have never seen this amount of shoplifting in my career. Customers are asking are you going out of business because there are no items on the shelves. Employees are afraid to go to work because they are assaulted and spit on. Shoplifters are coming in with large bags and the items are re-sold at a lower cost. We now have to hire additional security and lock up many items and install more cameras, but shoplifting is still rampant in Yonkers, and across the country. The support we have received from the Yonkers Police is second to none.”
Councilmember Tasha Diaz sponsored the resolution and spoke about the problem in her 3rd council district. “This is a real problem. I do food distribution and more people are in need because they can’t find items at the drug store to buy. We are providing essentials because they are not available. The seniors in my district are afraid to pick up their prescriptions. I have witnessed theft at Walgreens in my district. We need to get to the problem and work with our state delegation. It’s happening the most in districts 1,2, and 3.”
Council Minority Leader Mike Breen said, “We see shoplifting nationally but now its also happening here in Yonkers, and it is organized retail crime. It our job to talk to our state officials about changes to bail reform, which is not working properly. We don’t want to see stores pack up and leave Yonkers.”
Council President Mike Khader said, “Some of these businesses have an internal policy of letting theft go and not reporting it. They call it loss prevention and the word gets out. They need to change those policies and once you crack down the word will get out.”
The council resolution, which calls on “Mayor Spano and his administration to recognize and address the problem occurring within the city of Yonkers and to engage retailers to help fashion methods to reduce or eliminate shoplifting in their business,” and that the “New York State Senate and Assembly recognize and address the problem of shoplifting and create stronger laws to deter such actions with respect to arrest, bail prosecution and sentencing,” was passed unanimously.
Commissioner Mueller said that he is working with Police Commissioners across New York State to make suggestions to bail reform, which will include the elimination of cash bail. More on this story to come.
