Some state governors have begun to crack down on smash-and-grab crimesters, making attempts to smash their operations and grab them off the streets.
While Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vowed to crack down on repeat offenders and crush groupthink in retail crime, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced her plan to create a smash-and-grab task force with a new line item in the state’s budget, due April 1.
Florida
One day after a couple in Cookie Monster pajamas allegedly robbed a Lowe’s store, brandishing a gun and spitting at store security guards in Cape Coral, Florida, DeSantis announced his vision for retail crime legislation in the state.
During a Tuesday press conference, DeSantis slammed current Florida law, asserting that it’s not strict enough.
“Right now, we have a situation in Florida where you only get a felony if you do five different retail thefts within a 45-day period. Well, excuse me, you shouldn’t do it at all, [but] if you do it and get caught [then] you go back to the well again, they should drop the hammer on you.”
He proposed that someone found guilty of two to three retail crimes in a one-year period would no longer be charged with misdemeanors, but instead with a felony.
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Bob Rommel, a Republican in Florida’s House of Representatives, put forth a bill—apparently backed directly by DeSantis—that would up the consequences for retail crime throughout the state.
The bill, currently pending, stipulates that anybody who commits retail theft with a firearm—or who has more than two prior convictions of retail theft—would be looking at a first-degree felony. It would also charge those who committed retail theft in a group of five or more with a third-degree felony. Thieves who use social media to “solicit others to participate in retail theft” would face a second-degree felony.
Rommel said the proposed legislation will help to keep Floridians safe.
“We are the free state of Florida, but we are not the place where you come and get free goods,” Rommel said during the press conference.
Throughout the press conference, DeSantis and others dragged New York and California through the mud, insinuating that the two states have soft laws that allow criminals to steal from retailers.
“I do think that one rule of thumb can be, particularly when you’re talking about law enforcement and public safety, just watch what New York and California do and then do the opposite, and you’re likely going to be OK,” he said at the press conference, noting in a later statement that, “If you commit a crime in Florida, you are going to be held accountable.”
New York
Later in the week, Hochul clapped back, announcing some new proposals of her own.
During a Wednesday press conference, the governor said retail crime has increased steadily in New York City.
“From 2017 to 2023, larceny offenses rose by more than 50 percent here in [New York] City. Other crimes going down, people [are] starting to feel a little good, until you go into a store,” Hochul said during a press conference. “Outside the city, [in the] rest of [the] state, the numbers are about what they were during the pandemic, so there’s been a dynamic here focused on New York City in particular. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist elsewhere; I’m just saying we’re not seeing the spike the way we have here in New York [City].”
That problem, she said, will be addressed by new proposals and legislation from her office and leaders statewide.
The most major proposal from the governor was a $45 million funding allocation that will appear in her executive budget proposal to be passed by the state legislature. $25 million of that funding would go toward a new smash-and-grab enforcement unit; $15 million would be allocated toward local law enforcement and district attorneys and $5 million would be set aside for tax breaks, which could allow businesses to bring in added security they could not otherwise be able to afford.
Hochul said frontline retail workers in New York need to be protected, noting that retail makes up about 8 percent of New York’s employment and accounts for $45 billion in wages statewide. She vowed to increase penalties for those who assault retail workers while committing a crime.
“The stress on someone going to work every day, working in retail, it’s off the charts,” Hochul said. “They’re not firefighters; they’re not police officers. This was always a pretty safe job, and it should always be. But now to not know whether someone coming in the door is going to do them harm, or knock them over and sweep the shelves, and sometimes a shooting, sometimes a knifing, it’s got to stop.”
Some of the governor’s latest retail crime measures focus on cracking down on digital criminals who resell stolen goods online. Overall, she said, the proposals and budget items she has put forth will focus on retail crime operations.
“We’re not talking about a kid who makes a mistake one time. We’re not criminalizing poverty here. We really are focused on what has become a sophisticated, organized retail operation—the smash-and-grab efforts,” she said.
Just last week, a retail robbery in New York City at JD Sports in Times Square erupted into gunfire, leaving a tourist injured.