California will spend $267 million to help dozens of local law enforcement agencies increase patrols, purchase surveillance equipment and conduct other activities aimed at cracking down on smash-and-grab robberies occurring across the state.
Officials from the California Highway Patrol and law enforcement agencies of San Francisco and Los Angeles made the announcement on Friday. It follows a string of brazen high-end store robberies in recent months, where dozens of individuals entered the store and began stealing en masse.
Video of the incident quickly spread online and sparked critics who say California is taking too lax an approach to crime.
“Enough with this brazen smash-and-grab — we’re making sure law enforcement agencies have the resources they need to take down these criminals,” Democrat Gavin Newsom said in a statement about the grant.
The spending comes from a pot of money Newsom first requested in late 2021, after he signed legislation to re-establish a statewide task force to focus on investigating organized theft rings. The money will be given through grants to 55 agencies, including local police departments, sheriffs and district attorneys’ offices.
The grants, which will be distributed over the next three years, will help local law enforcement agencies create investigative units, increase foot patrols, purchase advanced surveillance technology and equipment, and crack down on vehicle and catalytic converter theft — an issue that has become rampant in Bay Area. The money will also help fund a unit in the district attorney’s office dedicated to prosecuting these crimes.
“Enough with this brazen smash-and-grab — we’re making sure law enforcement agencies have the resources they need to take down these criminals,” Gavin Newsom of California said in a statement to the AP
A smash-and-grab incident at a Los Angeles-area Nordstrom last month has gone viral. Los Angeles Police Department PIO
Nordstrom stores lost between $60,000 and $100,000.abc7
California Highway Patrol Commissioner Sean Duryee called the money a “game changer.”
“This is a huge investment that will be a force multiplier when it comes to combating organized retail crime in California,” he said at a press conference Friday.
Retailers in California and in other cities around the US, including Chicago and Minneapolis, have recently been the target of large-scale theft when groups of people show up in groups for mass shoplifting events or enter stores and break and grab from boxes exhibition.
Thieves at Nordstrom used bear spray on security guards.LAPD
Several dozen people participated in a brazen smash-and-grab flash mob at the Nordstrom store in Topanga’s Westfield Mall last month. Authorities said they used bear spray on security guards, the Los Angeles Times reported, and the store suffered between $60,000 and $100,000 in losses.
The video shows a chaotic scene, with masked thieves running through the store – one dragging a display rack behind them. They broke glass cases and grabbed expensive items such as luxury handbags and designer clothes as they fled.
Other high-end malls have been hit the same way in recent years. Recently, a Gucci store and an Yves Saint Laurent store were targeted in the Los Angeles area, prompting authorities to announce a new task force to investigate the crimes.
“No Angeleno should feel unsafe going shopping in Los Angeles,” Mayor Karen Bass said last month when announcing the new task force. “No entrepreneur should feel like it’s unsafe to open a business.”
Since 2019, law enforcement in California has arrested more than 1,250 people and recovered $30.7 million in stolen goods, the governor’s office said.
The new funding is essential to help law enforcement respond to large-scale organized crime that can turn violent, said Los Angeles Assistant Sheriff Holly Francisco.
Funding will be provided through grants to 55 agencies, including local police departments, sheriffs and district attorneys’ offices. Above, the Louis Vuitton store in San Francisco.AP
“Recently, we have seen suspects using weapons consisting of firearms, pepper spray and bear spray to fend off loss prevention workers or officers and only cause chaos to the people shopping there,” he said on Friday. . “Our goal is to reduce the number of retail thefts and actively investigate all criminals involved.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
