On a recent, drizzly afternoon in Lake Elsinore, Riverside County sheriff’s Deputy Ian Noel was staked out in an unmarked SUV in the Home Depot parking lot, waiting patiently.
Then, over the police radio, he was informed that a woman had been seen placing items in her purse inside a Target store across the street. Without hesitation, Noel darted over to the Target lot, where he parked and waited.
As the woman left the store, Noel and several other police vehicles pulled up in front of the entrance and deputies quickly surrounded her. She was startled and still — frozen in place — as deputies grabbed her purse and began pulling out items she allegedly had stolen: three small makeup containers, an umbrella and a black handbag.
The woman was arrested and taken to jail. “She’s on probation for a prior theft,” said one of the investigators.
During the three-day retail theft operation in early March at Target, Home Depot, Lowes and Walmart, deputies from the sheriff’s Lake Elsinore Robbery and Burglary Suppression Team arrested 23 people and recovered merchandise valued at more than $4,000.
Not a big haul in terms of monetary value, but that wasn’t the only goal. Rather, law enforcement is sending a message it has new tools to combat retail theft since Proposition 36 went into effect in December, undoing some of the more onerous effects of Proposition 47, the crime reform initiative of 2014 often blamed for a spike in property crime and drug abuse.
Proposition 47 reclassified some nonviolent felonies, including petty theft and drug possession, as misdemeanors in an effort to reduce the state’s prison population.
Under Proposition 36, which passed with nearly 70% of the vote in November, anyone convicted of a third theft can be charged with a felony and sentenced to up to three years in prison, regardless of the value of the property stolen. Previously, thefts of property valued at less than $950 were classified as misdemeanors.
Six of those arrested by the Lake Elsinore crime suppression team qualified for felony charges under Proposition 36.
“It’s the teeth that allows us to send them to jail,” Noel said. “Before Prop. 36, you could steal every day and you’d never be charged with a felony unless it was $950 or more.”
Theft rings targeted
Across Southern California, law enforcement agencies have been ramping up retail theft operations, either establishing new task forces or expanding existing ones to combat such crimes. As a result, more repeat offenders are going to jail rather than merely receiving citations. Additionally, prosecutors have reported an uptick in felony charges for theft and drug offenses since Proposition 36 took effect on Dec. 18.
During the same week as the Lake Elsinore operation, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s retail crime task force announced a much larger crackdown in February targeting theft rings known as “booster crews.” Seven people were arrested and more than $4 million in merchandise stolen from 17 retailers — including CVS, Macy’s, Target, Ulta Beauty and Walgreens — was recovered.
The merchandise — cosmetics, hygiene products, clothing, high-end handbags, household items, fragrances, scented candles and the like — had been sold to various “fence” operations in Los Angeles and South Gate, according to sheriff’s officials. A large amount of cash also was seized.
The Sheriff’s Department shared a video of the operation on social media to get the word out about the crackdown.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Derek White said future felony theft charges filed by county prosecutors under Proposition 36 likely will involve defendants involved with booster crews.
“With the implementation of Prop. 36, our task force will remain responsive to the evolving legal landscape and work closely with prosecutors to ensure our operations align with the direction and priorities they set,” White said.
Those priorities will come from newly elected L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who believes the goal of Proposition 36 is not to fill prisons to the breaking point with property thieves and drug abusers, but to be a strong deterrence to those who reoffend.
“Since a very small percentage of such thieves and illegal drug users commit a disproportionate amount of crimes, if we can deter them from their criminal activity, the overall crime rate should decrease,” Hochman said.
Focus on repeat offenders
In neighboring San Bernardino County, District Attorney Jason Anderson agrees that repeat offenders should be the focus of retail theft enforcement. Anderson said his office takes into consideration the length of time between offenses before considering felony charges under Proposition 36 for either theft or drug crimes.
“If it’s some guy whose last theft conviction was 10 years ago, we’re not going to file (felony charges) on that person. That’s not what I believe the statute was designed to do,” Anderson said. “It’s for individuals who in the last several years had a number of theft convictions that occurred in a short period of time.”
As of March 14, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office had charged 118 people with felony theft and 41 people with felony drug possession under Proposition 36.
On the law enforcement side, in four separate countywide retail theft operations from Jan. 4 to March 28, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Gang/Narcotics Division arrested 43 people on felony theft offenses and 64 for misdemeanor theft, and recovered nearly $20,000 in stolen merchandise.
It was unclear how many of the total felony arrests qualified as felonies under Proposition 36, but Cpl. Jeremy Spinney of the Gang/Narcotics Division said many of them did, which came as a surprise to the offenders.
“I think once Prop. 36 passed, a lot of people who we arrested were surprised by the charges they were arrested for and the possible sentencing they would get,” Spinney said.
Viral video of theft suspects
In Seal Beach, police created a video that went viral on social media of two handcuffed retail theft suspects sitting in the back of a patrol car talking about the felony charges they now faced under Proposition 36 for allegedly stealing $1,635 worth of merchandise from an Ulta Beauty store.
“It’s a felony?” one can be heard asking.
“B—h, new laws,” the other responds. “Stealing is a felony.”
Seal Beach Police Chief Michael Henderson said the department’s “Don’t Steal in Seal” campaign “has been instrumental in raising public awareness and deterring crime.”
Good news for retailers
That’s good news for retailers, who have been frustrated for years at their inability to combat shoplifters operating with impunity under Proposition 47. In desperation, many stores began placing routine necessities from laundry detergent to aspirin in locked cases.
In the San Gabriel Valley community of El Monte, police have been reaching out to local businesses — big-box retailers and mom-and-pop stores alike — to let them know the landscape has changed under Proposition 36 and encouraging them to report thefts, Lt. Jacob Salmon said.
During town hall meetings and other encounters with police, Salmon said, business owners had previously expressed frustration that people stealing from their stores had only been cited. “They would say, ‘This is why we don’t call (police). They’re just going to get away with it,’ ” Salmon said.
Now, he tells them, potentially lengthy jail sentences await repeat offenders.
Salmon said his department has seen an increase in the number of men booked into El Monte’s 29-bed jail adjoining the police station. Female offenders are sent to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood.
“That means our detectives have more filings and reports to put together, so our caseloads are also increasing because more individuals are being held,” Salmon said.
Anaheim police Sgt. Jacob Gallacher said his department received a $6.1 million grant from the state in 2023 to establish a full-time organized retail theft task force, which began operating full-time in early 2024 with a sergeant, three detectives and a crime analyst.
Since then, the department has experienced an increase in the number of repeat theft and drug offenders now qualifying for felony charges and prison time under the new law. However, he said it will take at least a year — and more crime and arrest data — before his agency can better gauge the impacts of Proposition 36.
“We’ll be able to compare apples to apples and oranges and oranges to oranges once a significant amount of time has passed,” Gallacher said.
‘Lawlessness no longer an option’
Elsewhere in Orange County, Sheriff Don Barnes and District Attorney Todd Spitzer are working hand in glove to ensure the will of California voters is carried out with Proposition 36.
“We as elected district attorneys across California are carrying out the will of the people and ensuring that accountability is restored to California’s criminal justice system,” Spitzer said in a statement. “Lawlessness is no longer an option, and for far too long criminals have exploited soft-on-crime policies to commit theft and drug crimes with little, if any punishment, at the expense of public safety.”
As of March 14, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office had charged 269 people with felony theft offenses and 1,204 people with felony drug possession under Proposition 36. As for the latter, Spitzer said, “We need the Legislature and the governor to fully fund the treatment programs required to fully enact Prop. 36 across the state.”
Barnes said upwards of 900 people have been booked into Orange County jail on Proposition 36-related offenses since the law took effect. He said 540 of those arrests occurred within the first 30 days of the new law, with arrests dramatically declining in the months since.
“We saw a huge drop-off in organized retail theft after the first of the year,” Barnes said. “It’s been gliding down over time.”
Barnes also attributes the decline in thefts to his agency’s tough-on-crime posture. Felonious offenders, he noted, can expect to serve at least two-thirds of their sentences in the Orange County jail, which has the capacity to detain them for the duration.
‘Finally facing accountability’
In Riverside County, District Attorney Mike Hestrin said that while Proposition 36 is not a silver bullet that will solve all theft and drug problems overnight, it is showing promise since it took effect.
From December through April 8, Hestrin’s office had filed felony theft charges against 335 people. Among them was a 46-year-old man arrested by the Lake Elsinore crime suppression team during an earlier operation in January. Court records show the man had prior felony convictions and pleaded guilty in February to felony petty theft under Proposition 36. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
Additionally, another 490 felony drug charges were filed under the new law through March 28, according to Hestrin’s office. Proposition 36 allows any person arrested for possession of specific illegal drugs, such as methamphetamine, fentanyl and heroin, to be given the option of jail or drug treatment as a “treatment-mandated felony.” If the offender opts for treatment and does not complete it, he or she faces up to three years in jail or prison.
“In just a few months, we have started to see defendants seeking treatment for their drug offenses, while repeat retail theft defendants are finally facing accountability and, hopefully, deterrence for their actions,” Hestrin said in a statement. “I expect this to grow in the coming months.”
New task force
In the city of San Bernardino, the Police Department established a retail theft task force following passage of Proposition 36 and conducts weekly operations at its big box retailers and other businesses citywide, Capt. Nelson Carrington said.
Theft-related crimes in the city were down 20% in January over January 2024, which Carrington attributes to his department’s crackdown on retail theft under Proposition 36.
From Jan. 1 through March 31, police arrested 109 people during retail theft operations, with 35 of them qualifying for felony theft charges under Proposition 36.
“We no longer have to accept victimization of our businesses,” Police Chief Darren Goodman said in a statement. “With the passage of Proposition 36, we now have tools at our disposal to help fight criminals that prey on our businesses.”
In Redlands, the Police Department has seen an increase in felony arrests for retail theft and drug offenses since it formed its Community Engagement Team last year to crack down on retail crimes in the community’s downtown business district and the Citrus Plaza and Mountain Grove shopping centers.
“The new law has helped us take effective action … and we’ve been using it to our advantage,” Sgt. Daniel Sardegna said of the Community Engagement Team.
During a retail theft operation Jan. 30 at Citrus Plaza and Mountain Grove, the team arrested 11 people and recovered $7,000 worth of stolen merchandise from Target, Ross, Victoria’s Secret, World Market and BevMo. Two Los Angeles women busted in the operation were found with $3,400 worth of merchandise stolen from the Ross department store in the Mountain Grove shopping center and $2,600 worth of merchandise stolen the same day from Nordstrom Rack in Riverside.
Sardegna said his team’s efforts have improved the quality of life for the community as a whole.
“If you look at the comments on our social media sites, on Facebook and Instagram, people are raving about how we’re bringing Redlands back to how it used to be,” Sardegna said. “And they feel that this law has helped us in law enforcement get things back to their normal.”