LOCKED IN PLACE
Gov. Hochul’s plan to end the city’s shoplifting epidemic will require far more than plastic
NEW York City survived 9/11, the Wall Street crash, Hurricane Sandy and COVID-19. Our citizens soldiered on despite the calamities of life-or-death and economic hardship. But locked-up toothpaste might finally prompt many to raise the white flag and move somewhere else.
Although murders and most major crimes other than car theft have fallen for the past two years, the sight of razor blades and menopausal skin creams that are inaccessible behind plexiglass barriers without a pharmacy “manager’s” key tells a needlessly grim story to hundreds of thousands of shoppers every day.
Because, rather than scare off thieves, locked shelves further demoralize New Yorkers who are on edge over exaggerated perceptions of rampant crime.
Locking up toothpaste rather than shoplifters means retailers believe — rather correctly — that government has given up on doing anything about it. What a fine message to send our 8.1 million, overwhelmingly law-abiding citizens who try to sort out conflicting “expert” views on how safe the city is or isn’t.
But you don’t need a degree in criminology to recognize how arbitrary and useless the lockups are. CVS, like one near me, locks up Advil but not generic Ibuprofen, which is exactly the same thing. Some Maybelline lip products are locked; others at the same prices are not. Aleve Liquid Gels are locked; Aleve tablets are not.
Why do Trojan Pleasure Pack condoms on one shelf at Duane Reade require a key, but not Trojan Ecstasy on a different shelf ? Maybe a Quinnipiac poll found that shoplifters prefer one kind of sexual sensation over another.
Pilfery of the kind that’s rampant at chain pharmacies such as Walgreens/Duane Reade and CVS — which have about 300 and 90 locations, respectively, in the five boroughs — certainly harms the stores’ bottom lines. The damage is worse to the hearts and minds of New Yorkers who see everyday items locked up for no logical reason.
Even if they never witness any shoplifting incidents, they can’t help but notice the mostly futile step that too many retailers now take to protect their inventory. It gives the impression that shoplifting, which is undeniably a scourge, is even more prevalent than it is.
The sight of police on a subway platform is reassuring. Cheap merchandise under plastic shields is the opposite of reassuring. Its message is that we have no police, so stores must resort to primitive protective remedies more common in the developing world. Here comes the flash mob, in your face at any hour!
Now, there’s no question that shoplifting is out of control. Big Apple retail theft incidents jumped 64% since mid-2019, according to the Council on Criminal Justice. Stores statewide lost $4.4 billion to “organized” shoplifting teams alone in 2022, reports the Retail Council of New York State lobbying organization,
But no one who listened to Gov. Hochul’s toothless denunciation of shoplifting in her State of the State Address this week would find in it anything but total abdication of responsibility.
Hochul’s strategy includes a state police “Smash and Grab Enforcement Unit;” dedicated funding for district attorneys to pay for more enforcement and prosecution; and a statewide Law Enforcement Joint Operation on retail theft to “coordinate the responses of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors.”
But they’re a joke as long as Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg continues to prosecute employees who defend themselves against shoplifters rather than shoplifters themselves. Little will be achieved as long as nobody’s-guilty “bail reform” legislation remains in place.
Hochul’s “crackdown,” feeble as it is, might not even make it through the leftist- and Democratic-dominated state Legislature. It rejected similar proposals last year; the body is as welcoming to flash-looting mobs as Joe Biden is to illegal immigrants.
The governor herself vetoed a 2023 proposal to set up a task force to study the matter because it would supposedly cost too much.
Until Hochul, Mayor Adams and prosecutors and judges get serious about arresting and prosecuting brazen thieves, stores will continue to display their “we’ve-give-up” message, which is only further conveyed at smaller stores that lock themselves in entirely.
Indeed, Mitchell L. Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at NYU, told me, “It is the small local bodega and drug store that suffer from retail shoplifting, since they cannot afford the elaborate new security locks for their shelves or a full-time guard at the entrance.
“Just walk into any Soho retailer and they often keep the front door locked before letting the Mercedes with Jersey plates drop off their shoplifting crews.”
It’s draconian but it makes more sense than randomly choosing shelves to “protect” from the city’s now ubiquitous sticky fingers — a strategy that tells us loud and clear that the law is powerless to protect its businesses and citizens.