California has seen a surge in retail theft and robbery, said a California-based think tank on Thursday.
Last year, the state saw a 28.7 percent jump in shoplifting from the rate of the pandemic years, and the rate of commercial burglary is 15.7 percent higher than in 2019, according to a report released by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).
The report also said that the commercial robbery rate had increased by 13.3 percent since 2019, with an uptick of 9.1 percent in 2022.
California's rising retail theft and robbery rates are part of a national retail crime wave. Organized retail theft is frequently cited as a driver of recent trends.
Retailers like Target and Dick's have said that theft is taking a bigger bite out of their earnings this year, said Business Insider, a major U.S. business publication.
Both shoplifting and commercial burglary are classified as property crimes in California, but commercial robbery, involving force or threat of force, is in the violent crime category.
To crack down on organized retail theft, California has toughened penalties and launched an information-sharing partnership with a number of large retailers, according to the PPIC report.
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