California's new retail theft committee will have a hearing to talk about smash and grab robberies next week.
Ten state lawmakers will hear from small businesses, criminal justice reform advocates, and law enforcement.
KNX News held a Town Hall Tuesday night on this same topic. Todd Spitzer, the Orange County District Attorney, said one problem is that L.A. County's DA is refusing to prosecute many organized retail theft cases.
“When you come to Orange County, people understand we're gonna take care of business,” Spitzer said. “I'll work with the CHP, which we do successfully. I'll work with the feds. I'll work with whoever I need to, to put these people away as long as possible.”
But Mark Beeart, the director of fraud and corruption prosecutions at the L.A. DA's office, said there needs to be a strategy beyond incarceration.
“I'm not, you know, stating this as fact, but I've noticed anecdotally that when we've brought people into the criminal justice system to be processed for ORT, on lower level, not the violent crew, but on the lower level, they don't re-offend and they follow the court approved programs,” he said.
Other panelists were Charis Kubrin, a criminologist at the UC Irvine, Tinisch Hollins, executive director at Californians for Safety and Justice, and Lt. Sergio Perez coordinator of the California Highway Patrol’s retail theft task force.
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