‘Ending the cycle’: Los Angeles DA touts success of new California law cracking down on ‘smash-and-grab’ offenders — why he says it goes way beyond just filling ‘prisons with these thieves’

A big step on the road to deterring theft

Proposition 36, or Prop 36, enacts new laws for drug and theft offenses. It went into effect on Dec. 18, 2024, and states that theft-related crimes can be charged as a felony, a more serious offense with harsher consequences, or a misdemeanor, a more minor offense.

One major change under Prop 36 is that prosecutors can combine the value of various thefts to arrive at a felony charge for criminals.

Prior to Prop 36, theft in the amount of $950 or less allowed criminals to receive a minor penalty that, as the bill said, was basically the equivalent of a traffic ticket. That allowed thieves to effectively steal an unlimited amount of goods with minimal punishment as long as each individual theft did not exceed $950.

Now that Prop 36 is in effect, the value of a string of thefts can be combined for a greater charge. To put it another way, a $500 theft and a $1,000 theft by the same person can be combined to exceed the $950 mark so the crime can be treated more seriously. This means serial criminals could face harsher consequences for their actions.

The goal, of course, is not just to punish criminals, but to deter them from theft in the first place.

As NBC4 Los Angeles reported, LA District Attorney Nathan Hochman says Prop 36 is working.

"Since Dec. 18, we have had over a thousand Proposition 36 arrests for thieves alone," he said.

His hope is that the threat of harsher penalties will serve as a warning to potential criminals.

"Our goal is not to fill our prisons with these thieves," Hochman said.

"If anything, that will be the failure of our efforts. Our goal is to deter these criminals from committing these crimes in the first place, thus saving a whole lot of victims."

Jawad Ursani owns the 7-Eleven in the 8500 block of West Olympic Boulevard and has been the victim of theft on multiple occasions.

"Communities have been targeted repeatedly by shoplifters...the same individuals coming back over and over knowing that there were no real consequences," Ursani told NBC4 reporters.

"My store was targeted not once, but twice, by a smash-and-grab by about over 50 teenagers and a repeat shoplifter who is now detained and will be held accountable by this DA’s office as we speak."

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Is Prop 36 working?

The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) says that since Prop 36 went into effect, prosecutors have filed "thousands of new felony drug and theft charges."

During the second half of February, prosecutors filed around 1,500 theft cases with felony charges, the PPIC says, citing data from the Judicial Council of California. Findings from Sicuro Data Analytics, meanwhile, tell a different story — during the first 90 days since Prop 36 went into effect, there were 3,500 theft cases filed.

All told, the PPIC says that Prop 36 felony cases comprise 10% to 15% of the 15,000 or so felony cases filed statewide in a typical month.

Hochman is pleased with the impact of Prop 36 on LA. In a mid-May statement, he said, “Ending the cycle of catch-and-release that sent serial retail thieves back on the streets to reoffend is a top priority."

LA businesses are also being supplied with decals warning criminals that those who steal will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Of course, this begs the question: Will more states implement harsher penalties for theft?

The Council on Criminal Justice says that between 2019 and 2023, New York and LA had the biggest increases in shoplifting across major cities at 64% and 61%, respectively.

On a broad level, the rate of shoplifting incidents across major cities fell between January of 2018 and June of 2023. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a problem.

The National Retail Federation says that in 2023, there was a 93% increase in the average number of shoplifting incidents compared to 2019.

There was also a 90% increase in dollar loss from shoplifting in that same timeframe. Cracking down on theft is something lawmakers should therefore consider on a more national scale to protect business owners and consumers alike.