Gov. Hochul vows crackdown on shoplifting scourge as NY businesses plead for help

Gov. Kathy Hochul will pledge to crack down on retail theft as part of her 2024 policy agenda, The Post has learned — as fed up New York business owners continue to plead for help with the shoplifting scourge. Merchants are turning up the heat on Hochul and the Democratic led state Legislature, calling for stiffer penalties against serial offenders wreaking havoc in their stores .

“We’re going to continue living this nightmare if legislators don’t fix this mess,” said Nelson Eusabio of the National Supermarket Association and part of the coalition Collective Action to Protect Our Stores (CAP). Lawmakers representing 213 districts across the Empire State are up for re election in the fall — and they must do something to help curb retail theft, Eusabio noted.

“We plan on being more active in Albany this year. We’re bringing up shopkeepers from legislators’ districts to get in their faces,” he said. Lawmakers whiffed last year, refusing to pass , among others, a bill that would have increased the severity of charges for certain repeat shoplifters, making it possible for them to be ordered held on bail.

The Legislature instead passed just one bill, which created a task force to study the shoplifting issue — and was vetoed by Hochul. But Hochul’s office Sunday said the governor had heard the message, and would be unveiling a plan to stem shoplifting during her State of the State address on Tuesday.

Hochul telegraphed her intention to tackle retail theft while speaking to the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police and Sheriffs’ Association on November 9. “The rise in retail theft [is] something that we’re focused on. We have some announcements for our State of the State coming out on this initiative,” Hochul promised.

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz (D Bronx) said his measure to charge recidivist shoplifters with fourth degree grand larceny — a Class E felony that could be a bailable offense — remains high on his to do list. “This has to be a priority as long as our shopkeepers are suffering. We all know shoplifting is a problem,” Dinowitz said.

While crime is down in some areas, Dinowitz said grand larceny thefts remain too high and even noted that the catalytic converter on his wife’s car was recently stolen. Grand larceny fell 2.5% last year — but still is substantially higher than the pre pandemic 2019. And car thefts are up a staggering 191% since 2019, and up 15% last year over 2022.

In addition to the one proposed by Dinowitz, another priority bill for the 2024 legislative session aims at making it more difficult to sell stolen goods from brick and mortar stores online. The measure — introduced by Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D Manhattan) and state Sen. Brad Hoylman Sigal –would create a new offense of fostering the sale of stolen goods, as a class A misdemeanor.

“A person would be guilty of fostering the sale of stolen goods when they host, advertise, or otherwise assist the sale of stolen goods, including on an internet website, and they know or should know that the goods were stolen,” Rosenthal said in her bill memo. “Theft of retail products will be considerably less lucrative if the goods cannot be sold under the guise of online marketplaces that otherwise appear reputable,” she added.

Another measure would raise the penalty of assaulting a retail worker from a misdemeanor to a bail eligible Class D felony (as second degree assault) — such as is the case with taxi drivers, utility workers, first responders and other essential government workers. The CAP — the coalition that includes most of the city’s supermarket chains, chambers of commerce and the Association of Convenience stores — said local stores lost more than $300 million last year from theft in 2022.

But most of the 63,000 complaints filed by merchants go unsolved, the group said. “As a result, shoplifting is vastly underreported and shopkeepers are putting themselves in harm’s way to resolve altercations,” CAP said in its “Call to Action” campaign..