Bay Area lawmaker’s bill would discourage California employees from confronting shoplifters

How do you keep retail workers safe from ransacking shoplifters and keep the doors open for business?

A bill aimed at curbing workplace violence has sparked pushback from the California Retailers Association, which says the legislation would only dissuade employees from confronting shoplifters, leaving an open invitation “to come in and steal.”

Senate Bill 553, submitted by Sen. Dave Cortese, D-Campbell, was approved in the Senate and is headed to policy committees in the Assembly.

“Under my SB 553, employers would be prohibited from forcing their workers to confront active shoplifters, and all retail employees would be trained on how to react to active shoplifting,” he said following last month’s Senate’s approval.

In a recent interview with Newsweek, Cortese said the bill doesn’t prohibit employees from stopping theft, although “we don’t want rank and file employees to be forced to place themselves in harm’s way.”

The senator’s office notes that SB 553 “does not prohibit dedicated security personnel, like security guards, from stopping shoplifters or active shooters.”

The legislation also would require employers to provide active-shooter training to workers. They would also be required to keep a log of violent incidents and allow companies to apply for workplace violence restraining orders if the perpetrators are caught.

SB 553 applies to office environments and other job locations, although it heavily targets the retail sector, which has seen a sharp uptick in shoplifting — and violence.

A security guard at Home Depot was shot and killed in April during an attempted robbery in Pleasanton. A Walgreens security guard who shot and killed a shoplifter in San Francisco, also in April, was reportedly told by his employer to recover stolen items with a “hands-on” approach, according to Cortese.

Security veteran Russell Stuart, who owns the Beverly Hills-based Force Protection Agency, said the bill’s language is confusing.

“On the one side, it feels like a safety issue, which I don’t disagree with,” he said. “But it also demonizes good Samaritans by saying, ‘We’ll punish you if you stop a bad guy from robbing us.’ “

Employees who opt to confront shoplifters wouldn’t face punishment from their employers under SB 553, but it bars businesses from requiring workers to intervene in such situations.

Rachel Michelin, California Retailers Association’s president, said fewer workers will be incentivized to stop shoplifters, which will have a heavy effect on mom-and-pop retailers.

“There will be stores that close,” she said.

Michelin said her association has been working with CalOSHA on a “more nuanced approach” to the problem that would be addressed through the regulatory process. 

“When you do legislation that’s this broad you end up with unintended consequences,” she said.

The California Retailers Association represents more than 50 members, including Home Depot, Lowe’s and Target, as well as a variety of mid-sized and smaller businesses.

Big-box retailers have been hit hard by retail theft. Target’s downtown San Francisco location is seeing at least 10 thefts a day, according to store employees. The company blamed “organized retail crime” for a $400 million loss in profits in 2022, and its chief financial officer expects that number to reach $600 million by the end of 2024.

In another sign of the city’s economic struggles, mall operator Westfield said it plans to give up control of the San Francisco Centre mall after more than 20 years of operation due to “unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees.”

Southern California has also become a prime target.  

L.A. saw a total of 6,414 shoplifting reports in 2022, figures show, and 1,503 shoplifting incidents were reported in the first two months of 2023, according to data from the Los Angeles Police Department.

Michelin said the shoplifting problem was compounded by Prop. 47, a law enacted in 2014 that made the theft of merchandise valued at $950 or less a misdemeanor. The misdemeanor is punishable by up to six months in county jail and a fine of up to $1,000, but authorities often won’t bother to investigate. And if they do, prosecutors typically let it go, according to the Hoover Institution.

“Thieves will make sure they stay at or under that $950 level,” Michelin said. “Everyone I talk to, particularly in California, has a story of someone they have seen going into a store and stealing. We see the videos from our stores … we hear it from our employees.”

She said there is no single fix to the problem.

“It’s getting so no one can intervene when a customer starts taking things,” Michelin said. “If you can’t control what a customer does … what are you going to do?”