SPRINGFIELD — Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed laws Friday that’s geared toward cracking down on high-profile “smash-and-grabs” and different organized retail theft.
“This vital piece of laws will assist to fight these illegal actions by addressing the issue from a number of angles,” Chauncey Rice, authorities relations supervisor for the Illinois Retail Retailers Affiliation, mentioned at a information convention.
Backed by IRMA and Legal professional Common Kwame Raoul, the invoice is in response to a current enhance in organized retail theft at malls within the suburbs and shops alongside the Magnificent Mile in Chicago.
Raoul mentioned he didn’t know what organized retail crime was one 12 months in the past and considered it like atypical theft.
When he was attending an out-of-state convention, Raoul mentioned, he watched a presentation about organized retail theft teams and noticed movies of stolen items that “made you assume you have been in a ironmongery shop.”
He mentioned the purpose going ahead is to crack down on organized retail crime and educate retailers and legislation enforcement across the state on what it’s and that it’s linked to different legal exercise corresponding to human, gun or drug trafficking and, in some circumstances, terrorism.
“Legislation enforcement, like me, may need mistaken a few of these acts as remoted acts of retail theft after they’re really very effectively coordinated crimes,” Raoul mentioned.
It defines, for the primary time, organized retail crime into legislation and creates stiffer penalties for the ringleaders of retail thefts. The legislation goes into impact Jan. 1, 2023.
An individual is responsible of being a ringleader of a retail theft operation in the event that they recruit people, supervise funds or direct others to commit the theft with the intent to resell merchandise that exceeds $300 in worth.
Ringleaders may also be responsible if merchandise is stolen whereas in transit from the producer to the retail institution.
Advocates for the laws reiterated that it’s going to particularly goal organized crime rings, relatively than giving harsh penalties for many who commit “petty retail theft.”
“Let me be clear, this isn’t geared toward a low-income father or mother determined to feed their baby. It’s not a couple of child making a shortsighted mistake,” Pritzker mentioned. “That is a couple of multibillion-dollar business of organized criminals finishing up refined theft operations.”
In December 2021, Pritzker mentioned an Organized Retail Crime Job Drive overseen by Raoul’s workplace recovered thousands and thousands of {dollars} in stolen merchandise from storage items at two Chicago services as a part of a large-scale investigation into the crime rings.
Chief Senate Sponsor Suzy Glowiak Hilton, D-Western Springs, mentioned the invoice addresses considerations raised by legislation enforcement, prosecutors and companies whereas guaranteeing legislation enforcement has instruments wanted to cut back organized retail theft.
Prosecutors could have the power to consolidate expenses in opposition to ringleaders in a single county even when a hoop of smash-and-grabs occurred throughout a number of counties, and it permits the legal professional common to convene statewide grand juries to analyze, indict and prosecute violations.
Raoul mentioned it’s a shopper safety situation as a result of the stolen gadgets may also be placed on an internet market to unsuspecting customers.
The laws would require on-line, third-party sellers to confirm a person’s identification with a checking account quantity or different info to forestall stolen items from being offered on-line. Third-party sellers can be required to droop sellers that knowingly promote gadgets there have been stolen or believed to be stolen.
It additionally creates a statewide intelligence-sharing software to assist retailers, police and prosecutors to speak with one another.
The state price range additionally invests $5 million to permit the legal professional common’s workplace to award grants to state’s attorneys and legislation enforcement companies that examine and prosecute organized retail crime.
