{"id":390875,"date":"2025-11-19T22:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T22:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/390875\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T22:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T22:31:13","slug":"shoplifting-down-13-in-nyc-and-across-the-state-after-retail-theft-crackdown-hochul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/390875\/","title":{"rendered":"Shoplifting down 13% in NYC and across the state after retail theft crackdown: Hochul"},"content":{"rendered":"

The five-finger discount is in retreat.<\/p>\n

Shoplifting is down 13% in the Big Apple and across the state, Gov. Kathy Hochul crowed Wednesday \u2013 taking yet another victory lap<\/a> for her retail theft crackdown ahead of the holiday shopping season.<\/p>\n

Hochul touted her administration\u2019s efforts, including a $40 million statewide task force<\/a>, in tackling the post-COVID-19 pandemic shoplifting surge that caused big box stores to start locking up goods.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to keep the money coming and make sure our businesses can thrive, especially as we enter the holiday season,\u201d she said during an event in Brooklyn, heralding the task force\u2019s work as a boon for mom and pop shops.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul touted a 13.6% drop in shoplifting Wednesday. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

The shoplifting drop comes in time for the holidays, Hochul noted. REUTERS<\/p>\n

NYPD data shows the city has seen 46,736 retail theft incidents so far this year, compared to 54,081 during the same span last year, for a 13.5% decline.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s happy holiday hooplah over the shoplifting drop was nearly identical to her summer celebration of a 12% year-over-year decline in retail theft cases.<\/p>\n

Both times, the governor claimed the declines were thanks to the state police-led task force waging war on retail theft.<\/p>\n

The group has 100 dedicated officers coordinating with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, as well as district attorneys, Hochul, who is running for re-election next year, said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The pandemic-era surge in shoplifting ravaged stores statewide, including in New York City \u2014 leading to $4.4 billion in losses<\/a> during 2022 alone.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s push to crack down on shoplifting via the task force was eventually enshrined in the state budget, as were several other initiatives aimed at addressing retail theft.<\/p>\n

The task force has made 1,224 arrests and recovered more than $2.6 million in stolen goods since it was created in April, according to the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s office didn\u2019t provide details on how many shoplifting arrests in New York City were tied to the task force. <\/p>\n

A surge in shoplifting led Hochul and state officials to start a retail theft task force. Obtained by the New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had gone up literally 68% since the pandemic,\u201d Hochul said about retail theft. \u201cNow, look how it has dropped in just one year because of our efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other measures in the state budget included new laws making it easier to go after recidivist shoplifters and third-party sellers of stolen goods, as well as upgrading the assault of a retail worker to a felony from a misdemeanor and $5 million in tax credits for small businesses to boost security measures.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Additional reporting by Amanda Woods<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The five-finger discount is in retreat. Shoplifting is down 13% in the Big Apple and across the state,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":390876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,4219,5371,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,10883,34973,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-390875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-kathy-hochul","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-shoplifting","19":"tag-state-police","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-us-news","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115578738111295683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}