NYC’s plan to prevent shoplifting with informational kiosks is a joke.

New York City’s Soft-on-Crime Approach to Retail Theft

Have you seen the videos of brazen thieves barging into stores, grabbing whatever they can, and fleeing the scene? It’s happening all too often in New York City, where retail theft jumped 44% in 2022. Mayor Eric Adams’ latest approach to solving the problem is downright laughable.

The Plan

Adams’ plan includes giving first-time offenders intervention programs instead of prosecution, de-escalation training for retail employees, establishing neighborhood retail watch groups to share information about theft in real-time with one another and the police, and installing kiosks in stores to connect would-be thieves with social service programs.

But what sort of criminal, intent on stealing everything and anything he can, would stop and say, “Hey, look, a kiosk. I think I’ll get a pamphlet.”

The Reality

Ralph Cilento, a retired NYPD Lieutenant Commander of Detectives and adjunct professor, wasn’t very impressed with the strategy. “So when people come in that were just about to steal, they won’t because they realize that stealing is a source of a different problem for them. So they’re going to use the kiosk to access social services,” Cilento told the local Fox affiliate. “I’m sorry, but that’s just a pipe dream.”

And Cilento hit the nail on the head with that last part. Despite the Democrats’ insistence that they support the police as well as law and order, they know that if they ever put in the policies needed to stop this problem, then the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s of the world would protest to no end. So the best they can offer is a kiosk, a slap on the wrist, and training for innocent store employees.

• Retail theft in NYC jumped 44% in 2022
• Adams’ plan includes giving first-time offenders intervention programs instead of prosecution, de-escalation training for retail employees, establishing neighborhood retail watch groups, and installing kiosks in stores to connect would-be thieves with social service programs
• Ralph Cilento, a retired NYPD Lieutenant Commander of Detectives and adjunct professor, called the plan a “pipe dream”

The Democrats’ soft-on-crime approach to retail theft is not the solution. It’s time for real policies that protect businesses, workers, and customers in New York City.