On Tuesday, May 20, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed the State’s $78 billion budget with a slew of cuts to account for the $16 billion shortfall. In that budget, however, funding is still planned to continue supporting Organized Retail Theft fighting efforts.
The budget utilizes a $1 million proviso that will continue to support the program, which was introduced by Ferguson back in 2022 when he was serving as Attorney General, in addition to allocating $39 million for a statewide recovery navigator program to assist with areas of high retail theft (i.e. Snohomish, King, and Pierce counties).
According to FBI data, Washington State experiences the highest retail thefts of any state in the nation with 3,510 cases of commercial theft per 100,000 businesses.
Washington State experienced $2.7 billion in retail theft in 2022 alone, according to the Washington Retail Association…