Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a package of bills intended to crack down on organized retail theft.
Newsom, at a signing ceremony in a San Jose Home Depot, called the 10 bills “the most significant legislation to address property crime in modern California history.”
One of the bills, AB 3209, creates the first-of-its-kind Retail Crime Restraining Order, authorizing courts to impose it upon conviction, or following two or more citations, for a theft offense, vandalism within a store, or battery on a store employee.
AB 3209 – authored by Assembly members Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) and Robert Rivas (D-Salinas), who is also the Assembly Speaker – is a key provision in the Assembly’s bipartisan legislative package addressing retail crime and theft in California.
The new laws, Berman said, “were crafted with our partners in the retail and grocery industries provide Californians with smart and thoughtful solutions to reduce retail crime.”
AB 3209 was supported by Attorney General Rob Bonta, the California Retailers Association, the California Chamber of Commerce and the League of California Cities.