California voters will soon decide on a high-profile ballot measure that would increase penalties for certain drug and theft crimes.
Last week, CBS News California took a closer look at the drug component of Proposition 36 — also known as The Homeless, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act .
Here, we examine whether retail theft is really on the rise in California and whether the tough-on-crime Proposition 36 would actually help.
Are California retail crime rates up? Yes and no.
We analyzed data from the California Department of Justice (DOJ), which shows that statewide retail crime — which includes shoplifting, commercial robberies and burglaries, and organized retail theft — reached its highest levels in two decades in 2023, with about 213,000 reported incidents.
Shoplifting and commercial robbery in 2023 were both at their highest levels since 1997 — however, there were nearly seven times the number of shoplifting incidents than there were robberies. In 2023, the number of reported non-residential burglaries was slightly higher than in pre-pandemic years but lower than levels seen during the pandemic.