Sacramento C. A.’s Office warned Target it could face fines for retail theft calls

VintageBetter

VintageBetter

Senior Member
Only in California is this possible. Target Stores, successful company beloved by a majority of consumers, has made the mistake of thinking retail theft is a CRIME, so they CALL THE POLICE.

Freakin’ idiot City Attorney wanted to fine this one Sacramento store for making too many calls.

Maybe they should post an officer a the door of the store 24/7?

Yahoo link: Sacramento City Attorney’s Office warned Target it could face fines for retail theft calls

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.” -Isaiah 5:20
 

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This ruling should encourage shoplifters, and cause Target to increase its prices to offset its losses. Target has also stopped taking personal checks as payment, probably due to the number of bad checks they are receiving.
 

If stores aren’t allowed to have their security teams stop thieves, then the police should be called to deal with the situation.

(I don’t know if the story is totally accurate since the source is a small news outlet. There are so many things that are just clickbait.)
 
Jules said:
If stores aren’t allowed to have their security teams stop thieves, then the police should be called to deal with the situation.

(I don’t know if the story is totally accurate since the source is a small news outlet. There are so many things that are just clickbait.)
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It came from the SacBee and has been distributed. It is probably real.
 
I've heard stories over the years of stores being charged for false alarm calls but if these shoplifting incidents are real crimes there should be no fee to report them.
 
An old friend of mine who was a prosecuting attorney in CA told me years ago the Target stores were extremely dedicated to anti-shoplifting. That they have cat walks all around their stores and show no mercy,

I don't blame them! The police should be making arrests when laws are broken. Have we not had enough retail theft and smash and grabs? What the heck?
 
Per the article:

"Pursuing legal actions against businesses for reporting crime brought heavy criticism from law enforcement.

“I ... (was) also surprised that anyone would ever attempt to make a nuisance case out of somebody calling to report a legitimate crime,” said Alexander Gammelgard, president of the California Police Chiefs Association while testifying in December at the Assembly’s first retail theft committee meeting. “I don’t think there is a place for that.”

"Clark Kelso, a professor of law at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law, said “there is no question” that city attorneys have every right to pursue a public nuisance charge against businesses in which owners know the property is dangerous."

Is Target a "dangerous property" for police officers, though? (that's me asking) And isn't facing danger part of a police officer's job? Are schools considered dangerous property when an active shooter enters it? I can think of only one police department that stood by while an active shooter did the unthinkable, and the whole country was outraged and disgusted by it. But given what this Clark Kelso idiot said, maybe we should just let it go; forgive the captain who ordered those poor policemen to do nothing, and expect more of the same.

I'm not saying a school shooting is comparable to shoplifting, but where do we draw the line for "dangerous property"? Just pulling over a speeding driver poses unexpected dangers.

In any case, a city attorney generally handles civil cases, not criminal cases. And I'm pretty sure they can only advise city officials or the DA or courts about issues with businesses large and small...they can't take legal action without support from the DA or city prosecutor.
 
Target Stores management has got problems with their approach to store security. Back in the mid 90s a dear friend was working at a Target store in store security, she was a POST certified Level 1 police officer, knew how to apprehend and detain criminal offenders. When she did her J-O-B she got fired, terminated for doing the job she was hired for.
 
Nathan said:
Target Stores management has got problems with their approach to store security. Back in the mid 90s a dear friend was working at a Target store in store security, she was a POST certified Level 1 police officer, knew how to apprehend and detain criminal offenders. When she did her J-O-B she got fired, terminated for doing the job she was hired for.
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Our nearest Walmart has a policy prohibiting their security people from touching shoplifters or impeding their movement in any way. All they can do is report shoplifters to the sheriff's office, whose first question is always "Is the shoplifter still on Walmart property?" When the parking lot was privately owned, the answer was no, because you're not a shoplifter until you exit the building with stuff you didn't pay for, and when you exit, you're in the parking lot.

Walmart finally bought the parking lot about a decade ago, 45 years after they opened.
 
If you put merchandise on open shelves, where anyone can take them; you can't be too shocked to understand that some of that merchandise will walk out of the store, unpaid. Now, when someone does rip the store off, but the management will not detain them for fear of a lawsuit, but calls the cops when they're long gone. I can understand why police are upset about being used to document losses for tax purposes.
 

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