WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Governor Newsom is directing the California Highway Patrol to triple its resources in Los Angeles to help the city crack down on organized retail crime.
LOS ANGELES – Building on the California Highway Patrol’s (CHP) successful statewide efforts to crack down on organized retail crime, today Governor Gavin Newsom announced he has instructed the CHP to provide further assistance to the City of Los Angeles to help local law enforcement address organized retail crime. As part of the agency’s expanded effort, the CHP will triple its resources in the Los Angeles region devoted to tackling retail crime and allocate additional investigators specifically for the new regional law enforcement task force that Mayor Karen Bass announced today.
WHAT GOVERNOR NEWSOM SAID: “The state is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to crack down on organized crime and when our local partners need further assistance, we’re ready with a helping hand. The CHP is the proven leader in tackling organized retail theft and through this expanded partnership the agency will further assist the city in doing its job to keep Angelenos and their businesses safe.”
WHAT CHP COMMISSIONER SEAN DURYEE SAID: “Law enforcement is all about partnership – and the CHP is proud to be a good partner to Los Angeles. Working together, and by utilizing the CHP’s wide breadth of expertise and resources, we will crack down on this uptick in dangerous and unacceptable criminal activity.”
Similar to the CHP’s statewide Organized Retail Crime Task Force (ORCTF), the new regional task force in Los Angeles will consist of multiple Southern California law enforcement agencies –– and state partners including the CHP –– and will focus on combatting organized retail theft in the greater Los Angeles area.
Today’s announcement by Governor Newsom builds on the successful efforts of the CHP’s ORCTF. Established by Governor Newsom in 2019, the ORCTF has recovered $30.7 million in stolen merchandise, returning the goods to impacted retailers throughout California. Since ORCTF’s inception, CHP has conducted more than 1,850 investigations into retail crimes and arrested over 1,250 individuals. One key to the ORCTF’s success is its partnership with retailers, local law enforcement, and district attorneys, to effectively disrupt organized retail theft rings and prosecute organized retail crimes.
Under Governor Newsom’s leadership, public safety funding is at an all-time high in California. Building on investments to improve officer retention and well-being and the Governor’s Real Public Safety Plan – which focuses on strengthening local law enforcement response, ensuring perpetrators are held accountable, and getting guns and drugs off our streets – California’s 2023-24 budget includes more than $800 million in funding to support multiple programs to improve public safety and crack down on retail crime. This funding supports multiple law enforcement task forces fighting the spread of fentanyl and combatting retail theft, as well as local law enforcement grants totaling $255 million over three years.
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