DA Krasner announces task force to combat organized retail and home theft

The district attorney’s office has launched a task force to combat organized retail and home theft in Philadelphia.

The task force arrives after retail theft in Philadelphia increased last year, even as other crimes stats, such as homicide, fell. Between 2017 and 2021, reported retail theft incidents rose 21%, according to an Inquirer investigation. Last year, retail theft incidents were up 27% from the year before, according to Philadelphia Police Department data.

Krasner’s critics have routinely scrutinized the district attorney’s progressive platform, which calls for less-severe punishment for certain retail theft offenders.

Krasner said during a Monday news conference that the newly formed task force, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Police Department and funded by City Council, would target “prolific offenders” who repeatedly steal, as well as larger-scale criminal organizations that resell stolen goods.

The practice, known as “fencing,” sees criminals moving stolen goods worth millions throughout the country. Aided by the internet, Krasner said, these goods often end up on the shelves of small shops such as corner grocers.

Those enlisted to steal the goods are often struggling with opioid addiction, Krasner said. His office’s goal is to also “remove the motivation” to steal by connecting offenders with addiction treatment, diversion, and restorative justice.

“This has to stop,” Krasner said of the city’s fencing operations. The retail theft task force will be “vigorously going after fencing operations — often that are led by people making a whole lot of money doing it,” he said.

Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Esack will head the team, which will also prosecute those who steal homes, commonly referred to as deed theft, a practice prevalent in Philadelphia due to its high rate of home ownership.

Esack said her team includes three attorneys with track records of prosecuting prolific retail theft offenders, and two additional hires are expected.

Retail theft has proliferated in Philadelphia in the aftermath of the pandemic. While homicides and gun robberies fell last year — the former by 23% from the year before — retail theft increases were only trumped by auto theft, which rose 70% from 2022, according to police data.

Krasner was initially elected on a campaign that pledged to reduce pretrial jailings and unclog the court system, and has remained committed to that vision throughout his second term. An overwhelming majority of retail theft prosecutions during his tenure have been filed as summary offenses — akin to a traffic ticket — a 2022 Inquirer investigation found, unless the stolen items were worth more than $500 or the suspect was a repeat offender.

Meanwhile the number of arrests and the number of charges for retail theft fell by nearly 70% between 2017 — the year Krasner was elected — and 2021, according to the investigation.

Krasner railed against notions that he was soft on retail crime, a narrative “that has always been false,” he said at Monday’s news conference. To underscore that point, Krasner noted that summary offenses can result in up to 90 days in jail.

In turn, Krasner said the district attorney’s office would soon remove language from its policy that mentions the $500 limit, to “take that distraction away by not focusing on a dollar amount.”

With the task force’s launch, Esack said that in the coming year, the public should expect spikes in retail theft statistics; those figures, she said, would stem from a rise in incident reporting, as well as collaborative efforts between the task force and the Philadelphia Police Department.

“[Small-business owners] weren’t reporting a lot of the crimes, but they are now,” Esack said. “It will actually look like it’s getting worse before it gets better.”

Standing alongside Krasner and Esack, community members were eager for a solution that would ease the burden of theft from beleaguered store owners.

“The commercial corridors with these businesses are struggling as it is,” said Pete Wilson, cofounder of the antiviolence group Philadelphia Community Outreach Committee. “... They have to hire people to work in the store. ... They have to hire folks to eyeball people when they come in. That makes people feel uncomfortable — that are not there to steal, but to purchase items.”