Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner announced a task force aimed at preventing both retail theft and housing theft.
Krasner was joined by community leaders, business corridor professionals and retailers as they unveiled the city’s first Organized Retail & House Theft Task Force during a press conference at 11 a.m. Monday. The presser took place at Redcap’s Corner, a gaming store along the 3800 block of Lancaster Avenue.
While speaking about the task force, Krasner disputed what he referred to as a "false narrative" about how his office has handled retail thefts in the city.
“I do want you to understand there’s been a false narrative out there for some time, repeated and repeated and repeated by certain people that the DA’s Office does not prosecute retail theft below a certain value. That is false. That has always been false That has never been the case," Krasner said. "What the policy actually said was that below a certain dollar value we would prosecute these cases as summaries which we have done. And a summary offense could put you in jail for up to 90 days. It’s actually no joke.”
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Krasner said the new policy put in place by the task force will not include a particular dollar amount in order to "take that distraction away" in regards to false information.
"We realize that the language has been misrepresented and we don't want there to be any confusion about what the policy is," Krasner said.
Krasner said the task force will focus on aggressively going after fencing operations in which thieves buy or receive stolen goods and resell them.
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The task force will also go after "prolific" repeat offenders for retail theft, according to Krasner. Finally, the task force will focus on fixing underlying issues that Krasner says often leads to retail theft, most notably those who steal in order to support an addiction to drugs.
"So with reference to that group, the group of people who are not fundamentally professional criminals. The group of people who are caught in an addiction at a time when opioid manufacturers have half-destroyed this country, when we're talking about them, we will be talking about treatment, restorative justice, diversion and other ways to try to fix the underlying issues because frankly if you don't fix them, they will be right back," Krasner said. "Unless you can remove the motivation by providing treatment and other opportunities in figuring out what's behind this drug addiction, the public will not be safe, they will be back."
The task force -- which received funding from city council -- will be supervised by Kimberly Esack, who is currently a supervisor of the District Attorney's Office's Economic Crimes Division.
"So far we have three members of the District Attorney's Office on the task force," Esack said. "An external position is posted as well."
Esack said the task force will also collaborate with Philadelphia Police on cracking down on fencing operations. Krasner also said the task force will work with community and business owners.
The updated retail theft policy will be released within the next seven to ten business days, according to Krasner.
In addition to retail theft, the task force will also work to prevent housing theft in which fraudsters steal deeds by using fake real estate transfer transactions.
"The damage that is done by house thieves is considerable. It is problematic," Krasner said. "It is bad for the city in every way and it attacks the generational wealth of the families that own those homes."
The new task force comes two months after security guard Eric Harrison was stabbed to death at the Center City Macy’s store.
Police said the suspect in the stabbing – 30-year-old Tyrone Tunnell – was trying to steal hats from the store prior to killing Harrison.
The Macy's store had experienced one of the highest levels of retail theft in Philadelphia, according to former Interim Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Stanford.
"Just year to date, they have over 250 reports of retail theft at this location. So it is an ongoing situation," Stanford said in December. "An ongoing problem. Not just for large chain stores like this but in terms of businesses throughout the city.”
In a lawsuit filed against Macy’s and the owners of the Center City building where the store is located, lawyers for Harrison’s family cited the retail thefts and overall crime in Center City as factors that led to the deadly stabbing.
