In downtown Salinas on Monday — joined by several dozen Central Coast elected officials, law enforcement leaders, business owners and local and state lawmakers — California State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas championed historic new retail theft laws, which will protect business owners, improve safety for shoppers and workers, and hold criminals accountable.
“Today, we’re done with smash-and-grabs. We’re done with products being locked up. Today, law-abiding citizens — not criminals — make the rules,” said Speaker Rivas, who represents communities across San Benito, Santa Cruz, Monterey and Santa Clara counties, while also leading the Democratic Assembly Caucus in Sacramento’s State Capitol.
Speaker Rivas’ package of new legislation, which was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom last week, provides new tools to stop this problem.
“I am grateful to Speaker Rivas for making retail theft a priority,” said Assemblymember Rick Zbur who serves as chairman of the Select Committee on Retail Theft.
Rachel Michelin, who serves as president of the California Retailers Association, called the policy “comprehensive” and said the laws address retail theft from “many different angles.”
Ron Fong, president of California Grocers Association, described Monday as “a historic day” and said supermarket and grocery owners are deeply concerned about crime at their businesses.
Mike Molinar, CPA operates several supermarkets, including a Food 4 Less in the Central Coast, and he said these retail-theft solutions “couldn’t have come soon enough.”
Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto said she is eager to see continued work on the issue. “My hope is this legislation is just the beginning,” she said.
Santa Clara County DA, Jeff Rosen noted how retail theft leads to perilous outcomes, even in rural and non-urban parts of California, when pharmacies or “mom and pop” stores are targeted, and “vulnerable communities lose access to food and medicine.”
Assemblymember Juan Alanis, a Republican from Modesto who authored one of the new retail-theft laws and served for three decades in law enforcement, said on Monday he "looked forward to continuing to work” with his Assembly colleagues on public safety issues.
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