SF Mayor announces Organized Retail Crime Initiative

SAN FRANCISCO:  San Francisco Mayor London Breed has announced details from San Francisco's Organized Retail Crime Initiative, a new initiative led by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) in partnership with local retailers and regional law enforcement agencies.

The focus of the plan is to increase reporting, investigating, and solving of retail theft cases and the upstream criminal enterprises that fuel them, the announcement said on Wednesday.

The plan has three main elements: expanding and reallocating police investigative resources, strategic restructuring of publicly and privately funded deployments, and public-private partnerships aimed at reporting, investigating and solving cases, according to the announcement.

"Retail theft and commercial burglaries are not victimless crimes," said Breed.

"They hurt working families due to reduced work hours, shuttered stores and lost jobs."

"The strategy we're outlining today is an all-hands-on-deck approach that brings the full partnership of state and local law enforcement and retailers to bear to aggressively pursue, investigate and deter organised retail crime in San Francisco," she added.