Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper accused Target of preventing police officers from cracking down on shoplifting in a tenacious social media post.
Driving the news: Cooper claimed that Target told property crimes detectives that they could not contact suspects inside the store and didn’t want suspects handcuffed inside either.
- Target’s refusal to handcuff and arrest suspects in the store frustrated Sheriff Cooper, who also noted an incident where a lady was caught on camera shoplifting and Target chose to do nothing.
- Other large retail chains like CVS and Walgreens have resorted to locking up everyday items to battle rampant shoplifting, but this trend has frustrated shoppers.
- Target, in particular, expects to suffer a $13 billion hit to its bottom line because of theft and organized crime.
- While there’s lack of consensus on how to best address mass retail theft, some a large share of retailers have encouraged their staff to do nothing to keep them out of harm’s way.
- Cooper concluded his post by denouncing Target’s policy and declaring that “We don’t tell big retail how to do their jobs, they shouldn’t tell us how to do ours.”
