What you need to know: In August, California’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force continued with its high rates of enforcement, and is already well on its way to surpassing enforcement totals for all of 2023. In August alone, CHP reported 171 arrests, and the recovery of 26,415 items of stolen property worth more than half a million dollars.

SACRAMENTO - Governor Gavin Newsom today announced that California’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force (ORCTF), led by the California Highway Patrol, maintained high levels of enforcement in August and is well on its way to surpassing enforcement totals from 2023. Last month, the ORCTF facilitated 171 arrests and recovered 26,415 items of stolen property worth about $547,000. In August, ORCTF reached a total of 573 investigations conducted so far this year, exceeding the total number of investigations completed in the entirety of 2023. 

This effort led by the CHP is part of Governor Newsom’s comprehensive approach to combat organized retail crime, which includes new measures to crack down on property crime and unprecedented funding for police and prosecutors in local communities.

“Month after month, the CHP’s tireless efforts to crack down on organized crime continue to yield results. The state has no plans on letting up soon, and will continue its progress in protecting California’s businesses and communities while holding criminals to account.” - Governor Gavin Newsom

Since January, the ORCTF has facilitated 1,055 arrests, 573 investigations, and recovered over $7.8 million worth of stolen goods. Since the inception of the task force in 2019, the CHP has been involved in nearly 3,000 investigations, leading to the arrest of more than 3,100 suspects and the recovery of over 878,000 stolen goods valued at nearly $46 million.

Local support to fight organized retail crime

Governor Newsom has invested $1.1 billion since 2019 to fight crime, help local governments hire more police, and improve public safety. Today’s announcement demonstrates the success of the Governor’s Real Public Safety Plan - which focuses on strengthening local law enforcement response, ensuring perpetrators are held accountable, and getting guns and drugs off our streets, including by increased deployment of California Highway Patrol to hot spots such as Oakland, Bakersfield, and San Francisco.

The Governor announced last year the state distributed $267 million to 55 local law enforcement agencies to help communities combat organized retail crime. These funds have enabled cities and counties to hire more police, make more arrests, and secure more felony charges against suspects. In just the first six months of the grant cycles, local law enforcement agencies that received the grants reported more than 6,900 arrests for retail theft, motor vehicle theft, and cargo theft offenses.

Last year, the California Highway Patrol reported an annual 310% increase in proactive operations targeting organized retail crime, and special operations across the state to fight crime and improve public safety.