Police are encouraging more communication from businesses during shoplifting rallies

The Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) hosted a so-called “Retail Theft Meeting” Wednesday morning at the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium of the Santa Monica Main Library.

Private security company Legion Corporation in downtown Santa Monica distributed 600 flyers to stores in the central business district and delivered copies of the flyer door to door. However, somewhat disappointingly, only about 70 attendees made it and nearly half of that number came from law enforcement. No members of City staff were present.

Any local business owners, employees or members of a retail store’s loss prevention team who attended the last large-scale public meeting of a similar title in August last year would have been forgiven for expecting a more substantive discussion about the massive amounts of shoplifting and vandalism occurring still plague the city center.

Instead, it was essentially a presentation from SMPD showing how taxpayer dollars are being spent on new technology to fight crime. And while there’s no denying that this is extremely impressive, the meeting would undoubtedly have benefited from some sort of disclaimer, emphasizing that most decisions regarding the potential prosecution and incarceration of shoplifters are in fact out of the hands of local law enforcement are due to decisions made at the state level.

While context was important, the valuable time in the working day spent showing off the new hi-tech, glossy, scaled-down, multi-screen version of Skynet was perhaps unnecessary and as the event wrapped up this reporter heard someone say, ‘Yes. , that meeting could have been an email.”

Nevertheless, representatives from Nordstrom, 7-Eleven, Sunglass Hut, Ye Olde King’s Head, Currency Exchange, McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams, TJ Max, CVS and Starbucks heard Police Chief Ramon Batista give an introduction before the presentation actually began.

“I couldn’t be more proud, day in and day out, (of) the organization… They are amazing. They are like the salt of the earth. They work so hard. We have Community Service officers who go out and take police reports and we have Neighborhood Resource Officers who are part of our community outreach efforts, and supporting all of them are our uniformed patrol officers and our detectives who do the work,” Batista said.

Sergeant Derek Leone then followed with an extremely comprehensive presentation showing how incredibly effective the Drone First Responder unit has been in arresting shoplifters, the changes coming to street CCTV, license plate recognition and smart video analytics software. All of this will almost certainly improve law enforcement on the streets of Santa Monica. Sadly, none of this actually prevents crime. And that’s really what business owners want to hear, based on conversations after the fact.

Ultimately, the most important conclusion was how the police benefit from the communication of store owners and company employees. Photos and videos taken and sent to the SMPD can significantly increase the chances of apprehending a suspect. The idea of a custom, purpose-built app was even briefly touched upon, as it’s often inconvenient to switch between applications to add and email a photo or video during a 911 phone call. Not only can the email address be misunderstood, the call can be accidentally disconnected and Wi-Fi is not accessible everywhere in the city.

Nevertheless, any information regarding any crime is welcomed and encouraged by the Santa Monica Police Department. If you are unsure of who to contact, you can always call the non-emergency 24-hour number (310) 458-8427 and you will be connected to the watch commander. Sergeant Leone can be reached at [email protected]. Likewise, you can call Legion Security, who will arrive downtown faster than the police for a non-emergency situation, by calling their dispatch center at (310) 877-7793 between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. In the event of an actual emergency, you can of course call 911.

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