Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Following Crack Down on Organized Retail Theft, Governor Hochul Announces Reduction in Retail Theft in New York City

Governor Kathy Hochul today was in Harlem to speak with local business leaders to highlight the state’s progress in combatting organized retail theft in New York City and across the state.

Following a spike in organized retail theft in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Hochul announced new measures to crack down on these crimes that included over $40 million to support targeted law enforcement initiatives, stronger laws to hold perpetrators accountable, and new protections for frontline retail workers. Today, New Yorkers are seeing results from this comprehensive approach with retail theft declining more than 12 percent year over year — a decrease of nearly 5,000 instances — in New York City and 5 percent across the rest of the state.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 Good morning. It is great to be here in this vibrant community. Got the sirens, got the traffic, got lots of people walking the streets, and it feels fantastic to be back here. I'm joined by Captain Young of the New York State Police. I want to thank her for all she does. Where are you, Captain Young?

Jessica Walker, the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. An extraordinary leader during some tough times. We had a lot of conversations, certainly during the pandemic and how to get the businesses through it. And you are just an incredible voice of calm who led us through those times. I want to thank you for everything you've done there. Also some other business leaders as well. Always something going on.

I want to talk about a specific issue. We talk a lot about crime, but there's one crime that was truly on the rise during the pandemic and during the aftermath — and that was retail theft. I went around the state convening groups with small business leaders, the Chambers of Commerce, the bodega owners, the drugstore owners.

And there was this panic because there was so much evidence of retail theft where there's just one person coming in. But oftentimes there was an organized crime operation behind it, that was getting people to just literally go in and sweep the shelves, throw them in a vehicle and put it online and sell it.

And so we went at this pretty aggressively with the legislature. And I made a vow. I mean, these people came through a lot. They came through the pandemic, and they certainly don't need their inventory stolen right before their eyes. Plus there was a high number of retail workers being assaulted. And, in my opinion, the laws did not protect them adequately. So we sprung into action.

I will say there was a peak around 2022, right when I was coming into office and I said, we'd go after this. So how do you do this? First of all, we've invested an enormous amount of money overall in public safety. Nearly $3 billion. Unprecedented numbers dedicated to all aspects of fighting crime and making our neighborhoods safer. But with respect to retail theft, we established teams to go into neighborhoods. I had 100 people from State Police alone to work with the mayor and the mayor's office to try to address this.

We had a first ever joint operation on retail theft. And then we passed stronger laws. We had to make the penalties higher for assaults on retail workers. This was really important to them. They really appreciate that they have value, but they're also on the front lines.

I mean, they're alone in a shop and there's a lot of things that can be done with them without anybody being able to respond and protect them. So that was happening and now those numbers are declining as well. We also made it easier to go after the third party sellers who were selling online. So we shut a lot of that down. Also, we provided a tax credit, so businesses that were struggling could have money to at least buy a few security cameras and enhance security in their operations.

And so, as we did this year and a half ago. I wanted to ask my team, well, how are the numbers looking? They're making a difference because I judge by whether or not the crimes are going down. Well, we're down almost 12 percent just from last year. And as I talked to some of the business owners, I stopped in on my way here. They feel it as well. They don't feel that they're under siege as much as they had been before. And they're grateful for the work of law enforcement, number one. But also they know that significant laws were changed in the state legislature because I knew that needed to happen.

So that's a good news story. There's other great news stories. I mean, the fact that murders are down 21 percent in New York City as well as 19 percent statewide, that is incredible. Shootings are down 20 percent. But again, you'll never hear me say we're done. We don't rest on our laurels. We never say mission accomplished because one crime is one crime, too many. And so we're going to continue that effort. But just to come out here again, neighborhoods that I had visited during the height of this crisis, to hear from them on whether they feel the effects. And the answer is a resounding yes, but that just goes to show the power of working together with the community, the leaders of the business community, taking their voices to Albany, getting the changes we need, and now the numbers are showing a much, much better direction than the trajectory we had been on.

So, with that, let me turn it over to Jessica Walker to give you some observations from the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, and again, grateful for all the work she does as well.