Utah bill would increase penalties for group or interstate retail product theft | News, Sports, Jobs

Lawmakers are considering increasing penalties for retail theft, particularly for what they call illegal out-of-state “businesses” that target Utah stores and resell the goods on the black market.

The bill, called Criminal Offense Amendments, also addresses a number of issues related to gang activity and organized crime in the state, including increased penalties for adults who recruit or intimidate minors into a gang.

It would increase the penalty for people who come to Utah with the intent of stealing from retail stores, a crime that, as long as there is no more than $500 in stolen goods, is generally a misdemeanor class B.

Under the bill, if the person were convicted of a similar Class A misdemeanor in another state, they could now be charged with a third-degree felony.

“There are a lot of people who come to Utah, where they can make sure that every theft they commit stays under $500. And so they just visit several stores and then go back out of state, and they guaranteed that the most they would get would be a class B misdemeanor, because the convictions they had in other states do not count against them. said Richard Larsen, prosecutor with the Davis County Prosecutor’s Office.

He compared Utah’s approach to prosecuting drunk driving: if someone was convicted of drunk driving in another state and then faced a separate DUI charge DUI in Utah, he could face an improvement.

Larson, who spoke at an interim law enforcement and criminal justice committee last week, told lawmakers about at least one case where an organized gang with ties to Cuba stole products retail store in Utah, shipped them to Florida where they were stored in a warehouse, then finally shipped to Cuba where it was sold on the black market.

The law also targets people working “in concert,” which essentially means they work together. Larson gave the example of a Best Buy store in Farmington.

“There would be a group of three or four people who would come in, each would select an Xbox – which would be a class B misdemeanor based on value – and then the group would all run away at the same time knowing that there was no had only one loss prevention officer. . It was a guaranteed loss of hundreds of dollars every time they did it, because the company doesn’t have the resources to guard against this kind of thing,” Larson said.

Under the law, a group of two or more people acting together will face a heavier charge, depending on the crime. A Class B misdemeanor would become a Class A misdemeanor, a Class A misdemeanor would become a third-degree felony, and so on.

This “in concert” improvement previously existed in Utah code, but was repealed in 2021 – the bill proposed last week would reinstate it.

“Currently, there are no provisions in the law to discourage people from working together to commit these offences. And by working together, they can be much more effective,” Larson said.

The improvement goes well beyond targeting theft, including crimes like homicide, human trafficking, arson, burglary, bribery, misrepresentation, prostitution and much more.

The bill’s broad scope sparked some skepticism from lawmakers and attorneys who spoke at the committee meeting, including Utah Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys Director Steve Burton .

“If you and your buddy went to a store and you both stole a candy bar, now instead of a Class B misdemeanor, you’re looking at a Class A misdemeanor,” Burton said. “So instead of six months in potential jail, you’re now facing a year in potential jail, because you did it with a buddy.”

House Minority Leader Angela Romero, a Democratic congresswoman from Salt Lake City, said she was concerned that the bill promotes racial profiling, with groups of the same race or ethnicity being unfairly targeted.

“You might have more than two people in a particular situation, where people may say they’re gang affiliated, but maybe they’re not and we just assume they are,” he said. Romero said. “That’s a concern for me.”

Larson, in response, said there is a big difference between gang enhancement and concert enhancement — as long as prosecutors can prove the two people were working together to commit the same crime, even if only one was arrested, “it should be improvable,” he said.

“We don’t care about the color of their skin, we don’t care about any of those things. This is about participation in concerts. And that will eliminate any concerns about profiling,” he said.

The bill would also allow retail stores to report the retail cost of stolen equipment when trying to obtain restitution, rather than the wholesale cost.

Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.