Shoplifters in Queens may now also get slapped with trespassing notices as part of a new law enforcement initiative that aims to crack down on repeat offenders terrorizing local businesses.
The “innovative” initiative — dubbed the Merchants Business Improvement Program — allows business owners to get restraining orders against suspects who repeatedly come into their stores and steal or harass workers, officials said Tuesday.
“With the high rate of retail theft we are seeing throughout the city, it is absolutely essential that we keep fighting back,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in statement announcing the borough-wide expansion of the pilot program.
“We are not going to allow a small group of individuals to terrorize shop keepers, their employees and customers and to disrupt our local economy,” Katz said, adding, “We will not allow that to happen, because when our local businesses thrive, our communities thrive.”
Shoplifting has surged in the Big Apple over the last few years — with businesses in Queens being hit particularly hard.
Just weeks ago, a brazen thief was captured on camera using a blowtorch inside an East Elmhurst Walgreens to burn off the locks of security cases protecting the store’s merch.
Officials believe the additional trespass charge will deter shoplifters from targetting the same stores repeatedly.
“Shoplifting is absolutely unacceptable levels, I’m not even going to sit here and say anything different,” Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael Lipetri told The Post in a recent interview.
“The challenge is it’s a crime driven by recidivism,” he said. “This year, 350 unique people account for 30% of all our shoplifting arrests.”
The pilot program launched in June 2021 in three NYPD precincts in Jamaica, Flushing and Astoria, with a total 142 stores signing up.
Since then, 83 sticky-fingered suspects were formally told they’d be arrested for trespassing if they returned to a store — five of whom were then busted for violating the orders of protection, the DA’s office said.
“It’s an initiative that activates the best of our intelligence-driven policing strategies to further reduce crime and improve the quality of life for all who live in, work in, and visit the great borough of Queens,” said Assistant Chief Kevin Williams, the commanding officer of Queens Borough South.
One key hurdle has been getting business owners, who have felt helpless in preventing shoplifting, to participate in securing the proper paperwork so cops can issue the trespassing notices to those stealing or being otherwise disruptive in their stores.
But officials are hopeful that Neighborhood Coordination Officers can get more store owners to sign on.
Business owners who have participated in the program and were quoted in the DA’s office press release hailed the initiative.
“Since I enrolled in the program and have been working with the police and the Queens DA’s office, my store has been much safer, and I have not experienced another incident,” said Mee Mee Xie, owner of Wong Nutrition in Flushing.
Lipetri said that while shoplifting remains a serious problem, some progress has been made.
Cops have seen a 5% dip in shoplifting complaints this year, along with a 20% uptick in arrests, according to NYPD data.
But the chief said the tally of arrests could be higher with some help from shop owners — and he urged them to quickly report the crimes.
Cops are twice as likely to make an arrest in a shoplifting case if the crime is reported the same day, compared to if there’s a delay, Lipetri said.
Around 40% of shoplifters are arrested when 911 is called the same day, he said.
