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Comment by alan-crowe | Hacker News Reader

I think that some places will go back to Victorian style shops. They had many shop assistants, who were needed because the goods were behind the counter, instead of being on open shelves. Customers had to ask at the counter; no shop-lifting

See https://reframingthevictorians.blogspot.com/2013/11/shops-an...

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Alternatively they could just enforce the rule of law like most civilized societies do.

The cops in a lot of cities in the US seem to be completely incompetent at actually enforcing things that matter and go whole hog on enforcement that most of society disagrees with.

When it comes to shoplifting the problem is the law, not the cops. In many places there is, in effect, no legal penalty for shoplifting even if "caught". Here in New York shoplifters are not prosecuted. Even if "arrested" they are issued a desk appearance ticket and are back at the same store in hours to shoplift some more.

Just pointing out that’s not a problem with the law, it’s a problem with enforcement policies (aka select free passes on laws) in most cases enacted by fiat of elected officials.

It is the DA's doing this. Its gotten so bad in SF you have Assistant DAs leaving and joining the recall effort https://abc7news.com/chesa-boudin-recall-brooke-jenkins-san-...

In Chicago you have DAs letting shooters that are caught on video go due to "mutual combat". https://abc7chicago.com/kim-foxx-lightfoot-mutual-combatants...

Its out of control and these DAs need to be removed.

Yeah I want a team of cops spending hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a few months to track down some pesky shampoo thieves. /s

Police are hopelessly incompetent when it comes to solving pretty much anything.

And, how, pray tell, are you supposed to do that? The police are rarely on hand when it occurs.

Furthermore, what level of force are you willing to authorize to go recover a couple hundred bucks?

The "Big Box" stores optimized their stores to minimize staff and now are suffering the consequences. No sympathy. Redesign your store to deal with the issue and put the staff back.

Yet it is so strange how these situations only occur in major west coast cities with city councils and da's who actively encourage lawlessness and theft.

Many moons ago, the HEB grocery store system in Texas used to have a lot of 24 hour stores. Then they had a rash of thefts and shoplifting, so they closed those hours off and relaid out the stores.

At what point was Texas full of city councils and DA's who actively encouraged lawlessness and theft?

And, seemingly, the current problem is that these things appear to be gang-related. So, just as with the "War on Drugs," you can pick off as many small fry as you want, but you really won't make any headway into solving the problem.

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