New York City is driving national data trends in shoplifting incidents, according to a new report, and it saw the biggest overall increase in shoplifting of any city since before the pandemic. 

On a national scale, the trend of shoplifting being up or down depends on the inclusion or omission of New York City data, the Council on Criminal Justice study found. Out of 61,184 shoplifting incidents in the 24 cities the report’s authors studied, almost half took place at New York City. 

“With New York’s numbers included, reported incidents were 16% higher (8,453 more incidents) in the study cities during the first half of 2023 compared to the first half of 2019; without New York, the number was 7% lower (-2, 552 incidents),” the report states. 

Democratic cities across the country have faced criticism in recent months for surges in shoplifting incidents, causing retailers to close locations and to lock up common essential items to prevent theft. In cities like Philadelphia, the rampant shoplifting has even caused business insurance rates to spike; some insurers don’t want to offer coverage at all, as the Sun has reported.

New York’s population isn’t proportional to its influence on the national statistics, a co-author of the report, Ernesto Lopez, tells the Sun. 

“New York has a very large population, a lot of stores, a lot of people. But what comes out in our report is that it’s disproportionate to its size. So while New York will have a massive influence, because it’s a massive city, the influence on shoplifting is larger than its population,” Mr. Lopez says.

Since mid-2019, reported New York shoplifting instances have increased by 64 percent. Since the first half of 2022, though, the rate of incidents has been trending slightly downward, decreasing by 8 percent in the first half of 2023.

At Los Angeles, which has seen an overall increase of 61 percent since before the pandemic, incidents have skyrocketed to a 109 percent increase during the first half of 2023 compared to the same time period in 2022.

In the first halves of 2022 and 2023, Dallas shoplifting reports are up 73 percent, while San Francisco’s are down 35 percent, the data show.

There was a decrease in reported shoplifting during the onset of the pandemic, the report found, when many stores were closed, had limited hours, and people were staying home. 

The report offers a first-of-its-kind overall view of 24 cities’ shoplifting trends, as previous shoplifting reports have relied on retail industry data or have been limited to one state, the authors note. 

In May, New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams, released a plan to fight back on retail theft, which included installing “resources kiosks” in stores to connect would-be shoplifters “to critical government resources and social services.”

“Shoplifters and organized crime rings prey on businesses that have already taken a hit due to COVID-19, but, with this comprehensive plan, we’re going to beat back on retail theft through a combination of law enforcement, prevention, and intervention,” Mr. Adams said at the time.

A representative from his office did not respond to a request for comment on whether the mayor’s plan has yielded results since May.

Although data for some cities show downward trends, accounts of shoplifting aren’t overhyped, Mr. Lopez says. 

“Because these are shocking events that you see, you watch plenty of viral videos of groups of people, shopping carts filled with just general stuff from stores,” he says. “And people see the ramifications, even if they don’t witness the shoplifting event. It’s no longer just valuable electronics that are in locked cases, but common items.” 

Available data are dependent on crime reporting, Mr. Lopez adds, and “not all crime is reported, and so it’s quite possible that even retailers are not reporting all shoplifting.”