North Cook News

Cook County State's Attorney candidate Clayton Harris says shoplifting-weary retailers should move "enticing merchandise" farther from the door, making it harder for would-be thieves to steal.

The Daily Herald reported Harris' comment Thursday, made during his editorial interview with the newspaper.

"His proposal to work with businesses to place their more enticing merchandise farther back in the store where it is both less alluring and less prone to quick removal seems like more a matter of accommodation than of protection," the Daily Herald editorial board wrote.

Harris offered the shoplifting solution in contrast with that of his opponent, retired Appellate Court Judge Eileen O’Neill Burke, who blamed the county's spike in "smash and grab" thefts and burglaries on a 2016 decision by current State's Attorney Kim Foxx to stop prosecuting them, unless $1,000 worth of merchandise has been stolen.

State law dictates the threshold for shoplifters to be charged with a felony in Illinois is $300.

Foxx's decision "concerns many businesses have that shoplifters feel they’ve been given carte blanche to sweep into their stores and make off with as much merchandise as they can carry," the Daily Herald wrote.

Harris told the Daily Herald he will continue the Foxx shoplifting policy, if elected.

Foxx is backing Harris over O'Neill Burke in the March 19 Democrat primary.

O'Neill Burke said Foxx doesn't have the authority to unilaterally change state law on shoplifting.

“If there is an appetite to change the law, the correct way to do that is to go to Springfield and change the law," she said. "It is not appropriate for an officeholder to say sua sponte (of his/her own accord) 'I’m just not going to enforce the law,"

“You can clear out several aisles in Walgreens before you get to the $1,000 threshold," O'Neill Burke said.

Walgreens has been forced to open "anti-theft" stores to stop shoplifters.

A South Loop Walgreens requires shoppers to order and pay for merchandise first, then to ask an employee to get it for them.

An estimated $2 billion worth of goods were stolen by shoplifters from Illinois retailers in 2021, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce study.

“Increasing the threshold has a demonstrable impact in terms of encouraging additional theft,” said Rob Karr of the Illinois Retail Merchants' Association. “Criminals are intelligent. They know exactly where that threshold is.”