Within the final quarter of 2024, Suffolk prosecutors have secured stay-away orders for 73 individuals charged with shoplifting, larceny and different offenses at South Bay Mall as a part of a brand new store-based crime initiative, Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden introduced Sunday.
“We and our initiative partners are concerned about all retail areas of the city but the troubling incidents at South Bay in the past made it an area of particular focus,” Hayden stated Sunday.
For the South Bay Mall in Dorchester, prosecutors requested a complete of 116 stay-away orders for people arraigned on associated costs from September to December 2024, the DA’s workplace stated. The orders go into impact whereas the circumstances are pending and stay after sentencing for these convicted.
The orders are a part of a “Safe Shopping Initiative” launched in 2024 by the DA’s workplace, Boston Police and small enterprise and retailer teams, in line with the DA’s workplace, “An effort to increase consumer safety and help store managers strategize responses to shoplifting and retail larcenies.”
Together with retail crime considerations, the DA stated, the initiative shaped in response to frustration with the closure of a number of Boston pharmacies serving minority communities.
On Monday for a current case, prosecutors obtained a keep away-order for a 39-year-old man arraigned on 11 excellent warrants at South Boston courtroom for shoplifting offenses at South Bay.
Of the 45 December circumstances, Hayden’s workplace detailed, 16 included drug-treatment provisions as a part of sentencing, eight resulted in incarceration of as much as one yr, and 31 had the prevailing stay-away orders stay in impact. At solely Goal within the mall, $3038.80 was ordered in restitution.
Prosecutors secured a referrals to drug therapy packages for 9 defendants whose circumstances have been pending as a part of the initiative.
“Our overarching goal with this initiative is to make shopping spaces safe for consumers and workers and to help prevent any more store closures, which we know have a dramatic impact on residents, particularly our older residents,” stated Hayden. “But that doesn’t mean seeking incarceration for every offender. In many cases, the effective path is to address the underlying reason for the conduct, which is very often addiction disorders.”
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