Suffolk District Lawyer Kevin Hayden mentioned his workplace seeks to divert, quite than prosecute, sure low-level shoplifting offenders however bristled when requested whether or not he nonetheless operates underneath his disgraced predecessor Rachael Rollins’ do-not-prosecute record.
Throughout a Thursday press convention on an initiative his workplace spearheaded that goals to discourage shoplifting, Hayden outlined how the DA’s workplace goals to prosecute repeat retail theft offenders whereas giving a cross to first-time non-violent offenders — supplied the beginner bandits participate in a voluntary diversion program.
Shoplifting, in accordance with Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, whose division partnered with the DA’s workplace on the “Safe Shopping Initiative” rolled out in March 2024, is up 15% this yr, in comparison with the identical interval final yr. The Retailers Affiliation of Massachusetts estimates that shoplifting price the state’s retailers $2 billion in 2023.
“Our focus is on repeat and violent offenders that are impacting retail theft,” Hayden mentioned on the BPD headquarters in Roxbury. “Those that interact in retail theft repeatedly and with impunity, those that commit associated acts of violence that threaten employees and members of the neighborhood, and those who assist drive legal enterprises for revenue of their shoplifting enterprises can be held accountable.
“Low-level offenders driven by unfortunate circumstances that require an alternative will be handled with diversionary measures,” he added, highlighting his workplace’s Companies Over Sentences program and the state’s veterans courts as various remedy choices. “We will provide those help and resources because if we don’t, they will reoffend. If we don’t, they will become repeat offenders.”
Hayden bristled at solutions, nevertheless, that the DA’s workplace was nonetheless working underneath his disgraced predecessor and former U.S. Lawyer Rachael Rollins’ controversial do-not-prosecute record that included shoplifting and 14 different so-called low-level crimes that she pledged to not prosecute as Suffolk district lawyer.
“The do-not-prosecute list is a complete misnomer,” Hayden informed the Herald after the day’s press convention. “We have been diverting cases for low-level offenses before, during and after the Rollins administration. So, it’s almost frustrating to get to the point of still answering that question.”
Of the record, and shoplifting being a do-not-prosecute crime for the DA’s workplace, Hayden mentioned, “A list of cases that we never, ever prosecuted has never existed.”
A spokesman from Hayden’s workplace later referred to as the Herald to make clear that whereas there was actually a do-not-prosecute record compiled by Rollins, it ceased to exist when Hayden took workplace in January 2022.
Rollins resigned from her publish because the state’s high prosecutor in Could 2023, upon the issuance of two federal stories that discovered she abused her place, partly, by leaking false info to the media in an effort to affect the result of the Suffolk DA’s race in favor of her most popular candidate, ex-Boston metropolis councilor Ricardo Arroyo, who misplaced to Hayden.
The federal investigation was sparked by her look at a Democratic Nationwide Committee fundraiser, in potential violation of the Hatch Act, after it was first reported by the Herald.
The Suffolk DA spokesman additionally clarified that Hayden’s workplace prosecutes first-time shoplifting offenders who choose not to participate in a voluntary diversion program.
Cox mentioned roughly 20% of individuals arrested for shoplifting over the previous 5 years had been repeat offenders.
Unclear is what number of of that pool of offenders had been diverted to remedy packages and what number of had been arrested for associated violent crime. Cox and Hayden, when requested, had been unable to supply these statistics.
Whereas shoplifting is up by 15% this yr, per BPD knowledge, and spiked 55% between the primary half of 2024 in comparison with the identical interval in 2019, in accordance with knowledge from the Council for Legal Justice, audio system on the day’s press convention largely struck an upbeat tone about progress they are saying has been seen for the reason that initiative rolled out final yr.
Mayor Michelle Wu and Cox each emphasised how BPD has sought to use the identical strategy to decreasing homicides — which, per Wu, had been on the lowest degree final yr in not less than the previous 70 years — to discourage shoplifting. Such an strategy, they defined, focuses on figuring out and concentrating on teams driving the crime.
“I’m really grateful to see such spillover effects in a positive way,” Wu, who’s up for reelection and infrequently touts Boston because the most secure main metropolis within the nation, mentioned. “Certainly this is a national issue that many retailers, many large chain stores and many cities are grappling with.”
Wu, a progressive Democrat who supported Rollins’ do-not-prosecute record when working for mayor in 2021, was requested about whether or not her occasion was flawed on the problem, at a time when Democrats are going through criticism for his or her so-called soft-on-crime insurance policies that critics say have contributed to nationwide shoplifting spikes.
“I think every time a customer has to ask the CVS clerk to unlock the shampoo, Democrats get less popular,” U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, a Newton Democrat, wrote in a weblog publish final month.
Josh Kraft, Wu’s principal mayoral opponent, informed reporters at an unrelated marketing campaign occasion that he doesn’t suppose what he characterised because the mayor’s protected purchasing plan is working.
“Shoplifting has been a quality of life issue for more than three years for all the residents of the city,” Kraft mentioned, “and like a lot of issues — bike lanes, Mass and Cass — it seems the mayor and the current administration are focusing hard on them now because they have an upcoming election, instead of listening to people who have been talking about shoplifting and shampoo being locked up for three years.”
Wu, mentioned, nevertheless, that town’s strategy is essentially the identical.
Echoing Hayden, Wu mentioned, “Historically, there’s always been some differentiation between repeat offenders and low-level theft. I think then and now there has been diversion and prosecutorial discretion exercised.”
Wu’s police commissioner took a more durable line.
“Now, the mayor has made Boston a welcoming home in the city for everyone,” Cox mentioned. “But I just want to add this one caveat: It is not a welcoming place if you want to come here for violent crime, and more importantly, just any crime in general, and that includes shoplifting.”
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