What's at stake?
The goal is to reduce organized retail theft by 15% each year.
The Fresno Police Department is mounting a $23.6 million, state-funded effort to combat “organized retail theft” – and with it comes dozens of new officers and license plate readers for the force.
The Fresno City Council approved the department’s initial plans for the grant money Thursday, including the hiring of 25 additional Fresno police officers and the purchase of 75 automated license plate readers from the company Flock Safety, according to Chief Paco Balderrama.
The goal is to reduce organized retail theft by 15% each year – which other California cities have fallen prey to in high-profile cases.
The grant also helps fund efforts to fight auto and catalytic-converter theft.
“We focus on violent crime, and that’s the highest priority, obviously,” Balderrama said in his remarks to the council Thursday. “But we also have to take care of our business community.”
Councilmembers and city leaders alike applauded Fresno PD for securing the grant, which was the largest awarded of any agency in California.
City Manager Georgeanne White called the fully-state-subsidized addition of dozens of officers to the force “too good to be true.”
The Clovis Police Department, Fresno County Probation Department, and Fresno County District Attorney’s Office are also part of this multi-agency collaboration.
Tracking this type of crime has posed challenges, although Fresno PD has plans to tackle that through the grant funds.
Tracking organized retail theft in Fresno
Fresno PD’s grant application said the department “observed a staggering 752% increase in ORT between 2020 and 2022,” with ORT referring to organized retail theft.
But before applying to the state grant, Fresno PD hasn’t specifically tracked organized retail theft, police spokesperson Lt. Bill Dooley said in an email Dec. 7.
The force’s National Incident Based Reporting System only makes distinctions between larcenies and burglaries but not organized retail theft, Balderrama clarified in an email Thursday afternoon.
During the application process, crime analysts had to hand count organized retail theft incidents between 2020 and 2022. These incidents were defined as crimes where “two or more individuals ran into a store, grabbed merchandise and ran out,” Balderrama said.
They found 23 incidents of organized retail theft in 2020, 95 in 2021, and 196 in 2022.
“Part of the grant funding includes an improved tracking mechanism,” he said, “using additional professional staff, software, and an independent assessment of our effectiveness by a local university to make sure we are meeting the goals of this grant.”
Fresno PD is contracting with criminology professors and graduate student assistants at Fresno State will help with data collection and evaluation, according to the grant application.
License plate readers in Fresno will ‘triple’ with grant funding
Fresno PD is also purchasing 58 stationary cameras from Flock Safety with the state funds. These will be installed across key areas, Balderrama said, such as the Tower District, “all up and down Blackstone,” near Fashion Fair and River Park malls, and along Belmont, among other locations.
With the addition of 75 license plate readers as well using the grant money, Fresno PD will “triple” their existing amount, Balderrama said.
The controversial police technology has created concerns among civil rights groups and privacy advocates across the country.
In Tulare and Merced, the American Civil Liberties Union accused police departments of sharing license plate reader data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Tulare police chief apologized for the “inadvertent” practice and said the department would take actions to remedy that.
Balderrama said Fresno PD only shares their data with the “Valley area.” They may also share with other California agencies upon request.
He added that Fresno PD’s license plate reader policy is not only in compliance with state law regulating their use but also more restrictive.
“The state actually mandates that any data that has not been used for criminal investigations be deleted in 60 days,” he said. “Our policy is 30 days.”
No member of the public spoke on the item during the meeting, but one person submitted a comment in advance, condemning the purchase of the license plate readers.
“I am opposed to the acquisition of the license plate readers and the associated technology,” said Dan Waterhouse in a written comment, “because they can be abused and should be considered government overreach.”
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