Chicago City Wire

Minority House Leader Jim Durkin (R-Burr Ridge) is pushing legislation that would make organized retail theft a felony punishable by as much as 15 years in prison.

“Organized retail theft continues to dominate headlines and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Governor J.B. Pritzker’s failure to act is only emboldening these criminals,” Durkin posted on Facebook. “For months I have been pushing for Illinois to get tough on these crimes, even introducing my own comprehensive legislation targeting organized retail theft. It’s time to stop coddling criminals, stop disregarding victims, and take action.”

Durkin cites the need for legislation like House Bill 4275 given the string of recent shoplifting raids targeting some of the city’s most upscale stores, including one where bandits made off with roughly $10,000 worth of merchandise from a North Michigan Avenue Burberry store.

According to CWBChicago, witnesses told police three men wearing masks fled the scene in a vehicle that was waiting for them in a nearby alley. The Burberry store has now lost upwards of $100,000 in merchandise to burglars, including two raids that took place over a 72 hour period in early January.

In another January incident along the Mag Mile, an off-duty Chicago police officer was injured as she worked security at Bottega Veneta and thieves rushed the establishment.

“Smash-and-grab retail theft has become disturbingly commonplace and these criminals are only becoming more brazen,” Durkin said in a post to his website “These crimes have many victims, from the people who own and operate these stores, to their employees and customers. We cannot let this stand. These criminals are sophisticated and organized like the street gangs that terrorize our communities and must be treated the same.”

According to a recent Illinois Retail Merchants Association report, retailers in Illinois collectively lost up to $4 billion worth of merchandise to retail theft last year. In addition, billions in stolen goods means the state loses out on millions in sales tax revenue.

Under Durkin’s proposal, a person commits organized retail theft when they hit such criteria as working with one or more people to steal merchandise with the intent of selling or returning the merchandise for profit, acting as an agent of another individual or group of individuals to steal merchandise from one or more merchant’s premises as part of an organized plan to commit theft or work to recruit, coordinate, organize, supervise, direct, manage or finance another person to undertake any of these actions.

HB 4275 would also allow for organized retail theft to be charged in either the place where the theft took place, where the merchandise was recovered, or where stolen merchandise was resold.

Durkin said the time for action is now.

“State’s Attorney Foxx and Governor Pritzker continue to coddle criminals and disregard the victims of their crimes,” he said. “It is time we reset our criminal justice system and hold those who disregard our laws accountable. Our citizens and our merchants are desperate for action.”

Illinois Policy Institute President Ted Dabrowski recently told Chicago City Wire he isn’t sure what may come next for the downtown Chicago business district.

“When you start combining this crime issue that we're talking about and start adding that corporations are going to delay their office reopenings it starts to all add up again," Dabrowski told Chicago’s Morning Answer.

Dabrowski said he thinks Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office is mishandling the increase in crime.

“I think it’s a real issue,” he said. “I hear people say we don’t go down there anymore. People don’t walk around there anymore. They take an Uber everywhere they’re going. It’s really confusing when you hear (authorities) say how much better they’re doing managing felonies when this new report comes out and says just the opposite.”