Store owners say new State's Attorney O'Neill Burke's tightening of felony retail theft rules is much welcome
CHICAGO (CBS) -- With Eileen O'Neill Burke now officially sworn in as Cook County State's Attorney, big changes are expected in how retail theft cases are charged and handled.
The $1,000 threshold to make retail theft a felony crime—which was set by O'Neill Burke's predecessor, Kim Foxx—will be dropping to $300, effective immediately.
This change in how retail theft cases are charged is music to the ears of small business owners—who say all thefts hurt, and the new rules should help.
Organized retail thefts have been caught on camera and made the news with troubling regularity over the past few years. The short-term consequence is stores being left to count their losses and make costly repairs. The long-term consequence can involve those stores going out of business—and leaving spaces vacant.
When it comes to retail theft, the problem, the aftermath, and the loss have all been caught on video numerous times.
With theft, across Chicago, at a high we haven't seen since 2019, newly sworn-in top Cook County prosecutor O'Neill Burke said it is time to do away with the rule change that Foxx made regarding retail thefts.
"The State's Attorney's Office will be following state law, which sets the threshold for charging retail theft as a felony at $300," Burke said in a statement.
A felony charge means harsher penalties upon conviction compared with a misdemeanor charge.
"It's going to help all business," said Dave Garfield of Garfield's Beverage Warehouse, which has locations in Old Town, Wicker Park/Bucktown, and several suburbs. "Certain products, we only put so much on the shelf—because we know they're specifically targeted."
Indeed, Garfield is all too familiar with retail theft.
"Three hundred dollars is a few bottles nowadays—so that definitely makes a big difference," he said.
Garfield represents the voice of small retailers across Cook County according to Rob Karr, president and chief executive officer of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
"There's hope," Karr said. "The more strenuous approach on crime will discourage those—as you've noted and documented so well over the years, organized retail crime has become far more violent and confrontational and damaging."
So what will the new guideline for felony retail theft charges really change? CBS News Chicago looked closer, going over the State's Attorney's numbers from Foxx's eight years in office.
Their numbers show arrest rates for any kind of theft were low—7% in Cook County.
By the time those cases got to the office for felony review, at Foxx's $1,000-level threshold, only 44% were approved for charges countywide—and only 35% in Chicago.
Moving to prosecution, there were only 3,704 guilty verdicts for countywide in eight years with Foxx at the helm when it comes to theft.
"It's nice to see that the prosecutor is paying attention to little things like this, and looking out for small business," Garfield said.
He said at the end of the day, retail theft is not a little thing at all.
