by In an
update on the Safe Shopping Initiative
on Wednesday, Police Commissioner Michael Cox reported that shoplifting in Boston is up 15% from this time last year.
However, he said an increase in shoplifting rates is to be expected with the rise in reporting seen since the Safe Shopping Initiative launched in 2024.
The initiative is a collaboration between the mayor’s office, police, the district attorney’s office, and local businesses to hold shoplifters accountable and prevent shoplifting from turning violent.
It “took issues that were generally considered in silos into a safety net where there was overlap and cross pollenization,” Meg Mainzer-Cohen, the president of the Back Bay Business Association, said at Wednesday’s press conference.
The initiative utilizes shoplifting data and reports from businesses to inform the next safety steps — and ultimately aims to prevent shoplifting and business closures.
Each year, Massachusetts retailers lose approximately
$2 billion per year
from all types of merchandise theft.
Shoplifting is a “growing problem nationally,” Ryan Kearney, the vice president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, noted. Nationally, shoplifting rates are up 93% since 2023, with a 90% increase in dollar loss, according to the
FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System
.
While Mayor Michelle Wu has made Boston a welcoming home for many, Cox said, “it is not a welcoming place if you want to come here for violent crime or, more importantly, any crime, including shoplifting.”
“Criminal issues and specifically the issue of shoplifting have a profound impact on people’s willingness to be there,” said Micheal Nichols, the president of the Downtown Boston Alliance.
“People are not going to transcend all across the city to go somewhere else because it is safer there.” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden added. “They are going to go to what’s convenient to them so we want every place in the city that’s convenient to people to be safe for people.”
The Safe Shopping Initiative added lighting and additional foot patrols to Nubian Square, Wu said. As a result, retailers in Nubian Square have seen an increase in business, according to Robert George, Roxbury Main Streets executive director.
Hayden said, “We know that a small percentage of repeat offenders drive a disproportionate percentage of retail crime and that’s where we’re focusing our enforcement.”
In the last five years, 20% of people arrested for shoplifting were repeat offenders, Cox added.
To deter repeat offenses, low-level offenders in need of resources or treatment can elect for diversionary options, such as the
Services Over Sentences
program. The Services Over Sentences program has received 123 referrals so far this year, according to Hayden.
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