Vancouver striking task force to understand root causes and effects of retail theft

Chad Pawson · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 02, 2025 6:44 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

Vancouver metropolis councillors person voted to onslaught a mayor's task unit composed of police, BIAs, merchants, ineligible experts and societal work organizations to travel up with solutions to curb shoplifting and retail theft.

The question brought by Coun. Brian Montague, a erstwhile constabulary officer, passed unanimously astatine the city's Standing Committee connected Policy and Strategic Priorities connected Wednesday.

"A ample fig of businesses present successful Vancouver don't expect to past the adjacent 4 years," said Montague. "A batch of that is owed to nonaccomplishment from crime, retail theft successful Vancouver. It continues to increase."

As the COVID-19 pandemic waned successful 2022, constabulary said they saw a more-than-30 per cent summation successful shoplifting crimes compared to 2021.

The latest numbers amusement a 12 per cent citywide summation successful shoplifting incidents successful 2024 compared to 2023, with a 40 per cent summation successful Vancouver's downtown halfway for that clip period.

Retailers, businesses and assemblage groups person provided the communicative to those numbers implicit the past 3 years with stories of repetitive transgression successful their shops and workers facing unsafe conditions.

"Businesses were enactment astatine hazard and we've had store closures, immoderate different important companies that are desperately trying to bent connected and not close, hoping that thing volition travel on and help," said Jess Ketchum, co-founder of the Save our Street Coalition, which includes retailers specified arsenic London Drugs, Lululemon, Aritizia and Save-on-Foods.

The intent of the task unit is to bring unneurotic stakeholders to behaviour "a thorough appraisal of the basal causes and effects of retail theft, including but not constricted to organized retail crime, societal factors, enforcement challenges, and existing legislative and argumentation frameworks," according to Montague's original question posted online.

The last amended mentation enactment the task unit nether the mayor's office, akin to Ken Sim's budgetary task force, meaning his bureau would find the rank and presumption of notation for what's to beryllium called Retail Security Task Force.

The amended question besides struck a conception directing unit to research imaginable backing partnerships with different levels of government.

That could travel aft results successful six months from the task unit forming, outlining its findings and making "evidence-based recommendations for immediate, short-term, and semipermanent solutions and strategies to trim retail theft and heighten concern security," according to the motion.

Montague told councillors the task unit would look to different jurisdictions astir "what's moving successful different cities, what isn't working," and hoped the task unit would supply solutions that person truthful acold eluded the city.

In aboriginal March, Vancouver constabulary hosted a forum to tackle retail crime, which progressive 200 businesses, instrumentality enforcement, and nationalist argumentation leaders from crossed the country.

Police said astatine the clip that its Project Barcode, which involves officers waiting extracurricular stores portion unit ticker for known and caller shoplifters, had made astir 1,500 arrests since 2023.

Businesses and some section and provincial governments person said portion of the solutions remainder with the national authorities implicit bail reform, with cause decriminalization, policing resources and mental-health betterment besides factors that request to beryllium addressed successful concert.

Ketchum said that betterment is needed, but did invited the caller task force, successful hopes it would beryllium different attack to solving a seemingly entrenched occupation that exists crossed B.C.

"The issues that are present successful Vancouver volition besides use oregon subordinate to Prince George, Victoria, Kamloops," helium said. "I'm hopeful that the enactment that this task unit volition bash volition travel up with immoderate programs and projects that volition use provincewide."