Vancouver launches retail crime task force as violent shoplifting grows

The City of Vancouver is launching a new task force aimed at coming up with lasting solutions to the problem of retail crime.

The move comes as the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) reports a nearly 12-per cent hike in shoplifting incidents in 2024. It’s a figure police say likely undercounts the problem, as many businesses don’t report all crimes.

Vancouver city councillor and former VPD officer Brian Montague said the problem is both hurting businesses and putting workers in harm’s way.

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“They are having individuals come in, they are threatening them, they are intimidating them, they are pulling weapons on them and they are assaulting them and they are afraid to go to work,” he said.

“And I am hoping we will come up with some real solutions we haven’t thought of yet, that will help reduce those incidents.”

The task force will include experts in small and large retail, police, security, social services and law, and report back to city council in six months.

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The goal, Montague said, is to get a firmer handle on what’s behind the rise in property crime, the involvement of organized crime groups and best practices that are working in other cities and come up with “real, evidence-based solutions.”

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Montague acknowledged some of the key issues — mental health, addictions, and the role of federal laws and the justice system — are already understood as key factors.

He said the task force’s job will be to come back with facts and data, “not just a bunch of finger-pointing.”

“And what we can’t implement at a municipal level, make sure we are working very closely with our provincial partners and our federal partners to make sure they are doing their part as well,” he said.

Gourmet Warehouse founder Caren McSherry, who has been vocal about the rising impacts of retail crime on her business and employees, called the exercise a waste of time.

“It sounds good and you are delivering lip service, but that’s not going to fix a thing. In six months you’re going to tell us what has been done, and you already know what is wrong. Do it!” she told Global News.

McSherry has previously said shoplifters are making off with thousands of dollars of goods per week from her East Side shop and told Global News she now pays $7,000 per month for round-the-clock security.

She said that’s helped her workers feel more at ease, but even that hasn’t stopped “very, very clever” thieves.

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McSherry believes there is a straightforward solution to the problem: stiffer sentences, and an end to the “revolving door” for repeat offenders.

“The federal and provincial responsibilities are to change the laws that can lock people up,” she said.

“I know there are a lot of challenges with mental health and everything. So you already know that. So why aren’t your feet running faster and faster to get facilities to put these people where they can get help, so that in turn our city’s vibrancy comes back to life?”

Montague said the task force will deliver recommendations on policies that the city could enact immediately, along with longer-term solutions that will need the involvement of senior levels of government.