Wyoming committee asks staff to draft theft bills, seeks new crime for intercounty flight amid rise in organized retail crime

The Joint Judiciary Committee on Wednesday asked legislative staff to draft changes to Wyoming theft law and to create a new criminal offense for fleeing across county lines after witnesses told the committee organized retail crime is growing and becoming more violent.

Retailers, law enforcement and business groups told the committee the state needs stronger tools to investigate and prosecute repeat and organized shoplifting rings that travel through Wyoming and resell stolen goods.

Testifying for the business community, Dale Steenburgen, president and CEO of the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce and CEO of the Wyoming Chamber of Commerce, described repeat and coordinated thefts that he said are shifting from opportunistic shoplifting to “organized retail crime.” “When more than one person gets together to do this and go out and access, that's organized retail crime,” Steenburgen said, describing teams that “case” stores, steal high-value items and resell them online.

Law-enforcement representatives told the committee current arrest rules for misdemeanors make it harder to investigate suspected retail theft rings. “If they're involved in this retail theft work, there's more than likely going to be visible evidence that will allow us to apply for a search warrant,” said a representative of the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police (WASCOP). He told the committee custodial arrests can give officers time to investigate conspiracy and organized-theft schemes instead of issuing a citation and letting suspects leave.

Business groups including the Wyoming State Liquor Association and retail chains urged statutory changes. Mike Moser of the Wyoming State Liquor Association warned that some retailers have closed and that the crimes have become more violent and organized. Deborah Herron, who manages state and local government affairs for Walmart and Sam’s Club in Wyoming, said Walmart partners with local law enforcement and supports a range of policy responses including task forces, grant programs for multi-jurisdiction enforcement and statutory changes.

Committee action followed: members asked the Legislative Service Office (LSO) for two bill drafts. The first is a draft based on 2025 House Bill 187; LSO counsel summarized that HB187 would (1) change the repeat-offense standard from five strikes to three, (2) lower the felony threshold from $1,000 to $500, and (3) raise the misdemeanor jail maximum from six months to one year.

The second draft requested by the committee would create a new crime for intercounty fleeing in furtherance of a felony (described by a committee member as modeled roughly on federal interstate flight statutes) with a proposed penalty framework discussed in committee as up to a five-year felony. The committee voted in favor of both staff directives.

Witnesses and committee members also discussed existing aggregation language in the theft statute that permits combining amounts “committed pursuant to a common scheme” when determining value, but several testifiers said aggregation is difficult to apply in the field and that evidence review can take substantial time.

Committee members asked LSO and staff to collect comparative statutes and model approaches from other states, and to prepare fiscal and enforcement impact material for future meetings. Members also discussed nonstatutory responses, including a statewide organized-retail-crime task force, law-enforcement grants to support cross-jurisdiction investigations and improved data sharing for arrests and prosecutions.

The committee's staff summary of meeting actions, reviewed at the end of the session, listed the request for a bill draft based on House Bill 187 and a separate bill draft creating a new “intercounty fleeing” offense. The committee scheduled its next meeting for Aug. 12 in Casper to continue work on the subject.

The votes to request the two drafts were made by voice vote; the committee chair called for aye/no and recorded the motions as adopted.