Boston councilors, police and retailers emphasize partnerships as retail theft rises

Councilor Brian Worrell, chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Small Business and Professional Licensure, opened a hearing on Oct. 17, 2025, focused on retail theft and its effects on small businesses across Boston.

The hearing brought police, prosecutors, retail trade groups and neighborhood business leaders to City Hall to describe a multiagency effort the panel said is beginning to show results while warning that the problem remains significant. "This is not a plan to arrest our way out of a problem," Paul McLaughlin, superintendent and chief of the Bureau of Investigative Services at the Boston Police Department, told the council, describing the Safe Shopping Initiative as a mix of enforcement, data sharing and diversion options for people whose offenses stem from addiction or mental health issues.

Why it matters: Councilors said shoplifting and organized resale of stolen goods are reducing neighborhood commercial activity and forcing some stores to lock basic items or close. Small-business witnesses and trade groups told the council that lost sales, rising security costs and damaged storefronts are threatening thin retail margins and neighborhood retail diversity.

Superintendent McLaughlin described the Safe Shopping Initiative, formed in 2024, as a coalition of Boston Police, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, national and local retailers and trade groups that is building a centralized data set to identify repeat and high-value offenders and to coordinate responses. He said the effort prioritizes repeat/chronic offenders, high-value theft and incidents where violence or intimidation is used. "When theft becomes routine and unchecked, neighborhoods suffer," McLaughlin said.

Ryan Kearney, general counsel for the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said retail members value the initiative for opening communication, improving response and enabling prosecution when data shows repeat or organized activity. "Our members are looking for one thing and that's a safe environment to do business, for their employees to come to work and for their consumers to shop," Kearney said.

Councilors and witnesses cited several statistics during the hearing. Ed Flynn, the hearing sponsor, quoted a Council of Criminal Justice figure saying shoplifting in Boston rose 27% from 2023 to 2024 and 55% from 2019 to 2024. Kearney cited national industry surveys showing sharp year-over-year increases in shoplifting incidents and losses and said retailers nationwide increased investments in security and loss-prevention technology.

Legal framework and prosecution: Panelists discussed Massachusetts changes to larceny thresholds and prosecutorial options. Councilor Flynn and Kearney noted that in 2018 the state raised the felony larceny threshold to $1,200; McLaughlin and other panelists said Massachusetts does not permit automatic aggregation of multiple low-value incidents into a single higher-level prosecution and noted that an organized retail crime statute applies to substantially larger aggregated losses (panelists referred to a $10,000 threshold when organized retail crime would apply).

Neighborhood impacts and business strategies: Testimony from business and neighborhood leaders stressed local variation in hotspots and solutions. Randy Lathrop, a South End resident and former retail operator, described repeated incidents in neighborhood stores and urged mentorship and technical support from larger chains, wider use of security cameras and storefront design improvements. Michael Nichols, president of the Downtown Boston Alliance, said downtown vacancy and foot-traffic trends have improved since the Safe Shopping Initiative began: "It is a dramatically better business climate downtown than it was at this time about a year ago," he said, while adding that problems persist and continued attention is needed.

Practical guidance given to retailers included a hands-off policy for untrained staff, prompt evidence preservation, rapid 911 reporting, and building working relationships with district community service officers and detectives so stores can get quicker, better-targeted police response. Kearney described new, centralized retail-theft data collection and an analyst role that the initiative uses to identify repeat offenders and hotspots; McLaughlin described using that data to time patrols and follow investigative leads, including media releases when usable images exist.

Council action and follow-up: Councilors repeatedly emphasized partnership rather than a single-agency solution. Councilor Worrell said he would send follow-up questions to the Suffolk County district attorney’s office seeking additional information about diversion practices and the DA’s use of "services over sentences." Councilors also raised noncriminal tools: targeted grant support for security cameras and storefront fixtures, Main Street–style technical assistance for small retailers, and urban-design changes such as lighting and window activation to reduce opportunities for theft.

Ending: The council did not take formal votes at the hearing. Members adjourned after panelists and witnesses recommended continuing the Safe Shopping Initiative’s data sharing and enforcement partnerships while expanding neighborhood-level technical assistance and small-business grants. The hearing record will remain open to written comments sent to the committee email listed at the meeting.