Senate Judiciary committee hears testimony on bill to broaden organized retail theft, computer-crime definitions

The Senate Committee on Judiciary held a public hearing Wednesday on Senate Bill 275 (dash-1), a measure that would broaden Oregon's organized retail theft law, expand the computer-crime statute to cover online buying and selling of stolen goods, and change who may receive organized retail theft grant funds and how those grants may be used.

Proponents told the committee the amendments close investigative gaps that have blocked prosecutions and would strengthen a grant program aimed at disrupting coordinated theft rings. Opponents, largely criminal-defense and public-defender representatives, said the changes risk converting lower-level shoplifting cases into felonies and would sweep in people who sell stolen goods online without evidence they knew the merchandise was stolen.

The bill's dash-1 amendment would: expand the definition of organized-retail-theft to allow charges when an individual sells or resells large quantities of stolen merchandise even if the individual was not part of the initial theft; broaden the computer-crime statute to cover methods of accessing online marketplaces to buy or sell stolen goods; move administration of certain organized-retail-theft grants to the Department of Justice (DOJ) rather than the Oregon State Police or community-based organizations; permit grant funds to be used for theft-detection and surveillance equipment; and require the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) to report on the grant program to the committee by Sept. 1, 2027.

Amanda Dalton,…