Shoplifting has long been among the most commonly reported crimes in Tucson, but a rise in those incidents escalating into suspects yielding weapons or threatening employees has local businesses looking for help.
Tucson-area business leaders are teaming up with law enforcement and the Tucson Metro Chamber to identify ways to keep employees safe and combat shoplifting as well as internal theft and property damage issues.
The Tucson Metro Chamber launched the Coalition Against Retail Theft in January, gaining interest from 20 businesses that have joined to develop solutions, said Michael Guymon, president and CEO of the chamber.
“I felt based on the information that I was getting from our members, that this would be a good time to pull our members together, in collaboration with the Pima County Attorney’s Office, with the sheriff’s department and with Tucson Police Department to have conversations and to come up with solutions that work to address the problem,” Guymon said.
At the coalition’s first meeting in February, Guymon gave businesses the opportunity to be upfront and vent about the challenges they are facing. The Pima County Attorney’s Office and the Tucson Police Department were also in attendance to address the issues and talk about solutions.
Some shared how they were fearful about leaving their businesses at night and how shoplifting incidents over the past couple of years have increasingly been escalating into dangerous robberies, said Lt. Steven Simmers, the data governor for TPD.
While there are theories as to why Tucson has seen in increase in robberies, Simmers said there is no exact answer.
“I don’t think anybody knows exactly why that is because we’ve just seen an upward trend across the board and violence in all sorts of areas,” Simmers said. “So, this could just be a reflection of increasing violence across the cross sections.”
Simmers said in the past, it was Tucson police who reached out to the business community. Now with the CART program, police got to hear the stories and the frustrations of the businesses. They were able to talk about strategies going forward and how they can help each other build good partnerships.
“The reason why I was really excited is that is the exact direction as a police department we want to go in,” Simmers said. “We recognize at a time of limited resources, we have to partner with the community. I think this has real possibilities for producing some good results.”
“What I like about this conversation is that there are solutions on both sides,” Guymon added. “There are policy solutions that we can address, whether it’s, you know, policy changes that would happen at the attorney’s office, or policy changes that would happen within the city or the county structure. There are also things that businesses can do on their end to address retail theft or property damage as well.”
Guymon wants to continue to meet with the businesses until they develop and implement strategies to combat retail theft. They have even identified some specific meeting topics — like how store design can deter crime, strategies the city has to better handle homelessness and perspectives from security companies — and are going to address them in future meetings to produce concrete policy recommendations.
“I don’t see this as a permanent committee, I see this as addressing a problem and bringing members together to come up with solutions,” Guymon said. “When those solutions are adequately addressed, this may phase out as well, or maybe even morph into something new to address other issues that exist in the community, particularly the business community.”
