Larceny — essentially shoplifting items in one incident with a collective value of less than $960 — is down almost 80 percent in Manteca.

The first nine months of 2023 Manteca Police Department handled 575 larceny cases.

That’s down from 1,042 for the same January through September period during 2022.

Several store managers credit it to the priority that Manteca Police have placed on organized retail crime (ORC.

Manteca was the first city in the Central Valley — if not all of California — to have a detective dedicated to coordinating  the department’s organized retail crime theft response.

Burglaries — that for the most part in Manteca are “shoplifting” incidents where goods with a  combined value in excess of $960 are taken — were basically flat.

The first nine months of 2023 saw 332 burglaries in Manteca compared to 328 for the same period in 2022.

Most other urban jurisdictions in California have reported both categories having significant increases in the number of acts committed.

Overall, property crimes stood at 1,125 for the first nine months of last year.

That’s down from 1,583 for the same period in 2022.

By contrast, violent crimes for the same period are up in Manteca. They went from 171 in 2022 to 238 in 2023.

The gains were aggravated assault from 94 to 140, rape from 24 to 44, and homicide from 3 to 4.

Armed robbery for the first nine months of each year stood at 50 on Sept. 30.

By having a dedicated detective that can be contacted directly by store loss prevention officers and who also networks with nearby departments, Manteca has been able to position itself to be at the locations of retail theft crimes either in advance or within minutes.

Typically, police departments depending upon call volume and dealing with higher priority crime can easily take 15 minutes or more to respond to such calls

The dedicated ORC detective has resulted in a large number of arrests.

ORC criminals will travel from town-to-town hitting stores often within the same chain. Due to the network Manteca Police has established with other departments in the region as well as working with local stores, they are often alerted when such criminals are in the area.

As such the organized crime detective — along with patrol officers — are often on scene as culprits are leaving stores, are able to stake out stores that are likely to be hit based on criminal activity going on in nearby cities, or relay critical information to other departments that allow then to nab suspects.

The department was able to make headway against retail crime through a number of measures.

First, the department trained store loss prevention officers to properly fill out crime reports and forward them to the department for more minor shoplifting incidents when they retain individuals caught trying to steal less than $960 in merchandise which makes it a misdemeanor. Those reports are reviewed by ORC detective

The detective then forwards those reports to an assistant San Joaquin County district attorney dedicated to prosecuting retail crime.

While critics of online reporting for minor crimes often bemoan the fact an officer doesn’t show up to take their reports in a timely manner if they don’t want to file a report online, doing so with stores has freed up significant time of officers.

That means they are able to devote energy and resources to go after the more egregious offenders

Many of those involved in organized retail crime have serious criminal backgrounds running the gamut from murder and drug trafficking to other serious felonies such as assault. That means if they make an arrest they have a high likelihood of getting them off the streets and back into prison.

The department has also trained its own officers on how to better investigate retail crime.

 By being able to focus resources better by freeing up officers and not tying them up with lower level shoplifting reports, the police are able to significantly increase their pursuit of organized retail crime suspects.

By catching them in the act with witnesses, video footage and arresting them on the spot police are able to close the case and deliver to the district attorney everything needed to prosecute offenders and send them to prison.

 To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com