Business
Mayor London Breed Announces Organized Retail Crime Initiative
Mayor London N. Breed unveiled details from San Francisco’s Organized Retail Crime Initiative, a new initiative led by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) in partnership with local retailers and regional law enforcement agencies.
Mayor London N. Breed unveiled details from San Francisco’s Organized Retail Crime Initiative, a new initiative led by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) in partnership with local retailers and regional law enforcement agencies. The focus of the plan, announced on September 22, is to increase reporting, investigating, and solving of retail theft cases and the upstream criminal enterprises that fuel them.
The Plan has three main elements:
- Expanding and reallocating police investigative resources
- Increasing the SFPD Organized Retail Crime Unit from two to five investigators and adding one dedicated lieutenant to better investigate crimes locally and to work regionally with the California Highway Patrol’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force
- Strategic restructuring of publicly and privately funded deployments
- Dedicating SFPD personnel to ensure tightly coordinated field operations and communications with retail partners
- Tripling the SFPD Community Ambassador program, which employs retired SFPD officers to patrol and serve as deterrence, and expanding geographic area served
- Managing privately funded deployment of 10B officers to focus on deterrence
- Public-private partnerships aimed at reporting, investigating and solving cases
- Increase reporting of crimes through expansion of Teleserve Unit, which was implemented during COVID-19 pandemic to take reports without in-person contact
“Retail theft and commercial burglaries are not victimless crimes,” said Breed. “They hurt working families due to reduced work hours, shuttered stores and lost jobs. They hurt customers and seniors who are losing convenient access to prescription medications and vaccinations because of pharmacy closures.
“They hurt neighborhoods suffering from fewer local retailers and more empty storefronts. The strategy we’re outlining today is an all-hands-on-deck approach that brings the full partnership of state and local law enforcement and retailers to bear to aggressively pursue, investigate and deter organized retail crime in San Francisco.”
“Mayor Breed directed us to develop a plan to maximize the impact of SFPD’s resources by strengthening our partnerships with retailers and law enforcement agencies, and leveraging our successes from such previously announced strategies as our Mid-Market Vibrancy and Safety Plan and Tourism Deployment Plan,” said Chief Bill Scott. “The result is our Organized Retail Crime Initiative, and we are incredibly grateful for the participation of local retailers whose partnerships are making this endeavor truly groundbreaking. This collaborative approach reflects the full promise of community policing — not solely to support our City’s economic recovery, but to better protect public safety that is too often endangered by retail theft crews and the sophisticated criminal enterprises funding them.”
Expanding and reallocating police and investigative resources
The initiative will expand SFPD’s Organized Retail Crime Unit from two to five full-duty sworn investigators under the command of a dedicated lieutenant. In addition to cases they investigate within their citywide purview, unit members will serve as full partners to the California Highway Patrol’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force, which Governor Gavin Newsom reauthorized on July 21, 2021.
Prior to its reauthorization after sunsetting earlier this year, CHP’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force worked in close partnership with the San Francisco Police Department in operations that recovered millions of dollars in stolen merchandise and cash from criminal enterprises engaged in retail theft activities. One of those coordinated operations led to an $8 million seizure in partnership with the San Mateo Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 30, 2020, in which multiple law enforcement agencies recovered merchandise stolen from San Francisco Bay Area retailers.
Strategic restructuring of privately funded deployments, expanded patrols
The initiative calls for reallocating resources to SFPD’s Field Operations Bureau to focus on deterrence. This will include a newly assigned lieutenant to coordinate privately funded “10B” officers and a sergeant who will function as a dedicated retail theft coordinator. Initial allocations of police officers’ 10B time are expected to average more than 3,800 hours per two-week pay period, spanning at least 34 retail locations citywide. Additionally, SFPD’s Community Ambassador program will be more than tripled in size — from 8 to fully 25 ambassadors — and expanded to cover new areas beyond Union Square (where it is currently focused), including Yerba Buena/Moscone Center, Lower Market/Embarcadero, Chinatown, and Fisherman’s Wharf.
SFPD’s Community Ambassadors are unarmed civilians who patrol in high-visibility SFPD Community Ambassador windbreakers. Utilizing their wealth of law enforcement experience, these ambassadors observe and report issues and problem-solve within their assigned area in partnership with community stakeholders. Initially launched in November 2020 with eight retired SFPD officers as part of the Holiday Season “Safe Shopper” program, SFPD ambassadors have been instrumental in helping to solve several crimes to date, providing critical information that led to the arrest of suspects involved in several organized retail theft and robbery incidents.
Public-private partnerships aimed at reporting, investigating and solving cases
The San Francisco Police Department is dramatically expanding incident reporting capabilities for participating retailers under the Organized Retail Crime Initiative — initially through SFPD’s Teleserve Unit.
SFPD first implemented its Teleserve Unit last year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate the intake of incident reports without the risks of in-person contacts. The system was upgraded in August 2021 to allow for reports of retail thefts to be prepared over the phone, a time- and cost-saving technique designed to encourage retailers to maximize their reporting of theft incidents. A planned upgrade to SFPD’s online reporting system from LexisNexis Coplogic Solutions will allow participating retailers to more easily report thefts via an online portal.
If successful in enabling retailers to maximize their reporting of retail crimes, a potentially dramatic increase in larceny and commercial burglary crime rates should be expected. However, more robust reporting and data aggregation will more effectively target the San Francisco Police Department’s deployment of police resources, while enabling SFPD investigators to more fully inform partner agencies within the California Highway Patrol’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force. By better facilitating information from incidents together with accompanying evidence, the initiative can help to solve retail theft cases and more effectively target the upstream criminal enterprises fueling them.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024
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Bay Area
State Controller Malia Cohen Keynote Speaker at S.F. Wealth Conference
California State Controller Malia Cohen delivered the keynote speech to over 50 business women at the Black Wealth Brunch held on March 28 at the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center at 301 Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco. The Enterprising Women Networking SF Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) hosted the Green Room event to launch its platform designed to close the racial wealth gap in Black and Brown communities.
By Carla Thomas
California State Controller Malia Cohen delivered the keynote speech to over 50 business women at the Black Wealth Brunch held on March 28 at the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center at 301 Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco.
The Enterprising Women Networking SF Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) hosted the Green Room event to launch its platform designed to close the racial wealth gap in Black and Brown communities.
“Our goal is to educate Black and Brown families in the masses about financial wellness, wealth building, and how to protect and preserve wealth,” said ABWA San Francisco Chapter President LaRonda Smith.
ABWA’s mission is to bring together businesswomen of diverse occupations and provide opportunities for them to help themselves and others grow personally and professionally through leadership, education, networking support, and national recognition.
“This day is about recognizing influential women, hearing from an accomplished woman as our keynote speaker and allowing women to come together as powerful people,” said ABWA SF Chapter Vice President Velma Landers.
More than 60 attendees dined on the culinary delights of Chef Sharon Lee of The Spot catering, which included a full soul food brunch of skewered shrimp, chicken, blackened salmon, and mac and cheese.
Cohen discussed the many economic disparities women and people of color face. From pay equity to financial literacy, Cohen shared not only statistics, but was excited about a new solution in motion which entailed partnering with Californians for Financial Education.
“I want everyone to reach their full potential,” she said. “Just a few weeks ago in Sacramento, I partnered with an organization, Californians for Financial Education.
“We gathered 990 signatures and submitted it to the [California] Secretary of State to get an initiative on the ballot that guarantees personal finance courses for every public school kid in the state of California.
“Every California student deserves an equal opportunity to learn about filing taxes, interest rates, budgets, and understanding the impact of credit scores. The way we begin to do that is to teach it,” Cohen said.
By equipping students with information, Cohen hopes to close the financial wealth gap, and give everyone an opportunity to reach their full financial potential. “They have to first be equipped with the information and education is the key. Then all we need are opportunities to step into spaces and places of power.”
Cohen went on to share that in her own upbringing, she was not guided on financial principles that could jump start her finances. “Communities of color don’t have the same information and I don’t know about you, but I did not grow up listening to my parents discussing their assets, their investments, and diversifying their portfolio. This is the kind of nomenclature and language we are trying to introduce to our future generations so we can pivot from a life of poverty so we can pivot away and never return to poverty.”
Cohen urged audience members to pass the initiative on the November 2024 ballot.
“When we come together as women, uplift women, and support women, we all win. By networking and learning together, we can continue to build generational wealth,” said Landers. “Passing a powerful initiative will ensure the next generation of California students will be empowered to make more informed financial decisions, decisions that will last them a lifetime.”
Business
Black Business Summit Focuses on Equity, Access and Data
The California African American Chamber of Commerce hosted its second annual “State of the California African American Economy Summit,” with the aim of bolstering Black economic influence through education and fellowship. Held Jan. 24 to Jan. 25 at the Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel, the convention brought together some of the most influential Black business leaders, policy makers and economic thinkers in the state. The discussions focused on a wide range of economic topics pertinent to California’s African American business community, including policy, government contracts, and equity, and more.
By Solomon O. Smith, California Black Media
The California African American Chamber of Commerce hosted its second annual “State of the California African American Economy Summit,” with the aim of bolstering Black economic influence through education and fellowship.
Held Jan. 24 to Jan. 25 at the Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel, the convention brought together some of the most influential Black business leaders, policy makers and economic thinkers in the state. The discussions focused on a wide range of economic topics pertinent to California’s African American business community, including policy, government contracts, and equity, and more.
Toks Omishakin, Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency (CALSTA) was a guest at the event. He told attendees about his department’s efforts to increase access for Black business owners.
“One thing I’m taking away from this for sure is we’re going to have to do a better job of connecting through your chambers of all these opportunities of billions of dollars that are coming down the pike. I’m honestly disappointed that people don’t know, so we’ll do better,” said Omishakin.
Lueathel Seawood, the president of the African American Chamber of Commerce of San Joaquin County, expressed frustration with obtaining federal contracts for small businesses, and completing the process. She observed that once a small business was certified as DBE, a Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, there was little help getting to the next step.
Omishakin admitted there is more work to be done to help them complete the process and include them in upcoming projects. However, the high-speed rail system expansion by the California High-Speed Rail Authority has set a goal of 30% participation from small businesses — only 10 percent is set aside for DBE.
The importance of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in economics was reinforced during the “State of the California Economy” talk led by author and economist Julianne Malveaux, and Anthony Asadullah Samad, Executive Director of the Mervyn Dymally African American Political and Economic Institute (MDAAPEI) at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Assaults on DEI disproportionately affect women of color and Black women, according to Malveaux. When asked what role the loss of DEI might serve in economics, she suggested a more sinister purpose.
“The genesis of all this is anti-blackness. So, your question about how this fits into the economy is economic exclusion, that essentially has been promoted as public policy,” said Malveaux.
The most anticipated speaker at the event was Janice Bryant Howroyd known affectionately to her peers as “JBH.” She is one of the first Black women to run and own a multi-billion-dollar company. Her company ActOne Group, is one of the largest, and most recognized, hiring, staffing and human resources firms in the world. She is the author of “Acting Up” and has a profile on Forbes.
Chairman of the board of directors of the California African American Chamber of Commerce, Timothy Alan Simon, a lawyer and the first Black Appointments Secretary in the Office of the Governor of California, moderated. They discussed the state of Black entrepreneurship in the country and Howroyd gave advice to other business owners.
“We look to inspire and educate,” said Howroyd. “Inspiration is great but when I’ve got people’s attention, I want to teach them something.”
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