Opinion: VPD needs a stronger approach to end shoplifting epidemic

Opinion: Vancouver needs a stronger police approach to end dangerous shoplifting epidemic

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Written for Daily Hive by Sarah Leamon, a criminal lawyer living in Vancouver, who works on high-profile cases. Leamon founded the Sarah Leamon Law Group in 2018.

If you believe the headlines, shoplifting offences are on the rise throughout Metro Vancouver and many small and mid-sized businesses are suffering and even shutting their doors.

But it’s more than just headlines that point to rising shoplifting rates. Statistics Canada data reveals that there has been a 30% increase in shoplifting offences across Canada over the past year. The Vancouver Police Department also recently unveiled its own local shoplifting statistics. It reported that there has been a 26% increase in shoplifting incidents in Vancouver between January 1 and August 31, 2023. This reflects a broader trend; one that shows shoplifting has been trending upwards since 2021.

The reasons for this apparent increase in crime are multitudinous. Inflation, general increases in the cost of living — including the cost of groceries and other basic household items — as well as a growing market for the resale of goods are some of the most commonly cited reasons for the recent trend in thefts.

It’s not only businesses that are bearing the brunt

Oftentimes security, staff, police and even civilians are confronted with violence when shoplifters are challenged. For this reason, shoplifting is a safety concern. It harms our communities.

As such, we have a vested interest in ensuring that shoplifters are caught and prosecuted. This is important both as a form of specific deterrence – to catch the individuals who are committing the crimes now – and general deterrence – to dissuade others from doing the same. After all, we don’t want to see this trend continuing to increase. Otherwise, we risk descending into an even more grievous situation, like some of what we are seeing in some US cities.

To this end, enforcement is a key aspect of deterring shoplifting offences. Although limited, police resources should be expanded to address shoplifting. This includes attending calls in response to complaints and proactive policing in the community.

Police departments throughout the province seem to have recognized this. Many have implemented various programs, including the VPD’s Project Barcode, which was created to crack down on shoplifting offences.

The VPD reported that, according to its assessment, Project Barcode was a success — resulting in 258 arrests over a two-week period, and the recovery of nearly $57,000 in stolen merchandise.

Arrests are one thing – charges are another

BC has a unique charge approval process, in comparison with other Canadian provinces. Here, police forward charge recommendations to Crown Counsel, and the Crown is responsible for approving their recommendations.

But charges are not always forwarded. Sometimes, even after a person is arrested, police elect not to send any charge recommendations to Crown at all. This can happen for a variety of reasons, including officer or departmental discretion, lack of evidence or uncooperative witnesses. If police feel that there isn’t enough evidence to forward charges, the file will end there. This means that no prosecution will take place.

If charges are forwarded, though, they are subject to more scrutiny once again. This time, it comes in the form of a Crown prosecutor.

After receiving a file from police, the prosecutor will review it and consider the evidence that they have been given. They will apply a legal test to determine if the charges should be approved.

This is a two-fold test. First, the prosecutor must be satisfied that there is enough evidence to support a reasonable likelihood of conviction if the matter was to go to trial. Second, they must be satisfied that approving the charges, and furthering the prosecution, is in the public interest. If they feel that one or neither of these tests are met, they will not approve charges. This means that, generally speaking, a prosecution will not take place. While Crown can send the matter back to police for more information, charges will not be approved unless something changes.

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What I have described is a relatively complex system. But it is also a necessary system. It ensures that only cases with sufficient evidence, where it is in the public interest to prosecute, result in charges. It keeps frivolous and disreputable charges out of our criminal court system.

What it also means, though, is that not all police matters are prosecuted. In fact, only about half of the arrests made during Project Barcode resulted in courtroom prosecutions. It sounds like a dismal statistic; and, indeed, for a city suffering from rising crime rates, it is.

However, understanding the charge approval system and how our courts work is of central importance in understanding why reported prosecution rates don’t always seem to correspond to reported crime rates.

Police are absolutely essential in order to see a stronger correlation between the two. After all, arrests and prosecutions start – and often end – with police. Police need to take a stronger approach to enforcing the law. This means that they need to forward more charges to Crown, with stronger evidence to support the allegations, in more cases; and where the evidence falls short, they need to provide the appropriate follow-up with Crown to satisfy deficiencies in the investigation.

Through this lens, special projects, like Project Barcode, are nothing more than band-aid solutions to an ongoing problem. What we really need is more consistent, proactive and dedicated policing.

The future of our city depends on it.