AURORA | Shoplifters who steal merchandise worth more than $100 from Aurora stores would be automatically jailed under a proposal that the Aurora City Council’s conservative majority endorsed Feb. 8 and passed out of study session Monday.
Currently, retail thieves who steal more than $300 in goods trigger the automatic three-day jail sentence included in the mandatory minimum sentencing law that the council passed in 2022.
The proposal sponsored by Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky would lower that threshold to $100. It would also impose special penalties for repeat offenders — a 90-day minimum jail sentence for anyone convicted of one prior retail theft offense and a 180-day minimum sentence for people who have been convicted at least twice.
“Our constituents have asked for it,” Councilmember Stephanie Hancock said during the Feb. 8 meeting of the council’s public safety policy committee. “We need to let people know that we’re open for business, and we’re closed to crime. If you steal, there is a penalty for that. It’s about accountability, and responsibility, and people need to get a clear message with regards to that.”
The committee consisting of Hancock, Jurinsky and Councilmember Steve Sundberg unanimously endorsed the proposal moving forward to Monday’s study session, where the council’s conservative majority indicated its desire to vote it into law at a future meeting.
Year-end crime statistics published by the Aurora Police Department indicate 1,702 incidents of shoplifting were reported in 2023 by Dec. 24 — an increase of about 35.5% from 2022, when 1,256 incidents were reported during the same time period.
Aurora’s former interim police chief, Art Acevedo, previously commented that the uptick in reports doesn’t necessarily reflect an increase in crime, as business owners have become more willing to cooperate with police to follow up on shoplifting.
Shortly before the committee meeting, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado contacted the council to weigh in on Jurinsky’s ordinance, warning that it could violate the Colorado Constitution’s promise of equal protection under the law, since the city’s retail theft laws would be tougher than the state’s.
The letter that the ACLU sent to the council and other city officials said state law allows the combined value of items stolen within six months to be aggregated for the purposes of penalties but that, as long as the total value of the items is less than $1,000, the maximum jail sentence that can be imposed under statute is 120 days.
The ACLU also mentioned how, last year, the City of Rifle acquiesced to a legal challenge to its municipal code, which included terms of imprisonment for theft that were 18 times greater than the state penalty, after Colorado’s Supreme Court agreed to consider an appeal by two shoplifting defendants, according to Colorado Politics.
“Aurora’s authority to prohibit theft cannot be used in a way that violates the state constitutional guarantee of equal protection,” ACLU attorneys Laura Moraff and Cat Ordoñez wrote. “Passing the ordinance would expose the city to additional expenses as organizations seek to invalidate the unconstitutional penalties.”
When chief public defender Elizabeth Cadiz asked about the letter during the committee meeting, Pete Schulte of the City Attorney’s Office said Aurora is free to impose tougher penalties than those established by the state because of the privileges afforded by Aurora’s status as a home-rule city.
He also said Rifle’s decision to bring its municipal penalties for theft into line with the state’s stemmed from the fact that Rifle is a relatively small city with a limited budget to fight state supreme court cases.
“If the City Council passes this ordinance and says this is the law of the land and that shoplifting is not welcome in the city of Aurora, then we will do what we need to do,” Schulte said. “We’re on a very good legal foundation to support this ordinance if it passes.”
He also said he was irritated by the fact that the ACLU reached out to the council directly without looping in any city attorneys, bringing up how state ethical rules generally prohibit an attorney from contacting an opposing attorney’s client directly.
“I appreciate the ACLU,” Schulte said. “I just wish, before they start giving legal advice to our city council members, that they make sure they have a full understanding of what the law is.”
He said the municipal court has observed “a lot of people” stealing just under $300 worth of merchandise since the previous mandatory minimum sentencing law passed, which he said indicates that at least some thieves are familiar with but undeterred by existing penalties.
Jurinsky said she would be willing to sponsor an item lowering the threshold even further if a similar trend emerged once the new shoplifting penalties were enacted.
Hancock and Sundberg were vocal in their support for Jurinsky’s anti-shoplifting proposal.
“On the national level, in certain cities, you’re seeing that urban decay,” Sundberg said. “What you’re seeing are stores and retail operations with already-minimal profit margins pulling out. … We don’t want to be like those places.”
To illustrate the seriousness of retail theft in the city, Hancock and Jurinsky both said they had heard from property owners involved in the Havana Business Improvement District that one of the city’s Goodwill stores is considering shutting down due to frequent shoplifting, which Jurinsky said was “beyond an embarrassment.”
Goodwill of Colorado spokeswoman Stephanie Bell later said the organization’s decision not to renew the lease on its Mississippi Avenue outlet store at the end of May was “not related to shoplifting in any way, shape or form” and was instead part of a planned consolidation of the store into a location in Westminster. She added that the store’s 42 employees are being offered comparable positions at nearby Goodwill stores.
Hancock wrote in a text message that she did not remember who informed her about the Goodwill store closing.
As for where repeat offenders would serve their sentences, Schulte said Arapahoe County Sheriff Tyler Brown had expressed that he is willing to work with the city on the incarceration of shoplifters at the Arapahoe County Detention Center if the ordinance is passed by the entire council. The city’s jail is only permitted to hold inmates for 72 hours.
Ginger Delgado, a spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, wrote in an email that Brown is aware of the ordinance but wants to learn more about the potential impacts on capacity at the county jail and the City of Aurora’s budget before making a commitment.
Cadiz also said the bill would likely increase the workload of the public defender’s office, which is appointed in municipal court cases where an indigent defendant could face jail time, as well as the frequency of defendants taking plea deals, due to the perception that the county jail is more “scary and intimidating” than the city’s jail.
“I need to find out what’s going on in these county jails,” Jurinsky quipped. “We’re not doing something right.”
The original version of the ordinance specified that the first three days of the 90- and 180-day jail sentences would be served in the city’s jail, after which a repeat offender would be transferred to county jail.
On Monday, Jurinsky amended the ordinance to remove the language specifying where an offender would serve their sentence, to allow judges to order defendants to serve the entirety of their sentence in county jail.
When Councilmember Alison Coombs asked during Monday’s study session whether city staffers had statistics on the jail sentences handed down under the current mandatory minimum sentencing law, Schulte said they did not but that it is something the city is “working on.”
“I understand what you’re saying about getting the data, but I don’t think it changes the intent of the ordinance,” Councilmember Francoise Bergan told Coombs.
“I think it changes the credibility of our decision-making as a body,” Coombs replied.
The committee and a majority of the council also endorsed a proposal to send convicted “dine-and-dash” perpetrators to jail for three days if they defraud restaurants for $15 or more. That, too, is slated to move forward for a vote.
Jurinsky and Sundberg, who both own bars and restaurants in the city, said during the committee meeting that other restaurant owners have asked the city to do more to discourage diners from skipping out on their bills. They said many restaurateurs are either too busy or feel like the city doesn’t do enough to justify calling the police.
“We’re watching them walk out of our places,” Jurinsky said. “My hope is that, because of this, we start to get that, and the message is made clear that they should at least call and report it.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect the events of the Aurora City Council’s Feb. 12 meeting.
Shouldn’t Jurinsky and Sundberg pass the restaurant proposal on to another committee? It appears that both of them have a conflict of interest on this issue.
No crime should be accepted no matter who sponsors the bill.
It is a good start. Now, if we can change the police reform law so that we can have police who are not afraid to do the job, we might accomplish something. That vague bill drove thousands of officers out of law enforcement. They understood it better than the legislature that passed the bill. If you want to have effective police officers, you have to have clear guidelines so they are not afraid to act. You also need to have police leaders who will back them when they are right. The present police administrators don’t have the courage or integrity to tell the public what is wrong with what the legislature has done. Also, if we can have employees feel like they can do something without being fired, that would help. The law in Colorado used to say that if you had good reason to suspect someone was shoplifting and you stopped them, you were protected from civil suit.
if they do the job the right way theres no need to be afraid, reform is good and its here to stay!!!!!
When shampoo is being locked down and people steal donated used items, Aurora lawmakers effectively criminalize poverty without addressing its root causes – abject economic failure. People do not have the money to have their basic needs met. Jurinsky can pay poverty wages in her restaurant and then imprison her own staff for defrauding her and other “business owners”. After all, people have “agreed” to work for slave wages, which the Aurora City Council allegedly was not asked to address. How long before no workforce left to keep the Aurora Council members in the lifestyle they are accustomed?
What are you smoking?
There is no justification for stealing !!!!!
there are plenty of jobs open, time EARN your income.
I hope this bills passes and these shoplifters go to jail. I used to live in Aurora and it’s a beautiful city or was ’til these other people that were let in.
I hope this bills passes and these shoplifters go to jail. I used to live in Aurora and it’s a beautiful city or was ’til these other people that were let in.
I hope this bills passes and these shoplifters go to jail. I used to live in Aurora and it’s a beautiful city or was ’til these other people that were let in
SINCE THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I’VE SEEN THIS, I COULD NOT HAVE SAID IT BEFORE!!!!!!!!!!
Crime leads to poverty, not the other way around. And locking up your fellow Democrats can only help promote high-trust, high-functioning societies.
I certainly understand the frustration of business owners regarding shoplifting and the loss of income from that crime. However, I think lowering the cost of what is taken to $100 is going to overload an already challenged Aurora police and court system. I would encourage the council to either look at an Alternative way of dealing with this-perhaps some kind of community service. No matter it will be far more costly to taxpayers to punish or to rehabilitate for a shoplifting crime of $100 or even the $15 for food service.
Sharon apparently you want to leagalize crime ?
“On the national level, in certain cities, you’re seeing that urban decay … “We don’t want to be like those places.” Well, look again, the decay is here, and it’s regrettable, it has transformed the city and it’s not going away. CM Steve Sundberg, sees it and knows it is not some figment of his imagination. Sundberg is refined as a politician and thus couches his phrases carefully.
The message is clear as the various stores continue to close. There are some, and many that certainly believe businesses are there as some provision in society as a charity operation and to accept these problematic losses. Then when they close as refusal to continue taking losses, then here we go. It’s the greedy businesses for not providing a direct connection for free merchandise.
And the extra steps some of these politicians will take when these businesses close, here it comes, blaming it on the business of racial malpractice.
Mas Rep. Ayanna Pressley accuses Walgreens of “economic racism” for closing a hard-hit store.
The member of the far-left “Squad” of congressional Democrats accused the Illinois-based company of engaging in a “life-threatening act of racial and economic discrimination.
https://nypost.com/2024/02/01/news/rep-ayanna-pressley-accuses-walgreens-of-racism-over-boston-store-closure/
We’re almost their City Council, Denver decay is contagious.
I fully support this proposal. “Oh my gosh, people who still should have some rights” (paraphrased how I read the ACLU statements).
BULL, people who steal should be held accountable for their actions.
WE as consumers have to deal with the rise in prices due to theft, WE as consumers have to deal with toothpaste being locked up due to theft, WE as consumers and WE as retailers should not be the victims.
As this goes through, the next thing will be to ensure it is enforced. Maybe that new hotel purchase can be partially converted to assist with this as well.
Enforce the laws, punish the criminals, and then, while initially the poor prosecuters office will have a heavier workload, as the crimes drop, so will that load as well.
Paul is completely correct !
Ugh, another dumb move by a board that wants to grind people down. You could fix the systemic problems, or you could just continue to kick the can, forever. What a disgrace. But, that’s what you get with the GOP and Mike “Show Me The Back Door” Coffman.
Your attempt to deflect blame away from the criminal is appalling and counter productive. The Aurora City Council should be commended for trying to protect hardworking business owners from theft. In the process, the council will make neighborhoods safer and life a little easier for families trying to raise respectful, law-abiding children.
The ACLU = the criminals’ lobby.
LOL, ok boomer
Can’t wait for the doctrine of unintended consequences to rear its head. Delicious karma.
hey aurora so called lawmakers and police try rounding up all these people driving around with expired tags running red lights and stop signs….ya think?