In the midst of the busy holiday shopping season, Kitsap County sheriff deputies arrested nine shoplifters during a special seven-hour operation Dec. 9 at The Kitsap Mall in Silverdale.

The emphasis patrol was designed to send a message to wannabe thieves that they will face consequences for their actions. “It’s important that we are out making arrests for shoplifting incidents. If someone is caught during one of these emphasis patrols, they go to jail,” Sheriff John Gese said.

The unannounced operations have been on hiatus since COVID but are now regularly being held across Kitsap. This is the fourth one this year. Arrests at the mall resulted in the recovery of $1,628 worth of merchandise, said Schon Montague, the community resource officer who coordinated the operation.

The operation took place at several stores, including Macy’s, Kohl’s, WinCo Foods, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Safeway. The Kitsap Mall was selected based on past shoplifting activity.

“That’s one of the locations where we see a fairly high number of thefts throughout the year,” Gese said, adding the timing was intentional. “The holiday season is a time when see a particularly high number of thefts from stores and from vehicles.”

Some deputies were stationed in offices alongside loss prevention personnel watching in-store video cameras. Others were hidden outside the businesses to contact suspects once they exited. “Inside the store the loss prevention people keep an eye out,” Gese said. “When they spot somebody shoplifting, they inform us. We contact the shoplifter as they leave the store to confirm they have stolen items then make the arrest.”

Seven deputies participated, while stores had 12 loss prevention personnel involved.

Types of theft

Deputies are on the lookout for two types of shoplifters – ones who act alone and ones who are part of an organized group that targets high-dollar or resaleable items.

One suspect was charged with “organized retail theft” with the intent to steal items and resell them to support a drug habit, Montague said.

“The typical theft is by an individual who comes in and steals one or a few items. Basically, they take to benefit themselves,” Gese said. “But, we have seen a lot more people come in, who may be from out the area, and are part of organized thefts. They hit stores in a number of different jurisdictions or hit stores in our jurisdiction repeatedly.”

Members of organized theft rings plan ahead and act swiftly. “Typically, they will know the layout of the store, are very, very quick and go for high-dollar value items or items that can easily be resold. They may come back over a series of days and keep doing the same thing. The more organized groups will hit a number of stores in one day over a wide geographic region,” Gese said.

The focus of the rings can be tools, expensive perfumes and colognes, cosmetics and high-value athletic shoes, from companies like Nike, he said.

The emphasis patrols were restarted this year to combat the proliferation of thefts. Shoplifts have risen since the pandemic. In 2022, the sheriff’s office saw 279 reported shoplifts, a 33% increase from 210 incidents in 2021, sheriff’s statistics say. “This year we are about on par with last year’s numbers,” Gese added.

Even though the trend of retail thefts has been on the rise, statistics do not accurately reflect the actual number, Gese said, adding shoplifts are underreported as many stores fail to report the crime fearing nothing will happen. In the past few years, some stores have moved away from even trying to stop shoplifters. “You are not seeing as many loss prevention people given the discretion to actually grab on to somebody. Sometimes they are even restricted from confronting people. It’s mostly due to risk prevention policies where stores don’t want their employees to confront people for fear they could get hurt.”

Gese hopes the emphasis patrols show that his department is addressing shoplifting and will encourage more stores to report such criminal activity.