The Manhattan Beach Police Department is asking the public to help identify suspected smash-and-grab robbers. (Manhattan Beach Police Department)
The bill still has to be signed by Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, before it goes into effect.
In support of the bill, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach wrote that ORC isn’t "mere shoplifting."
"These crimes typically involve stealing for personal use. It is large-scale theft of retail merchandise that represents a concerted effort to victimize a business, often with the intention of reselling the items for financial gain and often using those financial proceeds to fund additional criminal activity," he said.
A 2023 report from the National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail association, found that organized retail crime was a primary driver of the massive amount of "shrink" retailers saw in 2022, with non-employee stealing making up 36%.
The term "shrink" typically means theft and other forms of inventory losses, and retailers nationwide experienced $112 billion in losses in 2022.
The owners of Meza's Jewelry in El Monte fought back against a would-be smash-and-grab thief in September 2023. (Meza’s Jewelry)
"Currently we don’t have the proper tools to prosecute that type of crime, so that’s what this bill does," state Sen. Kellie Warren, a Republican, said of the bill, The Topeka Journal reported.
Some states hit hard by retail theft have gone so far as to create their own law enforcement task forces to address it. The NRF found that Los Angeles was one of the hardest-hit cities in California for ORC, leading the LA County Sheriff Department to create the Organized Retail Theft Crime Task Force.
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Meanwhile, opponents of tough-on-crime laws such as these argue the harsher penalties are too extreme for the crimes and could prevent a person from being rehabilitated. Maine’s legislature passed a bill in the House this week that would prohibit charging people who already have two prior convictions of theft if the third theft is worth less than $500. The state’s current law permits a felony charge for the third conviction if the crimes all occur within a decade.
Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.
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