The New Jersey Assembly Public Safety and Preparedness Committee has advanced legislation to combat organized retail crime across the state.
Bill A4755, sponsored by Assemblyman Joe Danielsen, D-Middlesex/Somerset, chair of the Public Safety and Preparedness Committee, and Assemblywoman Heather Simmons, D-Gloucester/Salem/Cumberland, would amend New Jersey’s organized retail theft laws. It establishes harsher penalties for repeat offenders and stronger protections for retail employees.
Additionally, it would require the New Jersey Attorney General to create a retail theft unit in the Department of Law and Public Safety.
The bill introduces several provisions to deter criminal activity while protecting businesses, employees, and consumers. It designates that assaulting an employee of a retail business is an aggravated assault, which could be charged as a third- or fourth-degree crime, depending on the severity of the injuries.
It also upgrades the charge of being a leader of an organized retail theft enterprise to a first-degree crime. It increases the penalty for failure to pay taxes as the leader of said enterprise to a second-degree crime.
Additionally, the proposal would extend the terms of imprisonment for repeat offenders who have been convicted multiple times of retail theft.