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has overseen shoplifting cases in his city for more than a decade. Things have changed a bit over that time.

鈥淭he demographic is much different,鈥� Larson told 成人X站 Radio’s Dave Ross. 鈥淔rom what I hear, there is more violence associated with shoplifting. People are more desperate because a lot of folks who are addicted are concerned about their withdrawal. So they are doing everything they can to get that next dollar, so they can buy more drugs, so they don鈥檛 get to that point. So the desperation becomes greater.鈥�

鈥淪ome reticence by some of the retailers is they don鈥檛 want their employees in danger,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y son鈥檚 friend is a loss prevention officer and he got his head ran over by a car. Bottom line is that there is the safety of the workers and the safety of the public.鈥�

Armed citizens shot at shoplifters in Marysville

But that’s on the court’s end of the problem. On the other end are the various legislators in Olympia who make the laws that the courts enforce.

(D-Kirkland) represents the , which includes areas of Sammamish, Woodinville, and Kirkland. He argues that shoplifting has been getting worse and worse in recent years. So much that he is convening groups of state lawmakers to change Washington state’s approach to the crime. Goodman says that shoplifting is really two different types of crimes — organized theft, and “run-of-the-mill shoplifting,” which is simply pocketing an item.

“We鈥檝e tried to amend the law, and I hope we can get it done this year, to take account of intent,” Goodman said. “In other words, if you put something in your pocket, intending to leave the store, our current law doesn鈥檛 allow law enforcement to intervene until you leave the store, until you are outside.鈥�

鈥淪o the loss prevention officers in the stores want to be able to intervene in the store,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o we have to change the theft law to account for concealment, the showing of intent to steal.鈥�

Solving shoplifting

The way Judge Larson sees it, the people in his Federal Way courtroom are either 鈥渁 can鈥檛,鈥� or 鈥渁 飞辞苍鈥檛.鈥�

鈥淵ou have to have a system that, if you are one of the 肠补苍鈥檛蝉, if you are somebody who just can鈥檛 do it and you need help, we need to help,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut if you are a 飞辞苍鈥檛, if you just flat out don鈥檛 want to cooperate, don鈥檛 want to participate, then the punitive system needs to kick in.鈥�

Smile! Cops now using facial Rekognition for shoplifters

鈥淚鈥檝e had a kind comment made, this one woman, it made all the difference in the world. I just said, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e going to get through this.鈥� And it made all the difference in the world,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou got other people; I got a guy who I haven鈥檛 seen in a while, but he鈥檚 got 200 crimes. I put him away for 400 days one time, and he was back within two weeks.鈥�

One solution, in a word, is coordination. Both Goodman and Larson say that law enforcement, courts, and services for addiction treatment are not aligned as well as they could be — and it’s counterproductive.

One typical scenario, Larson lays out, is that a person will go to in-patient treatment, but a lot of facilities don鈥檛 communicate this with the court. Because of their current legal problems that are not being addressed while in treatment, a warrant is issued by the court. Even if they move on with their life, the warrant will catch up with them, which threatens their housing, job, insurance, etc.

鈥淛ust coordination, and communication, and the system itself sometimes will contribute to the failure of these individuals,” Larson said. “So how do we shore those things up? How do we make it so that we on our end, the system itself, aren鈥檛 contributing to it?鈥�

鈥淲ouldn鈥檛 it be great if we had a regional approach to be able to have a hand off by courts to services 鈥� a warm hand off?鈥� he asked.

Goodman says that lawmakers in Olympia are moving in that direction — treating addiction-related offenses as medical issues instead of straight crimes.

鈥淔ifteen years ago, we were locking people up who had addiction, the drug war was raging,鈥� Goodman said. 鈥淲e really are phasing out of that and looking at it as a health problem. So we have to build up the infrastructure now and have the courts coordinating with that.鈥�

One man鈥檚 quest to stop shoplifting in his Seattle neighborhood

鈥淵ou say 鈥榮hoplifter鈥� and what comes into your mind? Someone who is intending to steal something,” he continued. “Maybe it鈥檚 one of those ‘飞辞苍鈥檛s.’ They are flouting the law. But then, probably a larger category, because this is what he hears from retailers, are people who are in crisis. People who don鈥檛 want to go into withdrawal or aren鈥檛 thinking right. That鈥檚 not the same as criminal intent.鈥�