By Lookout Staff

December 5, 2023 -- LA County's newly formed Organized Retail Crime Taskforce (ORCT) is looking for four masked suspects who made off with more than $50,000 in a smash-and-grab style robbery in Santa Monica this month.

The incident took place Monday, November 27, at The Real Real Store near the 200 block of 26th Street in the northwest corner of the city near Brentwood, according to police.

Officers dispatched to the luxury resale location shortly before 11 a.m. learned that the suspects entered the store and forced their way past the front door security, police said.

"Once inside, they used hammers to smash multiple display cases containing brand-name purses worth over $50,000," said Lt. Erika Aklufi, the Police Department spokesperson.

The suspects then fled the scene in a waiting vehicle, Aklufi said.

In August, Santa Monica joined the Los Angeles Police Department in forming the ORCT after a rise in organized retail thefts, according to police.

"This taskforce combines resources from various agencies to investigate and prosecute the organized retail theft rings that are frequently behind these crimes," Aklufi said.

Since August, the task force has arrested more than 90 individuals, according to police.

The month after ORTC was formed, the State announced the Santa Monica Police Department would receive $6.125 million to combat organized retail theft in the city ("SMPD Gets Over $6 Million to Combat Retail Theft," September 18, 2023).

The funding will be used to "hire more police, make more arrests, and secure more felony charges," so "when shameless criminals walk out of stores with stolen goods, they’ll walk straight into jail cells,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

The State funding came amid a wave of rampant retail crimes that has forced stores in California to shutter or lock down items, a trend reflected in cities and states that have implemented criminal justice reforms.

According to a report by the Public Policy Institute of California, robberies of commercial establishments were up in 9 of the state's 15 largest counties in 2022, compared to 2019.

LA County -- which is the state's largest county -- had the highest commercial robbery rate with 60 reported crimes per 100,000 residents, a 13 percent increase.

A rise in retail crime followed the 2014 approval by California voters of Prop 47, which re-categorized some nonviolent felonies as misdemeanors, including all thefts under $950.

Santa Monica voters overwhelmingly approved the measure, with nearly 79 percent of the vote, compared to 60 percent statewide.

Since Prop 47 was approved, efforts backed by law enforcement and prosecutors to reform, repeal or reverse the measure have failed.