By Jorge Casuso
May 5, 2025 -- Police last month made 9 arrests during a one-day Retail Theft operation Downtown that cracked down on shoplifting, which has been driving up Santa Monica's annual crime rate.
The operation on April 18 from 1 to 10 p.m. -- which was led by SMPD's Crime Impact Team (CIT) and focused on "hot spots" -- led to 7 felony and 2 misdemeanor arrests.
They were among the 75 arrests made by Santa Monica police during the seven days from April 13 to 19, bringing the total number of arrests for the year to 900, according to SMPD's The Blue Notebook, a weekly recap of crime.
The locations of the retail theft operation, which were determined based on crime analysis, were Sunglass Hut, Victoria’s Secret, Sephora and Lululemon on the Promenade, police said.
Two arrests were also made at the 7-Eleven on Wilshire Boulevard, according to the weekly crime blog.
During the operation, two of the suspects were arrested in the 200 block of Alley 3 after loss prevention from Victoria’s Secret contacted officers regarding a “theft occurring now.”
"Both suspects were found in possession of stolen property and burglary tools," police said. "One suspect was also in possession of meth and the possession charge was elevated to a felony" due to his prior arrests.
Loss prevention at Lululemon also contacted police regarding a theft in progress, according to the blog maintained by L. Lewis Gilmour, the Police Department spokesperson.
SMPD's recently opened SMART Center deployed the Drone as a First Responder (DFR) program used by police as "a force multiplier to address routine and high-risk calls."
DFR "monitored the suspects’ movement from the store to Structure 5" but lost the suspects, who were located by officers "leaving the structure in a vehicle."
The Crime Impact Team "conducted a traffic stop and detained the suspects," according to the blog. "Follow up revealed the suspects to be in possession of stolen property from several stores from the downtown area."
At Sephora, officers were monitoring the CCTV in the store's security room "when they observed a suspect commit a theft and quickly exit the store."
Officers coordinated with DFR, which observed the suspect enter her vehicle in the 400 block of Arizona.
"She was detained and found to be in possession of the stolen property from Sephora," police said. "Additionally, she was in possession of stolen property from Lululemon, several gift cards and burglary tools."
During the operation, officers were also flagged down by TJ Maxx loss prevention regarding a theft that just occurred at the store on Fourth street south of Wilshire. The officers located the suspect and arrested him for theft, according to the blog.
Officers also made two arrests at the 7-Eleven at 630 Wilshire. One of those arrested was recognized by an officer as a suspect from a case he'd handled in January.
"Officers detained the suspect and arrested him for burglary," according to the blog. "A search of the suspect revealed a meth pipe and a want/warrant check revealed two SMPD warrants for narcotics."
The second suspect arrested "was known to have a stay away order from the location."
The suspect was detained and it was discovered he had a $51k SMPD narcotics warrant, police said. He also was in possession of a meth pipe.
Larceny -- which includes shoplifting and theft -- was by far the most prevalent of the Part I crimes reported to Santa Monica police in 2023, according the the latest annual crime report issued in February 2024.
Larceny accounted for 59 percent of the serious crimes in 2023, with 2,895 incidents reported -- up from 2,453 in 2022 but down compared to 2019 ("Theft, Assaults Drove Increase in Crime Last Year," February 14, 2024).
"Larceny plays an out-sized role," Police Chief Ramon Batista told the Council. "If we could make a dent on the amount of shoplifting and theft, we would be down below" the level of serious crime in 2022.
