Mayor Eric Adams gathered local leaders and organizations for a summit to combat a rise in retail theft across the city.

“New York City businesses are the lifeblood of our economic recovery, and we are not going to stand by and let criminals undermine our economy and the livelihood of New Yorkers,” Adams said in a press release.

Those who attended the event at Gracie Mansion Friday were representatives from the NYPD, the Office of the Attorney General, all five of the city’s District Attorney’s Offices, and mental health and social service providers, as well as leaders of the retail industry, representatives from Chambers of Commerce, various Business Improvement Districts (BID), organized labor, advocacy organizations, and statewide and national retail associations.

They said topics that were discussed included leveraging technology to combat retail theft, physical security measures to deter theft, surveillance best practices, diversion programs, and enhancing existing partnerships with law enforcement.  

Zaid Nagi, a business owner in the Bronx and Vice President of the Yemeni American Merchants Association, said she noticed an uptick on shoplifting.

“All the time. There’s no day that passes and as you see this, we can no longer stock valuables,” said Nagi, referring to the half-empty shelves in his bodega on White Plains Road, which he keeps that way to discourage possible shoplifters.

Nagi was at the summit on Friday and says he’s glad the Mayor called the meeting. “I see a sincere effort to look for a solution,” Nagi said. “This is a community issue. This is [a] big company issue. This is a lot of companies, this everybody. We all stand to lose and we all stand to gain by tackling this issue.”

According to NYPD data on the first seven months of 2022, there was a 64.9% increase in commercial shoplifting, between 2021 and 2022 during the same time period — up by nearly 14,000 reports.

Robberies also showed a similar percentage increase at 64.8%, the report showed.

Lisa Sorin, president of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce, also attended the summit.

“One of the ideas that really came about was how do you get businesses within a corridor, specifically those not represented by a business improvement district, that don’t have that sort of leadership within their community, to come together and figure out options? A takeaway was an opportunity to figure out how to build that relationship within corridors,” Sorin told NY1.

Some said they’d like to see law enforcement and prosecutors be tougher on the criminals committing these crimes.

“Are we going to start to press charges? Because that’s the solution it’s not… we know that we’ve be having a lot of problem with the mental health, but the people who commit a crime and they have some problem, mental health problems, they need to stay in some facility until they get take care of their problems,” said Francisco Marte, president of the Bodega and Small Business Association and who was also at Friday’s summit.

Retailers expect to gather once again with the city in a month’s time to review potential plans incorporating the ideas that were presented at the summit.