ALBANY — Law enforcement executives and business leaders say New York needs strengthened laws and a surgical strategy tailored to counter professional shoplifters and serial thieves who steal to resell hot goods from online platforms.

“Lets face it, they’ve made shoplifting basically legal in New York,” Patrick Phelan, executive director of the New York State Police Chiefs Association, told CNHI.

Phelan said under current New York laws judges are greatly restricted in when they can issue bench warrants for individuals who skip court dates after being issued appearance tickets by police.

“The courts give them a reminder, and when they don’t appear, they give them another reminder, and when they don’t appear again, they just get another reminder to come to court,” Phelan said.

In some regions of New York, merchants have put merchandise such as toothpaste and shampoo in locked cabinets to make it more difficult for thieves to fill a shopping cart and run out of the store without paying for the items.

Clinton County Sheriff David Favro said he believes that more than half of such larcenies are perpetrated by individuals stealing goods so they can resell them and support drug habits.

He said he is personally aware of about a half dozen retail outlets in his county where store managers have opted not to attempt to corral suspected shoplifters to avoid the potential of expensive litigation.

“Everybody today is a professional victim thinking about a lawsuit,” said Favro, suggesting the thieves are more than willing to try to turn the tables on those who would hold them accountable for their larcenous ways.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, is trying to convince the Assembly and Senate to adopt her proposal to restore judicial discretion at arraignments, a move that would allow more repeat offenders to be jailed following an arrest.

Asked by CNHI about serial shoplifters, Hochul said if a person is repeatedly stealing numerous items and selling them online, that offense is already eligible for bail under current law.

“Our bail laws are already empowering judges to do the right thing and this is why I’m putting the onus on judges,” Hochul said.

She added: “There’s certain frustration among law enforcement when they work a case, and it’s going to get thrown out. I understand that. But I want them to know we made significant changes last year. I’m planning on making changes this year. And their voices are not falling on deaf ears.”

State lawmakers, meanwhile, have crafted new legislation that would toughen penalties for repeat shoplifters who re-offend less than two years after being convicted of a misdemeanor larceny charge.

They could be prosecuted for a felony larceny and be eligible for a maximum sentence of 1 1/3 to 4 years, under a measure sponsored by Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, D-the Bronx, and Sen. Kevin Thomas, D-Long Island.

On another front, a coalition of merchants and store workers, Collection Action to Protect our Stores, are urging lawmakers to pass legislation that would make a physical attack on a store owner or employee a violent felony offense, arming judges with the ability to have those defendants locked up at arraignment.

The National Retail Federation estimates stores sustained $94.5 billion in lost inventory in 2021, with much of it due to thievery.

And police warn that when the thieves are not aggressively prosecuted, they can become emboldened and shift into more serious criminality.

“No one is calling for a person who took a pack of gum to be locked up,” said Delaware County Sheriff Craig DuMond. “But when you have the same serial shoplifters going around from town to town and committing the same crimes over and over again, we should have the tools to be able to stop it.”

Last week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, encouraged store owners plagued by shoplifting to protest the state’s bail laws in Albany.

Adams emphasized that the shoplifting outbreak has had many negative consequences. “We’re losing chain stores that are closing down,” he said. “People who are being employed in those stores are losing their jobs.”

The mayor of the nation’s largest city also demonstrated leadership on the retail theft issue by hosting a meeting last December, allowing retail leaders and law enforcement officials to discuss strategies for tackling the costly problem.