Sacramento Sheriff Criticizes Target and Walgreens for Limiting Police Efforts to Curb Retail Theft

According to Sacramento County’s sheriff, recent attempts to crack down on retail theft at Target and Walgreens stores in the area were hampered by uncooperative company executives who restricted police involvement and arrests in-store.

Sheriff Jim Cooper took to social media platform X to express his frustrations with the chain stores after employees at the locations reported incidents of serial shoplifting, mainly involving homeless individuals.

Law enforcement collaborated with store employees to devise plans to tackle the issue, but Sheriff Cooper claimed that corporate and regional executives for both brands obstructed their efforts.

Target, according to the sheriff, prohibited deputies from apprehending shoplifters inside the store and insisted that any arrests be made outside the store, away from public view.

“We were told by [Target’s] head of regional security that we could not contact suspects inside the store; we could not handcuff suspects in the store; and if we arrested someone, they wanted us to procees [sic] them outside… behind the store… in the rain,” Sheriff Cooper tweeted.

Sheriff Cooper also recounted an incident where deputies witnessed a woman stealing multiple body wash bottles and then returning them to customer service for a refund at a Target store.