Unsurprisingly, shoplifting plummeted amid the lockdowns and social distancing protocols of the height of the pandemic. As customers have returned to stores, however, so have thieves.
In 2019, the annual number of reported shoplifting incidents was 237.8 per 100,000 residents, in the 25 cities analyzed in the report. In 2020 that dropped to 183.4 and the next year it was 170.1. But as store traffic picked up, reports of shoplifting followed, with 190.4 incidents per 100,000 in 2022 and 232.8 last year.
