Fmr. Philadelphia Police Commissioner: These Smash-and-Grab Robberies ‘Won’t Stop Anytime Soon’

EXCERPT:

RAMSEY: "Well, first of all, this is very hard to guard against. It happens so quickly. A few years ago in Philadelphia we had something very similar taking place where we had people, mostly teenagers, younger adults, participate in things like this. They would come in in groups of 15, 20. In this case it was Macy’s and stores like Macy’s that they would rush into, they would steal as much as possible and run out. It took place in less than a couple of minutes. So, it was really, really difficult to get a handle on it. What we found was, one, it was being organized through social media. So one of the things we started doing is paying close attention to social media. The second thing is, many of the young people we arrested had no previous criminal records. And why they were getting involved in something like this, I have no idea. But we reached out and made it very clear to parents that they needed to pay attention to what their kids are doing and we actually got a few phone calls from parents warning us that something was really about to take place, and we were able to prevent it from happening. So I don’t know what’s driving all this, but it is of concern and it will continue. It is not going to stop anytime soon. The punishment for this kind of crime is very, very minimal. In most cases, it’s a misdemeanor. Some D.A.’s flat out said they will no longer prosecute shoplifting. This is not shoplifting, this is something far worse than shoplifting. So, there’s a lot that has to be done if we want to get a handle on it."