DA Krasner reveals new retail theft policy a year after announcing it would change

PHILADELPHIA - Over a year ago, District Attorney Larry Krasner announced that his retail theft policy would change,.

On Wednesday he made the new policy public.

What they're saying:

"We need to have a policy that recognizes these profound differences in people where mercy is justified, and where incarceration is necessary," he said.

The change comes after he faced heavy scrutiny for his original policy, which stated to charge retail theft cases as summary offenses unless the value of the items stolen exceeded $500, or if the defendant had a long history of retail theft convictions. 

Instead, it puts retail theft arrests into three buckets—organized retail theft, prolific or habitual retail theft, or ordinary offenders, who make up 80% of the retail theft arrests, according to the District Attorney.

"The final bucket, which is people who have essentially no record, or next to no record, we often charge at a lower level," he said. "That’s the reality. I think it's good policy. And I stand by it."

Vincent Emmanuel, spokesperson for the Delaware Valley Franchise Owners Association, says after years of getting hit hard with organized retail crime, he is starting to see improvements.

"As a businessman, all I am doing is getting up in the morning and going to work. Most of the time, if somebody stopped someone from stealing, the conversation was, ‘What are you going to do about it?’" he said. "The real organized people, we don’t see them as much anymore."

Law enforcement sources critical of DA Krasner’s previous policy point to a PPD analysis, obtained by FOX 29. It shows 57% of all retail theft arrests in 2024 were downgraded by the DA, which is an improvement from 2019, but decline from 2014.

FOX 29’s Kelly Rule asked the DA about what happens when police want to charge with a crime higher than a summary offense like a misdemeanor.

"Wouldn’t they have to go through you, and how often when they come to you and ask for that are you doing it, versus going back to a summary offense?" 

"Sometimes we see a case where we are, you know, we look at the factors that we have and it is possible to go to a higher level, but we determined not to, as you may know, we have three buckets," said DA Krasner.

The District Attorney’s opponent in the Democratic Primary Election, former judge Patrick Dugan, blames Krasner’s former policy for the increase in retail thefts, but says he sees where summary offenses are appropriate.

"We see all these stores leaving us, Macy’s closing, Rite Aid, shelves are empty," he said. "This is just a ludicrous, shocking policy that he had for the last 7 years and again, 55 days before the election, now he’s going to address it?"

FOX 29 reached out to Philadelphia Police about the new policy and a spokesperson said they have a copy of it and are currently reviewing it.

You can view the new policy above.