Sacramento County Sheriff’s, Citrus Heights Police receive multi-million-dollar grants to fight organized retail theft

As part of efforts to combat the statewide rise in organized retail thefts (ORT), Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that $267 million has been granted to several county sheriffs and municipal police departments. The grant was part of Senate Bill 154, which was part of the 2022 California state budget.

In the Sacramento region, the Citrus Heights Police Department will receive $2.7 million to install 98 Flock Safety Falcon cameras and 11 Flock Safety Condor PTZ cameras throughout the city. The Sacramento Sheriff’s Department will receive $9.4 million.

The Sacramento Sheriff’s Department will have a two-pronged to curtail ORT. Documents accompanying the announcement said the sheriff’s department intends to “address the need to act and deter, enforce, prevent, and respond to ORT through public awareness (social media, community outreach) and deterrence-enforcement-prevention-response (surveillance). Targets include a 20 percent increase in ORT arrests, training for 80 loss prevention managers, creating an ORT Task Force, and increasing awareness of ORT and ways to respond in Sacramento County.”

“Enough with these brazen smash-and-grabs. With an unprecedented $267 million investment, Californians will soon see more takedowns, more police, more arrests, and more felony prosecutions,” Newsom said in yesterday’s announcement. “When shameless criminals walk out of stores with stolen goods, they’ll walk straight into jail cells.”

Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Ventura county sheriffs’ departments were each granted $15.6 million. Those counties have experienced high-profile smash-and-grab incidents.

As part of a multi-agency request, the Fresno County Police Department received $23.6 million.

Below are lists of other agencies receiving grants. Each department’s plan can be viewed here.