according to Statistics Canada<\/a>. It was the fifth year in a row the number rose.<\/p>\nTricia Hill, who owns Stoxx Thrift & Vintage in Vancouver’s Kingsgate Mall, said those numbers are likely low. <\/p>\n
She said incidents are so frequent she doesn’t bother calling police.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a waste of time calling. Nothing happens. At all,” she said. <\/p>\n
WATCH | Vancouver takes aim at theft with new police task force :![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784858542_112_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Vancouver to form new task force to curb shoplifting and retail theft<\/p>\n
Vancouver city councilors have voted to create a new task force to try to curb shoplifting and retail theft in the city. CBC\u2019s Chad Pawson explains why the city is striking a special task force to deal with people stealing from stores.<\/p>\n
Hill estimated her business lost $20,000 from theft last year, and said things are so bad staff now have walkie-talkies connected to security.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat should let you know how serious it is,” she said. “Everybody in the mall is on the same channel.”<\/p>\n
Jason Overbo, who owns Yaletown’s Brooklyn Clothing, said thieves have become increasingly bold. <\/p>\n
“Literally people walking in, looking around, grabbing whatever they can, and walking out,” he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t even care who sees them, they are not trying to cover their faces, they are not trying to be sneaky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Overbo and Hill said the incidents have affected their staff and raised concerns about safety.<\/p>\n
‘Low hanging fruit’<\/p>\n
The expanded program will see 11 hubs across the Lower Mainland monitoring 365 repeat violent and property offenders, selected according to criminal history and risk of reoffending. <\/p>\n
The majority will be in Vancouver, where 160 people will be monitored through four hubs, and Surrey, where 80 people will be monitored through two hubs. <\/p>\n
The hubs will house coordinated teams of prosecutors, police, probation officers, correctional supervisors, community integration specialists and mental-health liaisons.<\/p>\n
Jess Ketchum, co-founder of the community group Save our Streets, told CBC’s On the Coast it was past time for the province to put resources into targeting repeat property offenders. <\/p>\n
WATCH | B.C. announces plan to target repeat offenders:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784858542_429_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
B.C.\u2019s new premier announces new public safety measures<\/p>\n
B.C.’s new premier David Eby has unveiled a plan to tackle public safety issues, including measures to deal with repeat offenders and to expand mental health and addictions supports.<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t like to call it low-hanging fruit, but the fact of the matter is there is a small number of people committing a huge number of crimes and they are just doing it over and over,” he said. <\/p>\n
“If the province can do anything to step in and put a road block in front of that, that could have a significant benefit.\u201d <\/p>\n
Along with enforcement, the province says the program will work to address the “underlying factors contributing to offending” through connections to services including housing, income assistance, and mental health and substance use supports. <\/p>\n
Focus needed on root issues, says policy director<\/p>\n
Meghan McDermott, a policy director with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, questioned the pledge to refer people to services without additional investments in those services.<\/p>\n
“Our policymakers continue to use a justice-based response, which basically means a criminalization response and a detention based-response to issues that seem to emerge from public policy to begin with,” she said. <\/p>\n
McDermott said keeping people who may be stealing to survive under intense surveillance could actually further entrench them in the justice system.<\/p>\n
She said the money would be better spent directly addressing the root causes of crime like poverty and homelessness. <\/p>\n
“We can’t police our way out of these issues of poverty and inequality,” she said. <\/p>\n
In total, the province said it is now monitoring 865 repeat offenders across the province. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-822088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n