This holiday season, stores are going to be packed and potentially more vulnerable to theft.

State and local leaders across New York say they’re now putting up time and money to protect businesses small and large.

What You Need To Know

Prosecutors in Broome County say two men will serve prison time for stealing from Dick’s House of Sport. One was an employee, who officials say was giving another man 99% off discounts

Prosecutors say over time, shoplifting has taken a backseat to more life threatening crimes, but small businesses say they appreciate law enforcement committing to helping all victims of all crimes

New York state and Gov. Kathy Hochul recently announced a $40 million investment into fighting retail theft, a committment that also came with changes that allow prosecutors to punish certain shoplifting criminals with felony charges

“We want everybody to be safe, and we want everybody to have an incredible holiday,” Broome County District Attorney Paul Battisti said Wednesday.

This comes after prosecutors in the county announced that two men will serve prison time after working together to commit retail theft at a local sporting goods store.

With the holiday shopping season upon us, authorities are sharing this message.

“If you decide to commit crimes of retail theft, people are watching. People are arresting, people are investigating and people are prosecuting,” he added.

It’s no idle threat.

In Broome County, two men were just convicted of stealing more than $50,000 of merchandise from the local Dick’s House of Sport.

Now they’ll spend the next three-to-six years behind bars.

“Through this, enterprise corruption, they established a relationship where they would come into the store and they’d be rung out with a 99% discount. And because of Dick’s Sporting Goods, incredible software, the investigative team, they found out about this,” Battisti added.

Of course, not all retail theft response is the same, and not all stores have the loss prevention management of a Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Some are just too small.

Law enforcement departments across the state are facing staffing issues and other crimes have taken priority.

That’s why the state made some changes last year when Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York state invested some $40 million into retail theft prevention, creating a task force of district attorneys, local law enforcement and state police.

“You saw the brazen efforts by these organized retail theft rings that would just go into stores and sweep the shelves, and go on and do it again and again and again,” the governor said at a recent press event. “And this was having a paralyzing effect on our small businesses.”

But while that money in particular did not help in this case in Johnson City, a change to the law as part of this crackdown did.

“An individual comes in and steals a product under $1,000. There’s nothing we can do to keep that individual incarcerated,” Battisti said.

Battisti says allowing prosecutors to combine the value of stolen goods, not just from one store, but all stores someone stole from, can lead to a harsher punishment.

“If we can put together individuals that are doing similar crimes and similar areas, similar ways, and that’s over $1,000 we can charge, that is a grand larceny, which is a new felony,” Battisti said.

Effort from the state, and locally, that Battiste says has retail theft already down 13% in Broome County. That’s also the number, 13%, that Hochul says retail theft is down across all of New York state since the investment was made.

Hochul says the decrease in retail theft is also helping ensure the safety of employees, which is another issue this initiative tackles, increasing the charge after assaulting a retail worker doing his or her job, from a misdemeanor to a felony.

These changes from New York state don’t only affect big companies.

Tom’s is a small business that’s been in Binghamton for 44 years.

It’s owner, Tom Kelleher, says theft is something he and other businesses deal with every day.

So much so, that in addition to new policies and procedures, he’s put in about 30 security cameras.

He also says having staff work with customers on the floor, customer service, doubles as a deterrent.

He says the state’s investment of $40 million and some changes to the way shoplifters can be prosecuted, are a good thing.

“They have a lot of serious crimes to deal with, and police departments and district attorneys and sometimes retail theft gets pushed to the side. Binghamton police have been fabulous with us. So has the county district attorney’s office, but they could always use more help with that kind of thing.”

Kelleher says the new polices he’s put into place and those cameras, have really been effective and he says shoplifting isn’t as big of a problem as it used to be.