Police chief, prosecutor discuss crime prevention at chamber luncheon

Members of the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce heard Monday about how they can help law enforcement better prosecute criminals stealing from their businesses.

Poplar Bluff Police Chief Danny Whiteley and Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Kacey Proctor spoke during the chamber’s monthly luncheon at the Holiday Inn.

“Year to date, we’ve had 189 shoplifting calls at various businesses,” Whiteley explained. “Our average response time is four minutes and 13 seconds from the time the call is made to dispatch to the officers” arriving on scene.

Poplar Bluff Police Chief Danny Whiteley talks about things business owners can do to curb crime at their stores during Monday's chamber luncheon.DAR/Paul Davis

Whiteley encouraged retail businesses and banks to ensure their time and date stamps are accurate and regularly updated to daylight savings time.

Whiteley also recommended merchants not take checks from anyone without government-issued, picture identification.

Proctor shared three topics with the chamber members – criminal code nuances for stealing-related offenses, ways to build better cases against shoplifters and other thieves and issues with bad check prosecution.

Butler County Prosecutor Casey Proctor explains how his office works with business owners to fight rampant crime during Monday's chamber luncheon.DAR/Paul Davis

On Jan. 1, 2017, a “major criminal code” revision went into effect in Missouri, Proctor explained.

“One of the areas severely impacted by those code revisions was how it relates to stealing-related offenses,” Proctor said.

Under the new code, the theft of any object of less than $150 in value is now a “fine-only offense,” Proctor said.

Businesses expect someone who is shoplifting to go to jail, but that isn’t the case unless it is the person’s fourth offense in a 10-year period, Proctor said.

“If you go into a merchant’s place of business and you steal a candy bar, it will probably be a fine only” unless “its the fourth stealing offense, then it’s a felony, and we have some teeth and can actually do something,” Proctor said.

Theft of anything over $750 in value remains a felony, he said.

Describing it as a “wide range,” Proctor said, a lot of the shoplifters aren’t “getting anywhere close to the $750 in value,” so “most of the offenses are going to be fine only.”

Proctor said he and his staff are trying to get “creative with shoplifters.”

Walmart and Academy Sports + Outdoors, he said, have shoplifting prosecution “down to a science.”

Anyone caught shoplifting at those businesses, he said, have to sign a trespass form, which says they are not allowed to enter the store for the duration of their life.

Then, he said, if that person gets caught shoplifting again at the store, “we can charge them with burglary, regardless of the value or the number of times” the person has been convicted.

That “gets it to a felony,” Proctor said.

Proctor encouraged other businesses and merchants to also “trespass” shoplifters.

Some merchants, Proctor said, don’t want to cooperate in prosecuting the theft of something of “small value” because “they think it’s not enough.”

Prosecuting even those items of small value, he said, may deter a thief from coming back or stealing from another business.

Proctor encouraged the prosecution of “even small value” items because those can be stacked up to get a felony amount.

“It may sound harsh, but we had a serial thief steal a can of Hershey’s syrup” and be “charged with a felony” and put in jail for it, Proctor said.

Having surveillance footage, according to Proctor, also is “very, very helpful in prosecuting crimes,” as long as the time and date stamps match properly and the footage is available.

A lot of businesses have the surveillance footage on a 24-hour loop, which saves money on data storage, but “the problem we find is a lot of folks don’t realize” a theft has occurred for 48 to 72 hours and by then, it’s been recorded over, Proctor said.

If financially able, Proctor encouraged putting the surveillance footage on a longer loop, as well as leaving the lights on in foyers and around cash registers in case of night-time thefts.

Proctor also encouraged the members to make sure their employees and/or managers know how to rewind and download the footage for law enforcement.

Officers viewing the footage, he said, is not admissible in court. The actual footage is needed for prosecution, he said.

If a crime happens, Proctor further warned about being careful not to disturb any surfaces a suspect may have touched.

Regarding bad checks, Proctor said, his office has a probable-cause affidavit, which must be filled out completely and include the name of the person who actually received the bad check. That person, he said, will be called to testify at trial.

Bad checks, he said, also need to be submitted to his office in a timely manner, and the chamber of commerce will be alert regarding any “serial bad check writer.”

Once submitted, Proctor said, the check writer will be given 10 days to make good on the check before being prosecuted.

Chamber of Commerce President Steve Halter said the topics discussed by Whiteley and Proctor were “of interest” to “our businesses and members.”

Bad checks and internal and external thefts are “both issues a lot of communities have to deal with,” Halter said.