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CS/SB 1534 — Retail Theft
by Criminal Justice Committee and Senators Boyd, Diaz, and Garcia
This summary is provided for information only and does not represent the opinion of any Senator, Senate Officer, or Senate Office.
Prepared by: Criminal Justice Committee (CJ)
The bill amends s. 812.015, F.S., the retail theft statute, to create new third degree felony and second degree felony retail theft crimes based on multiple retail thefts occurring in a limited time period in different merchant locations. Specifically, the bill amends the statute to provide that a person commits retail theft, a third degree felony, if the person individually, or in concert with one or more other persons, commits five or more retail thefts within a 30-day period and in committing such thefts obtains or uses 10 or more items of merchandise, and the number of items stolen during each theft is aggregated within the 30-day period to determine the total number of items stolen, regardless of the value of such merchandise, and two or more of the thefts occur at different physical merchant locations.
The bill also amends the statute to provide that a person commits a second degree felony if the person individually, or in concert with one or more other persons, commits five or more retail thefts within a 30-day period and in committing such thefts obtains or uses 20 or more items of merchandise, and the number of items stolen during each theft is aggregated within the 30-day period to determine the total number of items stolen, regardless of the value of such merchandise, and two or more of the thefts occur at a different physical retail merchant location.
The bill also amends s. 921.0022, F.S., the offense severity level ranking chart of the Criminal Punishment Code, to rank the new third degree felony retail theft offense as a level 5 offense and rank the new second degree felony retail theft offense as a level 6 offense.
If approved by the Governor, these provisions take effect October 1, 2022.
Vote: Senate 38-0; House 80-36