Local policies have not and will not be changing.

Like many others, I was amazed to read in the Dallas Morning News that the Dallas Police Dept would no longer respond to calls from merchants of shoplifting incidents that involved less than $50. I read that to mean "take small items only; no prosecution pending." Dallas police have since walked that back...some. The store owner must still file a report and send it in, call first though.
 
The DMN editorial staff wasn't impressed by the policy but have since given a little benefit of the doubt to the change. "If Class C shoplifting reports plunge—at least, in part, because the new reporting requirement creates one more hurdle for retailers—[Dallas Police Chief] Brown might have to rethink it. But if the shoplifting conviction rate goes up—and 4 percent for Class C is a pretty low starting bar—it would be strong evidence that it’s a policy worth keeping."
 
I'm not sure if that is the best formula for measuring. A drop in reports would seem to indicate fewer incidents are being reported because I can't imagine this policy will lead shoplifters to suddenly decide to quit shoplifting, the other possible reason for a drop. But judging the reasons for a rise in the conviction rate is more problematic. There are more variables and I'm not familiar enough with the details of minor shoplifting prosecution to make a personal call. My doubts are not dispelled.
 
One interesting measure though and one that might have local effects will be how our shoplifting figures change. Again, my shoplifting ignorance is a factor, but I presume shoplifting of minor amounts (under $50) are usually local kids, not professional shoplifting gangs from Dallas. If that's right, we wouldn't see much change. If, however, most of our shoplifters are from out of town, we could see some big changes if they decided Dallas was less of a risk.
 
And that measure will be valid because our variables aren't changing, we're not changing our local policies, as confirmed by Police Chief Mitch Bates when I asked. Steal a coke and our police will respond. It remains a crime and we will treat it as a crime. We know that a number of shoplifters do often have involvement in other serious crimes, such as narcotics, burglaries, robberies, etc., so a store that catches a shoplifter often catches a wanted criminal.
 
I suspect the final result for Dallas will be less reported shoplifting thefts, more convictions because the best cases will continue through the system, and it will be hard to judge the dark side, that the overall number of incidents is rising because thieves are emboldened. For us, I imagine our numbers will stay about the same, but if they start dropping, you have a good case to argue that the thieves like "shopping" in Dallas better.