On Tuesday, May 20, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed the State’s $78 billion budget with a slew of cuts to account for the $16 billion shortfall. In that budget, however, funding is still planned to continue supporting Organized Retail Theft fighting efforts.
The budget utilizes a $1 million proviso that will continue to support the program, which was introduced by Ferguson back in 2022 when he was serving as Attorney General, in addition to allocating $39 million for a statewide recovery navigator program to assist with areas of high retail theft (i.e. Snohomish, King, and Pierce counties).
According to FBI data, Washington State experiences the highest retail thefts of any state in the nation with 3,510 cases of commercial theft per 100,000 businesses.
Washington State experienced $2.7 billion in retail theft in 2022 alone, according to the Washington Retail Association.
Last legislative session lawmakers introduced a bill, HB1276, sponsored by Representative Mari Leavitt (D-University Place), that would also crack down on penalties associated with organized retail theft reclassify them as felonies. That bill, however, did not make it passed the house floor for a vote.
Thefts and crime at Alderwood Mall
In Lynnwood, 35% of its General Fund revenue is generated from retail sales. The city ranks second in Snohomish County for total retail sales, reporting $849,876,136 in taxable retail sales in 2023, according to the Washington State Department of Revenue. Because of its focus on retail, it seems to be a target for organized retail theft not only in the state but the country at large, the Lynnwood PD says.
According to Lynnwood Police data the most common crime at Alderwood Mall — Lynnwood’s top retail shopping destination — is thefts by a long shot. From 2023 through 2024, for example, Lynnwood Police responded to more than 500 calls to the area with 70 of these being theft, seven being shoplifts, and one of these burglaries. The most common calls Officers responded to during this period was to alarms being set off by retail stores.
Though incidents of violent crime in, and around, the Alderwood Mall area are rare, they do happen.
In July of 2021 an altercation in the parking lot of the Alderwood Mall movie theater resulted in gun fire. No one was harmed in this incident besides some vehicle damage.
However, on February 25, 13-year-old Jayda Woods-Johnson, sadly lost her life after a stray bullet – shot from a 15-year-old kid engaged in an unrelated disturbance in the mall food court.
More recently, a 15-year-old boy accidentally discharged a firearm, that was tucked in his pants, injuring himself in the groin. Earlier this month Lynnwood Police responded to a shoplifting incident, turned violent and the suspect ended up having a loaded assault rifle and Kevlar vest in his stolen vehicle parked outside.
According to Ali Phillips, Manager of Public Relations at Brookfield Properties – which manages the Alderwood Mall – Alderwood has ramped up its security measures since these instances of violent crime by constantly monitoring trends in the area and collaborating with local and state officials.
“When needed, we adjust our deployment, protocols, and programs to ensure our security program operates at its best,” Phillips told the Lynnwood Times. “One of our highest priorities is the safety of our guests, tenants, employees and everyone who walks through our doors. Our security measures in place are designed to help ensure safety, but unfortunately, we can’t control human behavior.”
Brookfield employs a robust security program, Phillips explained, including license plate readers and high-quality CCTV systems, however she couldn’t go into further specifics seeing as making the security measures public would compromise their effectiveness.
What she could share, however, is that Brookfield stands by its staunch code of conduct which sets expectations that guests will exhibit common courtesy, civility in all matters, and parental guidance as needed. This is all in addition to maintaining strong relationships with local officials and the Lynnwood Police Department.
Lynnwood PD Response
Retail thefts have been steadily skyrocketing in Lynnwood since 2015 – by a rate of 666%. According to Commander Joseph Dickenson, Public Information Officer for the Lynnwood Police Department, this is both a combination of placing more emphasis on tackling retail thefts as well as a higher frequency of occurrences happening in general.
In 2015, for example, there were a total of 446 thefts (including larceny) in Lynnwood with 41% of these resulting in arrest. Just 217 of these were incidents of shoplifting. By 2024, however, total incidents of theft in Lynnwood jumped to 2,364, of these 56% resulted in arrests and 1,594 were solely shoplifting.
The Lynnwood Police Department does not currently receive funding from the Washington State Attorney General’s Office as part of its Retail Theft Task Force. The Department does, on the other hand, receive funds from the Washington Organized Retail Crime Association (WAORCA) but those funds are scheduled to dry up by next year.
During a special retail theft emphasis operation at the Lynnwood Fred Meyer on Saturday, March 29, officers and detectives with the Lynnwood Police Department made a total of 17 arrests and 1 trespass—half of those arrested were not residents of Lynnwood.
On January 29, 2025, Lynnwood Police made 14 arrests conducting a similar special retail theft emphasis at the Lynnwood Fred Meyer.
Commander Dickens informed the Lynnwood Times that organized retail theft rings are attracted to Lynnwood not only across the state, but the country.
“We had a case a couple years ago when we did an emphasis at Target and we ended up arresting a group of individuals who had made their way here from Florida,” said Dickens. “They had gone across the country, and they were in the millions of losses and we just happened to be the agency that caught them.”
Attorney General’s Organized Retail Theft Task Force
In June of 2022, then-Attorney General Bob Ferguson, now Governor, announced the creation of a statewide, multijurisdictional Organized Retail Theft Task Force.
“These are not petty thefts,” Ferguson said. “These are multi-jurisdictional, organized crime rings that endanger the safety of employees and customers, damage our economy, and drive up costs for all Washingtonians. This centralized, statewide unit will serve as a force multiplier to combat these sophisticated crimes and hold the perpetrators accountable. I look forward to working with the Task Force to maximize the effectiveness of this unit.”
The idea stemmed from a similar task force in California which, since its inception in 2019, resulted in apprehending 2,500 suspects and the recovery of more than $43.3 million in stolen goods.
Heading that Task Force, as well as the Financial Crimes Unit, is Tienney Milnor, Major Economic Crimes Unit Section Chief who informed the Lynnwood Times the “mission” of the Task Force is to coordinate, investigate, and prosecute organized retail crime statewide and our team is dedicated to identifying and addressing the critical and growing problem of organized retail crime across the state.
“The goal of the unit is to improve coordination and collaboration amongst law enforcement agencies and coordinate multijurisdictional prosecution that endanger employees, consumers, and cause significant harm to our state,” said Milnor.
The Organized Retail Task Force was granted funding for a 10-person unit through June 30, 2025. With the passage of the state’s budget Tuesday this has extended through 2027.
The State task force secured its first conviction in June of 2024, when Shawn Nanez, 33, pleaded guilty in Kitsap County Superior Court to two felony counts of first-degree organized retail theft, one felony count of second-degree organized retail theft, and one felony count of first-degree theft, stemming from 28 different thefts at Target stores in Kitsap, Pierce and King counties. The value of the stolen merchandise, which he later sold to a third party, totals more than $145,000.
Back in December, the Task Force also brought charges against accused retail theft ringleaders Volodymyr Tsuman, Leonid Trotskovets, and Volodymyr’s brother Veniamen Tsuman who allegedly stole $48,878 worth of merchandise during more than 50 separate thefts in four different counties.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
