Shoplifting

Mississippi's attorney general has concluded that a Senatobia police officer was justified in using deadly force during a June shoplifting call that ended with the death of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley. Officers responding to a reported theft at a Walmart fired at a moving car they said was driving toward them, striking Kohen and wounding another passenger. His mother, who was not charged, disputes that the car headed toward police, and civil rights attorney Ben Crump says a preliminary independent autopsy suggests Kohen was shot from the side, not the front. Authorities have not released body-camera footage, and use-of-force experts are divided on whether the shooting was justified. The case has intensified long-standing tension between Senatobia police and Black residents.

Two years after California voters passed Proposition 36, a tough-on-crime measure that let people charged with drug felonies opt into treatment instead of jail, an analysis of data from the state's largest counties finds few defendants actually completing treatment or having charges dismissed. Of 18,666 felony drug cases charged statewide last year, only 17% of defendants opted for treatment, and just 57 cases ended in dismissal after graduation. Implementation varies widely: some counties, like San Francisco, have made almost no arrests under the law, while others impose treatment periods ranging from three months to two years.

Prop. 36 passed without dedicated funding, and subsequent state budget allocations have fallen far short of what counties say they need. Shortages of treatment beds, case managers, and housing have left many participants, a large share of them homeless, unable to get consistent care. Old convictions with no statute of limitations have also triggered felony charges for people who had been sober for years. Prison admissions under the law are rising, though supporters argue the program is still helping people who otherwise would not seek treatment.

San Francisco police released video of two shoplifters stealing pants from a Gap store before officers quickly arrested them, part of an expanded effort using targeted "blitz" operations to catch retail thieves in the act. SFPD says it made 844 retail theft arrests in the past six months, up 27% from the prior period, and recovered $410,000 in stolen merchandise over the last year. Officials cited repeat offender Lee Mitchell, arrested 16 times, as an example of habitual theft involving weapons used to intimidate store employees.

Mayor Daniel Lurie and Police Chief Derrick Lew said the enforcement push has coincided with a nearly 20% drop in larceny cases this year. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins credited Proposition 36, which allows prosecutors to charge repeat theft offenders with felonies, for giving law enforcement stronger tools. City officials frame the crackdown as central to protecting retailers and public safety.

Backlash against Flock Safety license-plate cameras continues to grow nationwide. In Texas, Hood County Constable John Shirley shut down and covered the county's Flock cameras, citing "warrantless tracking" of residents; county commissioners had already let his contract with Flock lapse. Elsewhere in Ohio, Michigan and South Carolina, officials face similar pressure: Dayton schools are drafting a use policy, Kalamazoo now requires public votes on contract renewals, and Horry County, South Carolina, plans an October policy review after a Greenville County officer misused camera data to track a former partner.

In Ohio, state senator Al Cutrona is introducing a bill making personal misuse of Flock data a fourth-degree felony, requiring deletion after 10 days and barring third-party sharing — following reports that Cleveland's cameras logged nearly 2,000 immigration-related searches. The moves follow a Washington Post investigation finding dozens of officers nationally misused license-plate readers to stalk women. Flock CEO Garrett Langley has acknowledged the potential for misuse and announced new measures, including cutting default data retention from 30 to seven days and requiring a case code before each search. The ACLU called the changes "a step in the right direction" but said they fall short of legally binding protections like those Cutrona's bill would impose.