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Missouri Organized Retail Theft and Repeat Violent Offender Enforcement Act

Status: PassedState: MissouriIssue: Crime
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Summary

This Missouri bill creates a new organized retail theft offense for coordinated shoplifting and resale schemes, raises penalties for repeat offenders and people with prior violent felony convictions, and funds prosecutors and law enforcement coordination through a Department of Public Safety grant program. It also requires annual reporting on how the money is used and what case outcomes result.

Full text

This bill establishes the offense of organized retail theft in Missouri for coordinated theft, resale, or distribution schemes targeting retail businesses, increases penalties for repeat violations and for offenders with prior violent felony convictions, and authorizes enhanced sentencing for repeat violent offenses consistent with existing constitutional protections. The bill also creates a state grant program within the Department of Public Safety to support county prosecutors handling complex theft and violent crime cases, improve evidence-sharing and case management, and strengthen coordinated enforcement between state, county, and local law enforcement agencies, with annual reporting to the General Assembly on use of funds and case outcomes.

Judicial Review

No judicial review

No Supreme Court cases are currently attached to this law.

No cases filed.

Sponsor

Jack Whitmore IVRepublican Party

Cosponsors

None yet
Archived proceedingsMissouri Chamber
Debate in progress

Missouri Organized Retail Theft and Repeat Violent Offender Enforcement Act

Floor statements
7
Speakers
3
Chair bulletins
3

Floor statements

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This bill awaits the Governor's action. Deadline: 2026-06-10 13:05:00 (UTC).
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This bill has been enacted via no action (pocket pass) at the Governor review deadline.
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Result: passed.
Aye: 84 seats
Nay: 12 seats
Present: 4 seats
Total seats: 100
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Mr. President, organized retail theft is a real crime with real victims — the cashier whose hours get cut, the small business owner who can't absorb the loss, the neighborhood that loses one more place to shop. I'm not going to pretend enforcement doesn't matter. It does, and the sponsors are right to take this seriously. But I'd ask this body one practical question: are we buying the safest community we can with these dollars, or just the most punishment? The cheapest crime to fight is the one that never happens. A young person with a job and a mentor doesn't join a theft crew, and a returning citizen who can find work and housing doesn't cycle back through the same revolving door that drives the repeat offenses this bill is built to punish.
My amendment doesn't shrink the grant program, redirect a dollar away from prosecutors, or touch a single enforcement provision. It adds a dedicated track for the work that stops crime before it reaches a courtroom — violence intervention, youth programs, treatment, and re-entry — with every dollar tracked and reported to the General Assembly alongside the case outcomes already in the bill. If prevention works, we'll have the numbers to prove it; if it doesn't, you'll know that too. We can take retail theft seriously and invest in keeping people out of the system in the first place. Those aren't competing goals — they're the same goal, reached from both ends. I urge adoption.
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Mr. President,
I stand in support for this bill today in front of the legislature. States across our Union need to take crime more seriously. Retail crimes like these raise prices for hardworking, law-abiding families, while also undermining business and jobs in areas that need investment the most. These crimes undermine our social fabric by eroding social trust and choking off access to basic goods for people who want to do business within the law. Criminals make it harder for folks to do their own legitimate business or work for someone else who wants to expand into their community.
Furthermore, people committing crimes like these are very often committing more crimes. Assaults, carjackings, drug dealing, domestic violence, theft, murder, you name it. This isn’t the kind of thing you accidentally run afoul of while having fun on a regular afternoon. We need to act strongly to tackle this nation’s crime problem and ensure safety and prosperity for the people willing to take part fruitfully, in good faith, in our social contract.
I yield.
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