Mt. Juliet police sees decrease in shoplifting after zero-tolerance policy
MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WKRN) — After implementing a zero-tolerance policy on shoplifting several years ago, Mt. Juliet police are seeing a decrease in crime.
From the Paddocks to the Providence Marketplace, there are plenty of places to shop in Mt. Juliet. However, thieves see a different opportunity.
“And that’s where the shoplifting occurs those big box retail stores,” said Tyler Chandler, Deputy Chief for Mt Juliet Police.
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When a shoplifting case occurs in Mt Juliet, police often take to social media.
Earlier this month, two individuals were arrested in a theft attempt outside a Sports Academy. One of the suspects had a history of aggravated kidnapping and robbery charges and was wanted for nearly a dozen felony offenses.
“The majority of shoplifters too are repeat offenders. Typically come from the Nashville community and are not from the city of Mt Juliet,” Chandler said.
In an effort to deter crime, Chandler said the department implemented a zero-tolerance policy on shoplifting several years ago. “Some communities, they just issue a citation in lieu of a physical arrest. Here in our community, we do a physical arrest of the shoplifter which means they are booked in the Wilson County jail, have to stay there, have to make bond.”
‘This is a job for them’: Shoplifters are more organized than ever before
Because of this, he said crime trends are improving after looking back on data in 2015.
“Back in 2015 we had 205 shoplifting [cases] and in 2023 we had 168 shoplifting [cases]. That is a drastic decrease especially when you see a growing community like we had and a lot more stores than we had back then,” Chandler said.
And from 2022 to 2023, he said there was a 25% decrease in shoplifting.
Chandler in part credits the improvement to their LPR system. In this case, it helped officers capture three individuals for committing a grab-and-run at Old Navy.
“We continue to have new people committing crime in our area and never really come back but when you look at their history, they have previous theft incidents all around the area,” Chandler said.
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He said the department also dedicates officers to patrolling the popular shopping areas in a proactive way.
“They are just looking for crime, they are not stuck responding to crime that already occurred. And when you have that situation where officers are free and focus on that criminal element it continues to keep the crime down,” Chandler said.
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