TULSA, Okla. — A bill that cracks down on theft and larceny is expected to make it to the governor's desk in Oklahoma City.
Authored by republican Rep. Kevin West of Moore, The Oklahoma Larceny Act of 2024 would revert the minimum value of goods stolen to qualify as a felony larceny back down from $1,000 to just $500.
"I think it is a common sense solution to try and give your local community a little more control over the criminal element," Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler told 2 News.
The bill passed the house along party lines 78-20 and now awaits a senate vote.
Kunzweiler supports the bill, and points to both Oklahoma and Tulsa's higher than average larceny rates.
Since 2020, Tulsa County has had 433 felony larceny reports, while in 1,916 cases the items stolen did not total $1K and those responsible were only given a misdemeanor offense.
"There's not a single group that supports reform that doesn't want to see the bad guys punished. But I think there are some fundamental mistakes," Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform Executive Director Damion Shade said, criticizing the bill.
Shade said the bill undercuts State Question 780, which Oklahoma voters approved in 2016 with the campaign promise that it would decrease incarceration.
"Oklahoma voters really were committed to this modern approach to say, we don't wanna just lock people up in warehouse people. We want fewer crime victims. We want less crime," Shade said. "A law like House Bill 3694 says that law enforcement should respond to that 19-year-old stealing an iPhone the same way that it would respond to serious, organized retail theft.
The state question allowed the legislature to take action if it thought a change was needed. Kunzweiler believes that's what's happening eight years later, and that Oklahomans are better off for it.
"(SQ780) was a failed experiment," he said. "We should go back and start holding people a little more accountable for their actions. We shouldn't incentivize them to think that you can steal on any given day up to a thousand dollars' worth of merchandise. That's a lot of product."
"The state question was a good idea, but there are those people who we're going to target who are repeat offenders who need to be put in a place that we can track them. It's not going to be everybody, but there's gonna be some of those folks that deserve a prison sentence for what they're doing."
Shade said the current law doesn't need changing, and argues there would also be fiscal consequences if the bill becomes law, making courts and jails process more offenders.
"All of that's gonna cost money to the taxpayers. We should not try to hide that cost, we should be transparent. I think that's a value that conservatives and liberals generally agree with."
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