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Show Citizens need to report shoplifters This is the final installment in a special Iron County Record series on shoplifting in southern Utah. This third part deals with possible solutions to the every-growing problem. By MICHELLE BATE Record Reporter CEDAR CITY Shoplifting is a crime that not only requires the assistance of policemen and store owners, but also citizens, if the problem is ever going to decrease. Store owners and managers that were interviewed this month almost all agreed that if citizens who witness shoplifting or are suspicious of such would report it to the store manager or a sales clerk, it could help combat the problem. According to Jess Cruser, store manager for K Mart in Cedar City, most people do not report shoplifters basically because they don't want to get invovled. However, he added that most the time the informant can remain completely anonymous. A recent informal study by the Record varified that people really do not report such actions. Record staffers, staf-fers, with the cooperation of the police department and the local merchants, posed as shoplifters in front of a number of customers, seeing what the unsuspecting people would do. just aren't suspicious and suspecting. When a customer witnesses someone take an item if they do not wish to call the store manager, they can arrest the person themselves, Cruser added. Yet overall most store owners agree that people just do not want to get involved, in-volved, so they end up paying the higher prices instead. "If people would report anything that they see that even looks like shoplifting, it could really help to decrease the problem, " said Sharon Webb, secretary and clerk for the Cedar City Police Department. On the other side of the coin, there is the court and what it can do to help solve the problem. Ninth Circuit Court Judge Christian Ronnow pointed out that shoplifters can be corrected if caught in time and handled properly. Shoplifting is more difficult to correct the longer it is left unchecked. "If the first offense is handled correctly then that could be the person's last," he said. But, if stores do not prosecute and if the individual is allowed to go free, then it becomes easier and easier for the individual to commit the crime, added Webb. In most cases, individuals did not turn the "shoplifter" in to store personnel per-sonnel or were not aware that the crime had even taken place. Only one person in the informal study did go to the store manager and explain what she had seen, but only one out of many. "People need to be more aware of what is going on around them because it affects them in that they have to pay a higher price for goods because of shoplifting. Residents need to be more conscious of what is going on around them," said one Record staffer. Another agreed, pointing out that the atmosphere in Cedar City is more relaxed than in larger cities. People |