Colorado lawmakers are lining up behind a new attempt to crack down on organized retail theft, advancing a bill that would create a statewide support system for going after professional shoplifting crews and gift-card fraud schemes.
On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee voted 9-2 to send HB 26-1138 to the Appropriations Committee. The bipartisan bill, carried by Rep. Dan Woog, a Republican, and Rep. Cecelia Espenoza, a Democrat, would create a retail-theft advisory board inside the attorney general’s office and a grant program to help law enforcement investigate and prosecute felony-level retail theft and gift-card fraud. The sponsors say the aim is straightforward: give prosecutors and local agencies enough backup to pursue organized theft rings that they argue are squeezing retailers and, eventually, shoppers.
As outlined in the bill text on the Colorado General Assembly site, HB 26-1138 would direct the advisory board to “collect and analyze data related to organized felony-level retail theft and gift card fraud” and to run a Retail Theft Prevention Grant Program. Those grants could go to law enforcement agencies, district attorneys' offices and multijurisdictional task forces and could be used to investigate and prosecute organized retail theft or gift-card fraud, build or upgrade technology and data-sharing systems, and provide training and technical assistance to retailers and public agencies. After a 9-2 vote on March 24, Judiciary sent an amended version of the bill to Appropriations.
Rep. Woog told CBS Colorado that retail theft has surged, saying that “in 2024, Colorado lost $28 million in sales tax revenue when more than $1 billion in retail products were stolen,” and warned that those losses end up baked into prices at the register. Woog and co-sponsor Espenoza say retailers are backing the measure as a way to coordinate prosecutions that cross county lines and to share data on organized rings. The bipartisan pairing helped move the bill through Judiciary, where lawmakers sparred over how to give investigators more tools without overreaching on civil liberties or stretching limited state resources.
According to a fiscal note from the Colorado General Assembly, the Department of Law would need roughly $42,137 from the General Fund and about 0.4 full-time equivalent staff to stand up the advisory board. Ongoing administrative costs are estimated at $55,000 per year. The analysis notes that grant dollars would have to come from gifts, grants or donations, none of which have been identified yet, and that the attorney general must begin reporting on the program during its SMART Act hearing in January 2028. If funding materializes, local law enforcement agencies and district attorneys could apply for grants.
Retail Data And Why Lawmakers Say Action Is Needed
A November 2025 analysis by the Common Sense Institute found that Colorado logged 27,094 reported shoplifting incidents in 2024 and modeled roughly $1.3 billion in stolen goods in recent years, with an estimated $78 million in lost sales-tax revenue in 2022. Those figures, layered on top of national data suggesting that a large share of thefts go unreported, are the backdrop for lawmakers arguing that the state needs better tools to track and prosecute organized, cross-jurisdictional theft. Retailers and some county governments have been pushing for stronger responses, including local ordinances and expanded reporting requirements.
Legal Implications
Under Colorado law, theft becomes a felony when the value involved exceeds $2,000, a threshold that some analysts say is high compared with other states and that can make it harder to target organized retail rings. For the statutory language, see Justia. HB 26-1138 does not touch that felony threshold. Instead, backers argue that an advisory board and grant program would give prosecutors and law enforcement better data and more consistent resources to pursue felony-level schemes that hop from county to county.
Critics counter that lawmakers may eventually need to look at statutory changes, such as lowering the felony threshold or creating a specific organized retail crime offense, if it remains difficult to bring cases under current law.
With the bill now in Appropriations, legislators will decide whether the program’s relatively small administrative price tag is worth it, given that any grant money depends entirely on outside donations. Retailers, county officials and prosecutors are expected to weigh in during upcoming hearings. Supporters are pitching the measure as a targeted, data-driven response, not a big new state spending program, meant to coordinate prosecutions and plug gaps when investigations cross jurisdictional lines. The open question at the Capitol is whether a limited advisory-board-and-grant approach will be enough to slow a retail theft trend that lawmakers and industry groups say is draining Colorado communities.
