Shoplifting suspects opt for $500 course because of company's misleading statements, suit alleges
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The San Francisco City Attorney’s office has sued a company that works with retailers to offer a $500 life-skills video to shoplifting suspects.
The suit, filed on Monday, claims the Corrective Education Company’s practices amount to extortion and false imprisonment, report Reuters and the Los Angeles Times.
According to the suit, CEC makes “threats and false and misleading statements to people detained by private security guards in the back room of a store to induce them to sign unlawful and unconscionable contracts confessing to crimes.” After the alleged shoplifter signs the agreement, the company warns that a failure to pay will result in the case being turned over to prosecutors, along with the signed confession, the suit says.
The company holds out its “pre-complaint educational program” as consistent with California’s statutorily authorized pretrial diversion programs. “In fact, it is nothing of the sort,” the complaint says.
CEC pays security companies and retailers amounts ranging from $10 to more than $100 per enrollee, according to the suit. “This payment structure creates a powerful incentive to pressure people to enroll in CEC, regardless of the evidence, if any, of their guilt,” the suit says.
CEC chief executive Brian Ashton told the Los Angeles Times in a statement that the lawsuit is without merit and is “factually incorrect.” Any coercion issues are addressed with “very specific protocols and staff training,” according to the company’s website.
