Ashley Moody suggests where big cities are ‘failing’ in combatting crime

Florida just launched a new task force to take on organized retail crime. The Attorney General of Florida, Ashley Moody, joins me now. Your Honor, welcome back to the show. Tell us exactly what you're doing to crack down on organized retail crime. What's the strategy here? Well, great to be with you. Thank you for inviting me back. You know, when I got into office, I realized what was happening in the big urban areas around the nation. And you had once great cities that were thriving and prosperous, becoming shells of the former selves. And really, if you look at what's happening, it is this exponential increase in organized retail theft. You hear it from the businesses, over $112 billion in loss. You hear it from residents that don't feel safe going in and shopping because you have these mass organized thieves that are coming in and ransacking. And as you just heard, violence is attached to that. So what you have to do is build up these cases. What's the strategy? It's really twofold. You have to build up these cases and charge RICO and organized retail theft. And the way you do that is engage with not only the retailers who will trust you to give you the information and work with you, but you also have to engage with your local law enforcement and make sure you're getting the boosters. And here's where the problem comes in. The boosters are the thieves that go in and take everything. And as you move up the ladder, the organizations ultimately sell millions of dollars in items. And that's where the real money is. But it starts with getting the boosters so you can build these RICO case, which we've done. We just busted 20 different retailers were affected, nine different jurisdictions, $20 million. But you have to have local law enforcement that's willing to go after those local thieves, those boosters. And that's the base of the organization. And here's where all these big cities are failing. The top five retail theft areas, the top two are L.A. and San Francisco. Then you have New York and Seattle. What is the common element there? Their police are not going after the boosters because their executive leaders, their mayors, their attorneys general, whatever, are not supporting them and encouraging them and propping them up to do so. So until you get that right, you're never going to make a dent. And that's why Florida is different. Another one for you. Florida State University was denied a spot in the college football playoff this year. You're suing the organization over this. On what grounds? Well, you know, to be clear, it was the first time ever that a Power Five conference champion didn't get a spot in the playoffs. Unprecedented. In fact, it leaked. One of the members said, oh, I'm going to use better language. Oh, my goodness. I can't believe we're going to have to do this. It sucks. We're going to have to do this. Why are they saying that? And, you know, you've seen such a concentration in power in the conferences. This affects, you know, individual conferences. It affects schools. It affects networks. And so we haven't sued anyone. We've just started a pre-suit investigation. We've sent a civil investigative demand asking for things from the national playoff selection committee. And we've asked for an expedited response rate. You know, this was a shocking revelation to the world that you had one of these champions not make it. Everyone knows that it wasn't right. It didn't sit right. So what was done behind closed doors in these meetings? I think people just want to make sure that the winners weren't picked in a boardroom unjustifiably with unfair competitive practices and that they let them compete on the field. And that's where that competition should lie. Do you think they were snubbed from the playoffs on purpose? I think we're going to find that out. In our investigative demand, we're requesting documents that shows communications, vote tallies, all that you can imagine. And I think that's what everyone suspects. Let me move on to this. There's a high school in Broward County was fined $16,000 after they allowed a transgender student, a biological male, to compete on the women's volleyball team. Is that against the law in Florida? Yes, you know, Governor Ron DeSantis has been very clear and pushed that girls need a fair competition space and that that should be respected in Florida. And our legislature passed that law. And so, you know, that has been laid out in state law. And I think that our agencies are following suit. $16,000 is the fine, right? Yeah. So I think you're going to see that the playing field for girls in Florida is going to be level. And that's what our legislature and Governor DeSantis ensured in our laws. Ashley Moody, Attorney General of the great state of Florida, thank you very much for being with us. We appreciate it always. Thank you. Great to be with you, Stuart. You got it.