The Shoe Department only displays shoes on its sales floor. Customers must ask an employee to bring a pair for them to try on.

“We try to keep them out there with the customers,” Taylor said. “The more customer service you get, the less shoplifting you have.”

Municipal Court Judge Jim Blough, who hears the majority of shoplifting cases brought to court in Natchez, said the increased security presence in stores is one piece of the puzzle that explains an increase in the number of shoplifting cases, but it’s not the only piece.

“I think these cases are going up because of better enforcement, but they will also go up and down as stores change management,” Blough said. “We have some stores that have good surveillance and good loss-prevention folks, but then one manager leaves and they get another manager in who has a different philosophy.

“It doesn’t take long for word to get around the streets about that, and then those numbers are back up.”

In early 2014, Blough raised fines and stiffened jail sentences on shoplifting convictions in an effort to curb the number of cases.

But a law that went into effect in July 2014 as part of a criminal justice reform bill changed the way courts handle shoplifting cases.

Prior to the new law, shoplifting any item worth $500 or less was considered a misdemeanor crime and carried up to six months in jail. If an item worth more than $500 was stolen, the offense was considered a felony and the offender faced up to 10 years in a state prison.

Under the new law, a shoplifter has to take more than $1,000 worth of merchandise to be charged with a felony.

“That’s a lot of goods leaving the store to still call it a misdemeanor crime,” Blough said. “We’ve seen an increase in shoplifting under the new law, but not for the higher dollar amounts.

“They’re not shooting for the big money anymore because they know they can get the lower items and not get a felony charge.”

Blough said the new law also changes jail time for shoplifting offenses.

“The best tool to fight shoplifting we had was putting folks in jail, and we had a scale worked out that was based on the amount of merchandise taken and that determined how many days you served in jail,” Blough said. “That was helpful, but that’s gone under the new law.”

Blough said the misdemeanor offense sentencing for shoplifting includes less jail time and more probation or community service. “The jail time that we used to issue is now replaced with probation or community service unless we can prove there are unusual conditions to where a person couldn’t serve community service because they have a horrible criminal record.

“That jail time incentive we use to be able to use is gone, and that’s going to be a problem.”

Blough said he and others in the court system are still working to find the best solution to the changes in the law, which could include a type of shoplifting rehabilitation program that is currently offered in larger cities such as Jackson.

“It may be something that could come through our churches or other organizations, but essentially something that says you have to do X number of hours in this program,” Blough said. “This is not a good change to the law, but we’re going to have to try to work with it and find out what works for us because we have to come up with a better plan to stop shoplifting from going up and up.”