City to host meeting Sept. 10 to help businesses comply with Shopping Cart Ordinance

Posted by Admin September 9, 2024 Shopping

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The City of Las Cruces will hold a Shopping Cart Ordinance overview meeting on Sept. 10, just over a month before the Las Cruces Police Department will begin to enforce the controversial ordinance.

According to a news release, the meeting is meant to help local businesses navigate the compliance components of the Shopping Cart Ordinance, which City Council adopted on a 4-3 vote on Aug. 5, 2024.

The ordinance sets up several requirements for businesses that use shopping carts. Businesses would be required to affix a sign/placard to carts and submit a shopping cart plan approved by community development that is to be renewed every two years. Businesses can also apply for an exemption if they already take certain measures against the theft of carts from their premises. Businesses would have three business days to retrieve shopping carts if notified by the city.

The ordinance also makes it illegal for individuals to remove shopping carts from a business. According to the ordinance, violations for individuals who remove a shopping cart from a business could result in a petty misdemeanor, between $100 and $500 in fines depending on number of violations within the same year.

While LCPD will not begin enforcing the shopping cart ordinance until Oct. 16, 2024, LCPD recently released security video that showed two men, later identified as Albertsons employees, confiscated a shopping cart that was being used by an unhoused woman on Aug. 6, 2024.

The Albertsons employees were not charged with a crime. Since the ordinance was passed, and again following the incident, police has reiterated that retailers are not required to retrieve shopping carts directly from individuals who may have them, nor should they attempt it.

The meeting is scheduled from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sept. 10, 2024 in Las Cruces City Hall Council Chambers. Community Development and Las Cruces Police Department staff will be present to answer questions.