The Aurora City Council agreed to move forward with two ordinances Monday night that would broaden the city’s mandatory minimum sentence for retail theft ordinance that passed last year. 

Both ordinances were put forward by Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky and would add to the original ordinance passed in 2023, which set a three-day minimum mandatory jail sentence for retail theft of $300 or more. 

One of Monday night’s proposed ordinances would lower that threshold to $100 and add provisions for increased jail time for repeat offenders.

The ordinance says lowering the threshold will “further deter this criminal behavior as is evidenced by the impact of imposing mandatory minimums in the city last year,” and “Council intends to make it known that the City of Aurora is not the city for offenders to commit theft by making penalties more impactful,” according to meeting documents.

In addition to lowering the threshold for the mandatory minimum sentence from $300 to $100, the ordinance would also make the sentence for repeat offenders 90 days rather than three. 

In cases where the defendant has been convicted of retail theft at least twice, they will face a mandatory minimum sentence of 180 days, according to the ordinance.

Jurinsky brought forward a second ordinance as well, adding “dine and dash”-type crimes to the mandatory minimum sentences. 

This would apply the three-day minimum sentence to offenders involved in “defrauding a public establishment,” or not paying after dining, in the amount of $15 or more. 

The council voted to move forward with the two ordinances. 

In 2023, the Aurora Police Department reported 1,702 instances of larceny shoplifting, or retail theft. In comparison, the department reported 1,256 cases in 2022.

ACLU Colorado sent a letter to the council about the proposed ordinance on Wednesday urging it not to harshen penalties for retail theft beyond those provided by state law. 

Harshening those penalties would “lead to the violation of Coloradans’ constitutional right to equal protection,” the ACLU wrote in the letter. 

That is because the proposed ordinance would punish theft more harshly than state law, they wrote. Under state law, the penalty for petty offense, which includes theft of under $300, is imprisonment for no more than 10 days in county jail or a fine of no more than $300. 

Under state law, if a person commits theft twice or more in a six-month span, the penalty is based on theft for the combined value of items taken. If the value is less than $1,000, the maximum sentence is 120 days.

If a person in Aurora stole $200 worth of goods on three occasions, it would be “unconstitutional” to charge them under Jurinsky’s proposed ordinance, which would give a 180-day minimum sentence,  because the state law is 120-day maximum, according to the letter. 

“Aurora’s authority to prohibit theft cannot be used in a way that violates the state constitutional guarantee of equal protection,” the ACLU wrote in the letter. 

If two laws punish the same conduct with different penalties, a defendant’s equal protections rights are violated if they are charged under the harsher law. 

However, Aurora city staff debunked the claim by the ACLU on Monday.

Pete Schulte, the client services manager in the city attorney’s office, said equal protection is not relevant for items that are not preempted, and when there’s any conflict between a city ordinance and state law on items not preempted, the city ordinance prevails. 

“If you all choose to pass this ordinance we can defend it in court,” Schulte said.

The city doesn’t have specific numbers on people serving the three-day mandatory minimum sentences, since all thefts that require the person to serve time get lumped into one category.

According to Aurora Police Department data, the Havana Business Improvement District reported seven instances of $300 or more theft at three 7/11 convenience stores in their district. The King Soopers in the district has reported seven instances of $300 or more theft, Havana Beauty Supply reported five, PQH Wireless reported five and Old Navy reported four.

However, this was the only data that specifically called out the three-day mandatory minimum sentence.

“We need to figure out a process where when the judge sentences somebody under this ordinance … that we’re able to pull those numbers out because right now, both of those are being looped into sections that are already in the code,” Schulte said.