“I grabbed the FBI’s NIBRS master files and, using their definition of flash mob shoplifting, took every incident between 2022 and 2025 of a flash mob shoplifting. I removed agencies (like LAPD) that weren’t reporting to NIBRS in 2022 to get a consistent reporting population. Doing this shows the number of these incidents peaked in 2023/204 and came down in 2025. Even if we assume that December’s figures are underreported, the trend of a peak in 2023/2024 and a steady decline holds.”

From Jeff-alytics.