Small Businesses Say Rampant Crime Is Raising Their Costs

Nearly a third of all small business employers polled in January by a Job Creators Network Foundation (JCNF) survey obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation said that crime in their neighborhood has raised everyday operating costs for their businesses.

About 31% of small businesses that responded to the survey in January said neighborhood crime increased their business costs because of additional expenses for more security and the cost of stolen inventory.

In addition to crime rates, 77% of small business employers said President Joe Biden’s economic policies have negatively affected their business, while 22% reported the president’s job performance has improved business.

Employers in western states were the most likely to report crime has affected their finances, with 35% of business employers from the Western U.S. saying so in January.

Meanwhile, businesses with $100,000 to $250,000 in annual revenue were the most likely to say that neighborhood crime has raised costs. 53% of respondents in that revenue category said yes, crime has raised their costs, followed by businesses that make less than $100,000 a year in revenue, with 47% saying yes.

“With historic inflation over the past three years, other challenges facing Main Street employers have often not been top of mind,” Elaine Parker, president of the Job Creators Network Foundation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation, referring to the three years of rising prices across the board in the U.S. since the pandemic and after Biden took office.

“Lawlessness on the streets of American cities is one example,” Parker said. “Our polling shows that nearly one-third of small businesses with a brick-and-mortar location are facing higher costs because of crime. The findings should emphasize to lawmakers that soft-on-crime policies have a significant spillover effect on the economy.”

Violent crime across the United States spiked after President Biden took office in 2021. The president’s approval rating fell to 42% after his state of the union address last year as Americans felt the pressure of rising crime in their cities.