125 years ago in 1899, transcribed as originally published in the Youngstown Vindicator:

Picked men in citizens clothing will work the shopping districts, says Chief McDowell. The Chief selects his trusties to wage war on shop-lifters.

Beginning with this, Thursday evening, all the stores in the city will be open evenings and great throngs of shoppers are expected by the merchants, and extra salespeople have been put to work to care for big crowds.

At this time of the year when great crowds invest the stores, the merchants are greatly annoyed and in the aggregate suffer a considerable loss every year from petty thieving. No person other than the merchants and police have any idea of the immense amount of petty thieving done by people who would least be suspected of such work.

Chief McDowell stated to a Vindicator reporter on Thursday morning that he had arranged to place a considerable force of his picked men in the shopping districts during the next few days and evenings, beginning today, and these men will be instructed to keep a sharp lookout for shoplifters.

These officers will be dressed in citizen clothes and will be stationed at advantageous points to catch shoplifters.

‘You can say,’ said the Chief, ‘that we are prepared to look after these people and we give them fair warning that the slightest breaker of the law in this respect will be promptly arrested and punished.

This shoplifting business is a nuisance that we are bound to break up, and violators of the law in this regard [will be dealt with] to the full extent of the law.’

Compiled from the Youngstown Vindicator by Traci Manning, Mahoning Valley Historical Society curator of education.