"The numbers" they are using under report because most victims have stopped filing reports due the DAs in LA and SF not bother to prosecute people and bailing them out on the cheap.
Further the state source is 1 year old delayed. So not contemporary or current.
Then again, the LA Times is akin to CNN in being 100% leftist propaganda, all the time so they have no more credibility than the National Inquirer!
These are internal numbers and so stores are free to account for shrinkage however they wish. For many stores the process of accounting for shrinkage is a routine matter and does not require any extra process.
Also I wouldn't consider the NRF to be a state source; they are an industry retail group.
"The numbers" used in the article mostly come from the National Retail Federation, not the Po-po.
There are two main sources of crime information in the US: the FBI's reports of reported crimes, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics' surveys. (https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/ntcm_2014.pdf) The latter do not depend on police reports.
"The numbers" would have to climb quite a bit to get close to peaks in 1990 or so.
Further the state source is 1 year old delayed. So not contemporary or current.
Then again, the LA Times is akin to CNN in being 100% leftist propaganda, all the time so they have no more credibility than the National Inquirer!