Matthew Casey/KJZZ

Interim Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell takes questions at a news conference July 20, 2022, while flanked by members of the Arizona Retailers Association.

The interim Maricopa County attorney is assembling a team of prosecutors to work with business owners and police to convict people taking part in organized retail theft.

The move by Rachel Mitchell comes less than two weeks before Republican primary voters decide if she stays in charge of the office she inherited with dozens of unfilled prosecutor jobs.   

“But you have to give the resources up front. If you don’t do that, you're going to see an increase and you’re going to pay for it in the end anyway,” she said at a news conference Wednesday. 

Mitchell did not say where in the County Attorney’s Office the team will be drawn from, or what duties they’ll give up to focus on organized retail theft.