Latest news with #NationalORCBlitz
Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Home Depot, Target fight back on organized retail crime, theft
A lot of crimes, at least when it comes to retail theft, are crimes of opportunity or crimes of need. Maybe you forgot to scan an item, or maybe you intentionally missed it. It's hard to know and even harder to enforce at a self-checkout. Related: Dollar Tree raises red flag about unexpected customer behavior Sometimes the person stealing does it because it's easy and plausibly deniable, while in others, the person steals because they're hungry and broke. Shoplifting and petty checkout theft is a problem, but it's mostly a nuisance compared to organized retail crime. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter "Organized Retail Theft (ORT), also known as Organized Retail Crime (ORC), is the large-scale theft of retail merchandise with the intent to resell the stolen items for financial gain. ORT may involve a criminal enterprise that employs a group of individuals to steal large quantities of merchandise from multiple stores. These ORT groups maintain or utilize fencing operations to convert the stolen goods into cash," according to the FBI. Stolen items are then sold online, at flea markets, and other places where it's hard to track where the items came from. Image source: Shutterstock You would probably not expect a massive pushback effort to thwart ORT to come from a single group in Illinois, but that's what happened. The Cook County Regional Organized Crime Task Force coordinated a huge effort across 28 states that led to hundreds of arrests. The agency thanked its many partners on X, the former Twitter. "Thank you to all the agencies, ORCAs, and retailers who participated in the first-ever National ORC Blitz event. The event was a great success!," it shared. An ORCA is an organized retail crime association designed to tackle the problem. The crackdown involved 30 retailers - including Home Depot, Kroger, Macy's, Target, Ulta Beauty, and Walgreens - across 100 jurisdictions, according to CNBC. Joint efforts to crack down on ORC have been supported by the National Retail Federation (NRF). More Retail: Costco quietly plans to offer a convenient service for customersT-Mobile pulls the plug on generous offer, angering customersKellogg sounds alarm on unexpected shift in customer behavior "Organized retail crime and related thefts cannot be solved by the retail industry alone. Addressing this issue requires collaboration between retailers, law enforcement, prosecutors, community leaders, and legislators, with action needed at local, state, and national levels," it shared in a report on the NRF website. RetailWire asked its panel of industry experts whether they thought efforts like this would work. "Retailers have enough pressures and issues without having to deal with the cost of retail crime. Shoplifting and stealing from retailers should not be tolerated, and people should be prosecuted and punished. No ifs, no buts. Credit to State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke for spearheading and organizing this crackdown. It needs to be an ongoing effort to show that retail crime comes with consequences," wrote GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders. Social media poster James Tenser was very specific about the cause of the problem and how to lessen its impact. "It's unfortunate that self-service merchandising (which helps keep prices a little lower for honest customers) also creates a temptation for this kind of organized thievery. Retailers can't safely intervene, but they can use electronic surveillance to identify professional thieves and aid their apprehension and prosecution by the authorities," he posted. Organized retail theft is not garden-variety shoplifting, he explained. "The stakes are much higher, which makes the perpetrators more potentially dangerous. Since stolen goods are likely to find their way into online marketplaces or neighborhood flea markets, only a focused law-enforcement effort can find and trace items back to the offenders," he added. "While the term 'crackdown' seems a bit harsh, I'd like to think that 'certainty of prosecution' would be am effective deterrent. The key is consistent enforcement of existing laws." Related: Domino's and Pizza Hut rival makes 'first-in-decade' menu change Poster Christopher P. Ramey was not interested in exploring the possibility that some people steal because they need to in order to survive. "Thieves are thieves. There are no free passes. Retailers can't fix societal root causes, nor should they be expected to fix them. That's why we have laws and police to enforce them," he shared. Ramey supported the enforcement efforts. "A national crackdown that includes other law enforcement agencies is exactly what may be needed. Then we need to put the shoplifters away long enough so they learn their lesson. We owe the retailers an aggressive response, for they are the victims," he added. The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
NBC News
5 days ago
- Business
- NBC News
Nationwide coordinated retail crime crackdown results in hundreds of arrests, authorities say
A nationwide coordinated crackdown on retail crime — what authorities are calling the first of its kind — led to hundreds of arrests in 28 states last week. The blitz, led by Illinois' Cook County regional organized crime task force, involved more than 100 jurisdictions and over 30 retailers including Home Depot, Macy's, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walgreens, Kroger and Meijer. 'When you give specific focus to a crime, it reverberates,' Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart told CNBC. 'When they see it is being prosecuted and taken seriously, it deters conduct. They don't want to get caught.' Organized retail crime — a type of shoplifting where groups of thieves work together in targeted operations to turn stolen goods into cash — has grown in scale and scope in recent years. CNBC previously reported on the extensive law enforcement efforts to take down retail crime organizations. While aggregate numbers for retail theft are difficult to quantify, retailers reported 93% more shoplifting incidents on average in 2023 compared with 2019, according to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation. Those surveyed also reported a 90% increase in the associated dollar losses over that same time period. Some critics point to a lack of enforcement and felony thresholds for allowing criminals to continue committing theft. It's something Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke has been focused on since taking office in December. On her first day in office, O'Neill Burke said prosecutors would pursue felony retail theft charges in accordance with state law, when the value of the goods exceeds $300 or when the suspect already has a felony shoplifting conviction. Before her taking office, retail theft felonies were charged only if the value of the stolen goods was $1,000 or more or if the suspect had 10 or more prior convictions. Since Dec. 1, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office has filed charges in 1,450 felony retail theft cases, the office said. The goals of the coordinated operation, O'Neill Burke told CNBC, is 'to have one day where we focus and concentrate on [retail theft] and we share intelligence about it — about what we learned about the network, so that gives us more tools on how to take this network down.' It was the coordination between law enforcement and prosecuting attorneys that got a number of the involved retailers to participate in the blitz. 'Collaboration is key to making a meaningful impact,' Ulta Beauty Senior Vice President of Loss Prevention Dan Petrousek told CNBC. 'That's why we were proud to participate in the National ORC Blitz alongside dedicated law enforcement and prosecutorial partners.' Ulta Beauty had teams participating across nine states in last week's operation, providing law enforcement with information on incidents of retail crime. 'Organized retail crime remains one of the most significant challenges in our industry,' said Marty Maloney, Walgreens director of media relations. 'In this most recent operation we worked closely with law enforcement partners across nearly 20 cities and at over 40 locations to help curb this trend.' A representative for Home Depot told CNBC that while overall theft is down, investigated incidents of organized retail crime are still up double digits year over year. Now that the operation has concluded, the group is pulling together each jurisdictions' observations and sharing data to continue to help crack down on retail theft. Macy's, T.J. Maxx and Target, said they're committed to partnering with law enforcement and pushing for stronger laws to combat retail crime. California Highway Patrol arrests retail crime suspect in Long Beach, California Highway Patrol.
CNBC
5 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Nationwide coordinated retail crime crackdown results in hundreds of arrests, authorities say
A nationwide coordinated crackdown on retail crime — what authorities are calling the first of its kind — led to hundreds of arrests in 28 states last week. The blitz, led by Illinois' Cook County regional organized crime task force, involved more than 100 jurisdictions and over 30 retailers including Home Depot, Macy's, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walgreens, Kroger and Meijer. "When you give specific focus to a crime, it reverberates," Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart told CNBC. "When they see it is being prosecuted and taken seriously, it deters conduct. They don't want to get caught." Organized retail crime — a type of shoplifting where groups of thieves work together in targeted operations to turn stolen goods into cash — has grown in scale and scope in recent years. CNBC previously reported on the extensive law enforcement efforts to take down retail crime organizations. While aggregate numbers for retail theft are difficult to quantify, retailers reported 93% more shoplifting incidents on average in 2023 compared with 2019, according to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation. Those surveyed also reported a 90% increase in the associated dollar losses over that same time period. Some critics point to a lack of enforcement and felony thresholds for allowing criminals to continue committing theft. It's something Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke has been focused on since taking office in December. On her first day in office, O'Neill Burke said prosecutors would pursue felony retail theft charges in accordance with state law, when the value of the goods exceeds $300 or when the suspect already has a felony shoplifting conviction. Before her taking office, retail theft felonies were charged only if the value of the stolen goods was $1,000 or more or if the suspect had 10 or more prior convictions. Since Dec. 1, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office has filed charges in 1,450 felony retail theft cases, the office said. The goals of the coordinated operation, O'Neill Burke told CNBC, is "to have one day where we focus and concentrate on [retail theft] and we share intelligence about it — about what we learned about the network, so that gives us more tools on how to take this network down." It was the coordination between law enforcement and prosecuting attorneys that got a number of the involved retailers to participate in the blitz. "Collaboration is key to making a meaningful impact," Ulta Beauty Senior Vice President of Loss Prevention Dan Petrousek told CNBC. "That's why we were proud to participate in the National ORC Blitz alongside dedicated law enforcement and prosecutorial partners." Ulta Beauty had teams participating across nine states in last week's operation, providing law enforcement with information on incidents of retail crime. "Organized retail crime remains one of the most significant challenges in our industry," said Marty Maloney, Walgreens director of media relations. "In this most recent operation we worked closely with law enforcement partners across nearly 20 cities and at over 40 locations to help curb this trend." A representative for Home Depot told CNBC that while overall theft is down, investigated incidents of organized retail crime are still up double digits year over year. Now that the operation has concluded, the group is pulling together each jurisdictions' observations and sharing data to continue to help crack down on retail theft. Other participating retailers reached for comment by CNBC, including Macy's, T.J. Maxx and Target, said they're committed to partnering with law enforcement and pushing for stronger laws to combat retail crime.
