NEORCA, METRORCA, NESPIN and RAM Work Together to Provide
 ORC Training to Law Enforcement

On July 18, 2018, law enforcement personnel and LP from across New England gathered at the New England State Police Intelligence Network (NESPIN) training facility to attend the fourth annual ORC Workshop. Sponsored and facilitated by the New England Organized Retail Crime Alliance (NEORCA), Metro Area Organized Retail Crime Alliance (METRORCA), and Retailers Association of Massachusetts (RAM), the full day training aims to raise awareness to the problem of ORC and provide topical training to local, state and federal law enforcement. This comprehensive workshop marked an evolution in this training effort that began four years ago and the feedback from the almost 80 law enforcement professionals in attendance was fantastic.
 

NEORCA has had a long-standing partnership with NESPIN but for this year’s training, they teamed up with METRORCA, their sister ORC Alliance supporting New York City. NEORCA and METRORCA, with more than 5000 combined members have always had a fantastic partnership and this combined effort was the tangible manifestation of that relationship. Several months back, Ken Spurling, Sr. DLPM/ORC Investigator at Sephora and NEORCA’s Chair in charge of training began working with TJ Flynn, Sr. Manager of Investigations at JCPenney and METRORCA President, Jason Adams, NEORCA President and Glen Browning Deputy Director of NESPIN to create what was unquestionably, the most robust training agenda since the inception of the training initiative.


Jason Adams, NEORCA President Kicks
 Off the Meeting


TJ Flynn, METRORCA President gives
an overview of ORC


Shanon LaCorte, Assistant Deputy AG – Organized Crime Task Force in the NY AG’s Office discusses “Operation Sticky Fingers,”
a multi-million dollar ORC investigation.


Ken Spurling, NEORCA Training Chair presents a case study where ORC Alliances were utilized to close a significant investigation.

The meeting began with an ORC Overview facilitated by Flynn who walked through current ORC methodology including indicators and tactical response. Adams then facilitated a discussion of several ORC Tools & Resources available to investigators followed by a fantastic Case Study led by Spurling. The truly keynote presentations of the day were presentations by Shanon LaCorte, Assistant Deputy Attorney General – Organized Crime Task Force in the NY AG’s Office and Detective Mark Solomon, Greenwich PD, CT Financial Crimes Task Force & IAFCI CT Chapter President. LaCorte gave a riveting two-hour presentation on “Operation Sticky Fingers”, a multi-million dollar ORC investigation that highlights the importance of the private and public sector partnership. The presentation included sensitive wiretap audio captured by law enforcement during this complex case. The day concluded with Solomon’s amazing presentation on Fraud & the Impact of EMV on Retail. Solomon, one of the areas true experts in fraud methodology, covered current trends and potential future trends we may see based off of EMV implementation.

While the content covered a wide-range of topics, the overarching themes of the day were networking, collaboration and the expansion of the public/private sector partnership. Attendees departed the workshop with Certificates of Completion provided by NESPIN and a comprehensive reference document focusing on ORC Legislation. Efforts are already underway to plan similar workshops in other locations throughout the Northeast.