What's Driving America's ORC Surge?

Fewer Associates, Self-Checkout, The Web, Bail Reform - All Fueling Theft
One NY county saw shoplifting grand larcenies surge 144% since 2019

Stores say product lock-ups necessary to combat shoplifting surge
The surge in shoplifting incidents is being driven by several factors, including high inflation, insufficient store staffing, more use of self-checkout lanes, and the low risk levels for incarceration or other punishment for thieves in some states, said Craig Szklany, vice president and product general manager in loss prevention and liability at Sensormatic Solutions, which makes loss prevention technology for retailers.

Local theft numbers surge

For the first six months of 2022, there were 329 shoplifting grand larcenies in the county, a 93.5% increase from the 170 in the same period in 2021 and 143.7% more than the 135 in the first six months of 2019, according to county police department records.

Reports of shoplifting petit larcenies from January to June 2022 totaled 2,560, a 15.7% increase from the 2,212 incidents over the six-month period in 2021 and a 4.9% increase from the 2,440 in the first six months in 2019, according to Suffolk County Police Department data.

A rising number of store thefts are connected to organized retail crime rings taking items that are easy to transport or that demand high values when being "fenced," said Mark Mathews, vice president of research at the National Retail Federation.

While the use of anti-theft measures, such as locked product cases, surveillance cameras and spider wraps - wired alarms attached to products to prevent theft - has increased, the number of store employees has declined, which is a factor in increasing theft, Mathews said.

'Ongoing issue with police priorities'

Bail reform in New York state took effect in January 2020, ending cash bail in most cases that involved misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies.

The Retail Council of New York State supported more recent changes to the state law - to allow repeat offenders of some crimes, including theft of property, to be eligible for arrest and bail - under Gov. Kathy Hochul's fiscal 2023 budget.

The council is hopeful that the state law changes, along with President Joe Biden's December signing of the INFORM Consumers Act, which requires online marketplaces to verify the identities of high-volume third-party sellers, will be an effective means of reducing shoplifting incidents, O'Connor said. newsday.com


Store Owners Take Security Into Their Own Hands
Eric Adams dubs NYC private security group 'wise' guys for battling shoplifters
Mayor Eric Adams applauded a group of Bronx-based merchants so fed up with shoplifters that they hired private security guards to police Fordham Road, while also ordering his own police force to "arrest" and "prosecute" suspects.

Hizzoner dubbed the Fordham Road Business District's new patrol group a "wise strategy" when pressed about the plan Wednesday morning interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

"Shop owners are hiring private guards to fight back. Is that a wise strategy? What more can be done here?" asked Lemire. "It is a wise strategy, because I say this over and over again, not only must the numbers reflect safety, but people must feel safe," remarked Adams.

The new unarmed, five-person "Ambassador Program" is charged with monitoring the busy shopping area along Fordham Road from Jerome Avenue to Washington Avenue Wednesday through Saturday.

Retail theft has gotten so bad in the district that an American Eagle store recently called it quits, closing its store after experiencing upwards of 20 thefts a day, according to local representative, Democratic Councilman Oswald Feliz.

Meanwhile, thousands of grocery and retail store owners across the city also banded together to form Collective Action to Protect our Stores, or CAPS, to demand stiffer penalties for theft and new protections for workers.

Adams even hosted a major summit on retail theft last month with big name stores like Target and Starbucks in attendance, as well as members of the NYPD, the city's five district attorneys and state Attorney General Letitia James.

"Law enforcement must arrest and prosecute and hold them accountable." Adams said cracking down on recidivist criminals tops his list of demands he'll push Albany lawmakers to focus on this year. nypost.com


Retail Crime: Top Priority for State Governments
New Mexico governor vows bipartisan effort to fight crime
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham vowed Wednesday to work with state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to address New Mexico's crime problems, a situation she described as untenable.

The state's largest city has had back-to-back years of record homicides and some residents in Albuquerque and elsewhere have complained about not feeling safe in their communities. Retail crime also has been on the rise, with businesses losing millions of dollars to smash-and-grab schemes.

Gun control legislation will be among the most debated, with Democratic lawmakers calling for tough penalties for parents and others who let guns fall into the hands of children. Just last week, the governor in her State of the State address also called for a ban on the sale of assault weapons and legislation that would allow victims of gun violence to bring civil lawsuits against gun manufacturers.

House Minority Leader Ryan Lane said fellow GOP lawmakers are focused on legislation aimed at stopping felons from buying firearms, ensuring that career criminals are not released prematurely and targeting retail crime and other schemes that fund crime syndicates.

An effort to tighten requirements for pretrial release of people charged with violent crimes had failed last year despite growing public discontent about what has been perceived as a "revolving door" in the criminal justice system.

"It's an all-hands-on-deck approach," he said. "This is one area where I think we need to seriously say, 'Put politics aside, let's evaluate each idea, each proposal. If it's a good idea that fixes a problem, let's get it done.'" seattlepi.com


Crime & Safety Remains Top of NYC Mayor's Agenda
NYC Mayor Adams Outlines "Working People's Agenda" in State of the City Address

Speech Lays Out Bold Plans to Keep Recidivists Off Streets & More

Mayor Adams' agenda is built on four pillars that are essential to building a city that meets the needs of working New Yorkers and represent the focus of his administration's work in 2023: jobs, safety, housing, and care.

Mayor Adams entered City Hall with a mission and a mandate to reduce gun violence. Having lowered shootings by double digits in its first year in office, and leaving 2022 on an overall downward trend in major crimes, the administration will continue to focus on violent crime while rolling out new and expanded efforts to combat issues from property crime and traffic violence to quality-of-life issues.

The Adams administration will work to get 'New York's Most Wanted' - roughly 1,700 known offenders responsible for a disproportionate amount of the city's violent crime - off the streets. That means working with Albany on targeted, evidence-based solutions to this crisis and changes to state law to ensure that defendants receive the speedy trial that the Constitution guarantees, that victims and their families are provided justice in a timely manner, and that district attorneys and public defenders have the resources to hire more attorneys and paralegals to remove the bottleneck in the courts while simultaneously investing in technology. The administration will also work to address the overly complex and burdensome discovery process that is consuming innocent people with bureaucracy without getting dangerous people off the streets or providing closure for victims.

Under the Working People's Agenda, the Adams administration will also supplement the city's focus on the most violent offenders by redoubling efforts to protect New Yorkers from robberies and burglaries - including increasing the New York City Police Department's (NYPD) crime prevention units' focus on retail theft and working with business owners and business improvement districts on proactive solutions to prevent shoplifting.  nyc.gov


Cargo Theft from Facilities Surges - Hijacking Declines
Supply Chain Graphic of the Week: Inventory Thefts by Type in 2022

Violent Hijackings Fell to Number 2 Spot Last Year, BSI Report Says

BSI, a process improvement firm, is once again out with its annual Supply Chain Risk Insights Report, looking at 2022 data. That includes quite a bit of data on inventory/cargo thefts for the year, including the chart below, which shows the percentage thefts by type:
 

As can be seen, thefts from hijacking have fallen as a proportion of all cargo theft from 24.4% to 17.0%. These are now second to theft from facilities, which accounted for more than a quarter of total thefts, seeing year-to-year increase from 24.2% to 26.0%. scdigest.com
 

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US: 104M Cases - 1.1M Dead - 101M Recovered
Worldwide: 674.1M Cases - 6.7M Dead - 646.1M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 362   Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 830

COVID Cases, Hospitalizations & Deaths

COVID's Lasting Impact on Downtown Retail Foot Traffic
Downtowns take a hit: the remote work trend impact
Almost three years into the pandemic, many people are still set up in their work-from-home offices, working either completely remotely or in a combination of a couple days in their office and the rest from their abode.

Birmingham, downtown Detroit, other downtowns, and suburban office parks are all experiencing the residual effects of employees who make their coffee in their kitchen in the morning and head to a desk or table in another room rather than heading out on their commute. Some places have more vacant office space than previously, or commercial space is being reconfigured for different ways or working - or completely new uses. But there are also additional casualties as people stay home - streets are quieter, lunch business slacks off, retailers see less foot traffic. It's the inadvertent casualty to WFH (work from home), and it's full impact is still being determined.

Birmingham "seems to be faring better than some other downtowns. What we're seeing is stores and restaurants are changing their hours and the days they're open, but that is consistent across the region, the state and the country," due to the changing nature of employment. "Retailers have to get their online businesses going. That's a very important factor," Sheppard-Decius noted, as shoppers of all stripes have become more accustomed to shopping online.

However, she said she has met with so many retailers "who say their customers are so excited to come in now (that the pandemic is easing), to speak to them in person, and touch their items again. We just have to be flexible and open to new ideas. We have to change with the market, otherwise the market will leave us behind." downtownpublications.com


Retailer's COVID Sick Policy Under Scrutiny
H-E-B worker starts petition over grocer's sick policy after testing positive for COVID
An H-E-B employee has gathered more than 3,800 signatures on an online petition criticizing the retailer's sickness policy, saying new changes result in workers being "punished for getting sick."

The employee tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 1 and called in sick but was penalized for doing so, according to the employee, whose petition is anonymous. The employee went to work with a mask and a positive test in hand, and then went home without working the shift.

The employee said H-E-B has a new automated system to track attendance infractions. It assigns points to calling in sick, being tardy or leaving early - potentially triggering disciplinary actions or firing.

"This automatic system is indiscriminate, uncaring, and corporatized," the employee wrote in the petition letter.

Concern over exposing co-workers or customers to COVID-infected employees was a front-and-center issue during the height of the pandemic. The petition shows that workers are still processing how their employers should respond in the third year of the virus. dallasnews.com


CDC still looking at potential stroke risk from Pfizer bivalent COVID shot

California judge issues preliminary injunction blocking COVID 'misinformation' law

Lessons from NRF 2023: Retail's Big Show
Two Big Hits and Two Misses from NRF 2023

By Tony D'Onofrio, Global Retail Influencer & Prosegur's CEO & Managing Director, Global Retail Business Unit

The National Retail Federation Big Show this past week in New York did not disappoint. As I summarized in my post NRF 2023 social media post:

"THAT'S A WRAP: An inspiring Retail ROI Super Saturday, an astounding number of NRF 2023 retailer meetings, a roaring 20s Rethink Retail Top 100 influencers bash, hosting the NRF Loss Prevention Council, kicking off LPRC 2023 at Bloomingdale's, named a top 10 NRF original Twitter, on Linked-in 45,000+ impressions / 100%+ engagement, nearly 90,000 steps, launching multiple Prosegur next-gen RFID tech, trend spotting for next article, and most essential FRIENDSHIPS rekindled -- it has been an exceptional Retail Innovation Leadership few days. Thank you ALL."

What were the big hits and misses of the immersive NRF 2023 week? How could the misses improve both the trade event and also create new revenue streams for retailers?

Hit 2: The NRF Big Show as the Showcase of Retail Innovation

As I said in the social media post, "beam me up retail." Interesting possibilities in improving customer services, help desks, theft deterrence, and even those dreadful video meetings for hologram technologies.

Great to see the improved focus on loss prevention with the recent appointment of David Johnston as NRF Vice President of Asset Protection and Retail Operations. Consider the following:

• In the November earnings call, Target's CEO reported $400 million due to inventory shrink and organized retail crime, a theme that has come up with multiple other retailers.

• According to NRF's own research, eight in 10 retailers surveyed report that the violence and aggression associated with ORC incidents increased in the past year.

I had the pleasure of hosting 25+ Loss Prevention executives on Tuesday night and innovation is top of mind in addressing these industry challenges. Also enjoyed kicking off a new year of innovation for the Loss Prevention Research Council at Bloomingdale's.

Read Tony D'Onofrio's full article here to see all the hits and misses

NRF Big Show 2023 Video Recap Retailer's from around the world came together in New York City for NRF 2023: Retail's Big Show. From January 14-17, attendees heard from the biggest names in retail and beyond, experienced breakthrough technologies and forged partnerships. Watch the video recap and see NRF 2023 photos, blog posts, press coverage and more here

2023: The Year of Retail Recalibration?
With Layoffs, Retailers Aim to Be Safe Rather Than Sorry (Again)

Companies that ramped up hiring in areas like technology over the past few years are cutting back as customers slow their spending.

The retail industry is trying to figure out its correct size. Retailers, faced with sky-high demand from shoppers during the pandemic, spent the past three years ramping up their operations in areas like human resources, finance and technology. Now, times have changed.

A public that rushed to buy all sorts of goods in the earlier parts of the pandemic is now spending less on merchandise like furniture and clothing. E-commerce, which boomed during lockdowns, has fallen from those heights. And with consumers worried about inflation in the prices of day-to-day necessities like food, companies are playing defense.

Saks Off 5th, the off-price retailer owned by Hudson Bay, laid off an unspecified number of workers on Tuesday. Saks.com is laying off about 100 employees, or 3.5 percent of its workers. Stitch Fix laid off 20 percent of its salaried workers this month and closed a distribution center in Salt Lake City. Last week, Wayfair said it would lay off 1,750 people, or 10 percent of its work force, and Amazon started laying off 18,000 workers, many of them in its retail division. Bed Bath & Beyond cut its work force this month as it tries to shore up its finances and prepares for a possible bankruptcy filing.

The recent spate of layoffs is more about structural changes as the industry recalibrates itself after the rapid growth from pandemic-fueled shopping. And it accompanies broader worries about the state of the U.S. economy and layoffs by prominent tech companies. nytimes.com


Retail Staffing Shortage Continues
CVS, Walmart to Cut Pharmacy Hours as Staffing Squeeze Continues

Operating schedules remain 'pain point' as chains seek to improve work environment

CVS Health Corp. and Walmart Inc. are cutting pharmacy hours in the midst of a pharmacist shortage that has plagued the nation's biggest drugstore chains throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

CVS, the largest U.S. drugstore chain by revenue, plans in March to cut or shift hours at about two-thirds of its roughly 9,000 U.S. locations. Walmart plans to reduce pharmacy hours by closing at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. at most of its roughly 4,600 stores by March.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. previously said it was operating thousands of stores on reduced hours because of staffing shortages. Combined, the three chains operate some 24,000 retail pharmacies across the U.S. wsj.com


Is This Fueling the Worker Backlash & Union Push?
Fewer Americans 'actively engaged' at work: Gallup

U.S. employee engagement in the workplace has dropped again

The ratio of engaged to actively disengaged workers in the country is 1.8-to-1, the lowest it has been since 2013. Younger workers are more likely to be disengaged at work compared to older workers, poll findings show.

Engagement among workers 35 years old and younger has gone down by 4 percentage points since prior to the pandemic. Meanwhile, engagement among workers ages 35 and older has only dropped by 2 percentage points.

Younger workers also reported feeling less cared about at work and that their opinions mattered less than older workers, the poll found. thehill.com


Chipotle looking to hire 15,000 workers

Sam's Club to open 30+ new U.S. stores, 5 distribution/fulfillment centers

FBI Takes Down One of Top Ransomware Threats
FBI seizes notorious ransomware group's infrastructure after lurking in servers for seven months

The group responsible for at least 1,300 attacks that resulted in at least $100 million in ransom payments

After seven months spent lurking inside a notorious ransomware group's networks, swiping decryption keys for its victims, the FBI and international partners seized infrastructure behind Hive ransomware attacks.

Since June 2021, Hive has targeted more than 1,500 victims globally, including disrupting health care providers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Victims paid more than $100 million in ransom to the group, which attacked a U.S. victim in Florida as recently as 15 days ago, according to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The successful international operation against the group, considered a top-five ransomware threat by the FBI, is a major victory for the ongoing and frustrating battle against the scourge or ransomware that cost victims hundreds of million of dollars annually.

While staking out Hive's network, the FBI disrupted multiple attacks, including ones against a Louisiana hospital, a food services company and a Texas school district. The investigation led to two servers in Los Angeles that FBI agents took down with a court order Wednesday night. Law enforcement from the Netherlands and Germany contributed to the operation.

"In a 21st-century cyber stakeout, our investigative team turned the tables on Hive, swiping their decryption keys, passing them to victims, and ultimately averting more than $130 million dollars in ransomware payments," Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said during a press conference Thursday. "Simply put, using lawful means we hacked the hackers."

The Hive takedown is reflective of the Justice Department's strategy to go after hacking infrastructure first, disrupting attacks and clawing back victim losses. cyberscoop.com


Businesses Scramble as Attackers Work Around 'Zero Trust'
Companies Struggle With Zero Trust as Attackers Adapt to Get Around It

Only one in 10 enterprises will create a robust zero-trust foundation in the next three years, while more than half of attacks won't even be prevented by it

The zero-trust approach to security promises to reduce threats and make successful attacks less damaging, but companies should not expect that implementing zero-trust principles will be easy or prevent most attacks, business intelligence firm Gartner said this week.

While interest in zero-trust architectures is high, only about 1% of organizations currently have a mature program that meets the definition of zero trust. The firm also estimates that only a 10th of all organizations will create a mature zero-trust framework by 2026, and by that time, those measures will end up only blocking or minimizing the impact of about half of all attacks.

Even so, moving from 1% to 10% is significant progress, says John Watts, vice president analyst at Gartner.

"That's a relatively large increase," he says. "[Ten percent] may seem low, but at the same time, right now, when we talk to clients, and we look at other industry data points, it doesn't seem like there are many large organizations you can point to that have a mature and measurable zero-trust program."

Zero-trust initiatives continue to be an aspirational goal for companies and their cybersecurity teams, with 80% of executives indicating that the strategy is a top priority and 77% increasing their budget for implementation, according to a 2022 survey published by the Cloud Security Alliance in June. A separate report published by Microsoft in 2021 found that 96% of security leaders considered zero trust critical to their success - and 76% were "in the process" of implementing a zero-trust initiative.

As companies mull their paths forward, they should recognize that getting to a comprehensive zero-trust architecture is not easy and will take time, says Christopher Hallenbeck, CISO for the Americas at Tanium, a provider of converged endpoint management.

"The process of migrating to zero trust can seem overwhelming, and it often causes paralysis," he says. "I'm surprised the [forecasted] number is as high as 10%. While many organizations have zero-trust aspirations, few have made holistic changes to fully embrace it." darkreading.com


New Oversight Committee to Focus on IT & Cybersecurity
House Oversight expected to create new IT and cybersecurity subcommittee
epublican leaders of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee are starting to flex their new authority and are expected to break the current government operations subcommittee into two.

The responsibilities of the House Oversight Committee's Government Operations subcommittee will now be undertaken by two separate subcommittees: one will focus on IT, cybersecurity and procurement, while the other will focus on the federal workforce, according to a Hill staffer familiar with the matter.

Since the 2022 midterm elections, which flipped control of the House of Representatives from Democrats to Republicans, the GOP has been vocal about increased oversight of IT and cybersecurity spending at federal agencies including the IRS, DHS and FTC. fedscoop.com


How to find a job in the one tech market that is not seeing layoffs: Cybersecurity

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Seattle, WA: $100,000 in losses after break-in at wedding dress store
A Seattle fashion designer who specializes in custom wedding dresses showed up to her shop Thursday morning to find the lock drilled out and the business ransacked. About two dozen dresses and most of the electronics were stolen from Leiren Designs and owner Madison Leiren said her losses total about $100,000. Whoever broke in had a clear idea of what to do, Leiren said, because the thief disabled the electricity to the business to prevent any alarm from triggering. She called Seattle police first thing in the morning, but because the crime was no longer in progress, she was redirected to the department's online reporting system. Leiren filed a report to get a case number but said there was still a hammer the thief or thieves had left behind and wanted an officer to show up to process the evidence. Although someone from the Seattle Police Department did call her, an officer had yet to stop by as of late Thursday evening. komonews.com


Gastonia, NC: Police seeking suspect in $80,000 Jewelry theft from Kohl's
Do you recognize this male suspect who, at around 5 p.m. on Jan. 17, committed an armed robbery at the Kohl's store on East Franklin Boulevard? Police are looking for a man they say stole thousands of dollars of jewelry from a department store and injured one of its employees in the process. The incident happened around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at Kohl's located at 3648 E. Franklin Blvd. In Franklin Square III in Gastonia. In surveillance footage, a white, blond-haired man can be seen smashing a jewelry case with a hammer then gathering approximately $80,000 worth of jewelry. While wearing a ball cap and face mask, the man can be seen shooting pepper spray at a female employee who approached him while he was committing the theft. A camera at the front of the store captured footage of him then fleeing out the front door. Police released the video footage Thursday in an attempt to find the suspect. gastongazette.com


Philadelphia, PA: Search underway for suspect who stole nearly $100K worth of jewelry from Rittenhouse store
The Philadelphia Police Department is searching for a suspect accused of stealing nearly $100,000 worth of merchandise from a Philadelphia jewelry store. Authorities say the robbery occurred Monday at 11 a.m., when the suspect walked into the Rittenhouse Hotel and wandered around the first floor. According to police, the suspect came upon an unlocked door to the Egan Rittenhouse Jewelry Store and took several pieces of jewelry valued at about $100,000.  fox29.com


Ashburn, VA: Thieves break in to Loudoun Co. firing range, steal 10 guns
Police are searching for two people who were caught on camera breaking into a gun range in Ashburn and stealing firearms. According to the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, the burglary happened at the Silver Eagle Group in the 21000 block of Beaumeade Circle on Jan. 24. Deputies say the break-in happened around 4 a.m. Two people are seen in surveillance video breaking glass to enter the Silver Eagle Group. Deputies say the two suspects took 10 guns. Both suspects wore zip-up jackets or sweatshirts with hoods, face masks and gloves. They were seen leaving in a dark colored sedan.  wusa9.com


San Diego, CA: Man Armed with Knife Steals Eight Bottles of Cough Syrup from CVS

Seymour, IN: Police arrest 2 in connection with numerous thefts from local retailers