Rite Aid Manager of ORC & Special Investigations Shares Keys to Success
Douglas Horsting, Manager of Organized Retail Crime & Special Investigations/Law Enforcement Liaison at Rite Aid, shares his insights on successfully partnering with law enforcement.

Understanding the language of law enforcement
Douglas Horsting, Manager of Organized Retail Crime & Special Investigations/Law Enforcement Liaison at Rite Aid, entered the NYPD auxiliary police at the age of 17.

Horsting has taken on several roles through his career, including a Senior Security Supervisor at St. John's Riverside Hospital and a School Safety/Security Agent at Hastings-On-Hudson Public Schools. He also served as a both an Armed and Unarmed Patrol Officer for various organizations, where he conducted routine patrols and responded to emergency calls.

Eventually, his career path led him to join Rite Aid as an Organized Retail Crime Investigator/Law Enforcement Liaison. There, he started by covering six Rite Aid store locations and spearheaded programs to combat organized retail crime. To achieve this goal, Horsting got in touch with local law enforcement agencies.

By collaborating with local law enforcement, Horsting began to run operations to arrest offenders and charge them accordingly. It began with Horsting's investigations, where he would identify repeat offenders. Once offenders were identified, Horsting would partner with the NYPD to arrest the individuals in question, and with the support from the District Attorney's Office, have the offenders charged appropriately.

The success of these operations led to Horsting being promoted to his role as Manager of Organized Retail Crime & Special Investigations/Law Enforcement Liaison at Rite Aid.

Partnering with law enforcement successfully

Horsting describes how he successfully facilitated communication between his retail program and the local law enforcement for a collaborative project. With suggestions and ideas from both law enforcement and retail, Horsting was able to devise a plan that has led to nearly 7,000 arrests in three years.  securitymagazine.com


30+ States Have Laws Against ORC - Lawmakers Want to Do More
State leaders fighting organized retail crime increase in Oklahoma

State leaders are proposing new laws and standardized reporting systems to help agencies better communicate and catch criminals.

State leaders are working to cut down on organized retail crime. One lawmaker wants to create a task force to see how the state can deal with the growing problem nationwide.

The Oklahoma Organized Retail Crime Task Force was created through a 2023 Senate Bill. It created the Oklahoma Organized Retail Crime Task Force until December of 2024. The law says the goal of the task force was to provide the legislature and the Governor with information on organized retail crime and suggestions for what they could do to stop losses from happening in Oklahoma. The task force had 15 members.

The task force report, released in December, has four suggestions for state leaders:

1. Updating the laws to meet today's challenges with organized retail crime.
2. Using a standardized reporting and intelligence sharing platform between retailers and law enforcement.
3. Maintaining an organized retail crime unit inside the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office.
4. Educating the public, prosecutors, and the judicial system on the impact of organized retail crime.

The report says organized retail crimes are often also surrounded with other crimes, like drug possession, illegal firearm possession and assault and battery. Leaders say more than 30 states already have laws against organized retail crime, and many have a method to distinguish organized retail crime from shoplifting or petit larceny. newson6.com


State AG Targets Foreign Gangs Engaging in ORC & Other Crimes
Attorney General of GA launches operation targeting gangs from other countries
Attorney General of Georgia Chris Car has announced the launch of Operation "Hold the Line," a multi-agency effort that targets transnational gangs.

Violent gangs such as Tren de Aragua, a gang that started in a Venezuelan prison, have spread their operations across at least 16 states, including Georgia.

Carr says gangs like Tren de Aragua engage in human trafficking, organized retail crime, weapons smuggling, and drug trafficking in Georgia. Both brothers of Jose Ibarra, the Venezuelan migrant who killed Laken Riley, have been linked to Tren de Aragua.

Along with Carr's Gang Prosecution Unit, his Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, and his Organized Retail Crime Unit, participants in the operation will include local, state, and federal law enforcement partners.

"My message to these gangs is clear: Georgia is not, and will never be, a safe haven for violent criminals," said Carr. "We will track you down, prosecute you, and dismantle your operations."  yahoo.com


Retail Theft Penalties Enhanced 'Across the Board'
Utah bill seeks stiff penalties for catalytic converter thefts, gangs and repeat offenders
A Utah bill unanimously passed a criminal justice committee Tuesday that modifies retail theft and other crimes by enhancing penalties across the board.

The Criminal Offense Modification Bill, dubbed, HB 38, sponsored by Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox, would enhance penalties for certain theft offenses, particularly when committed as part of a criminal enterprise.

The amended bill also allows prior convictions from other jurisdictions to be factored into sentencing for retail theft, making it easier to increase penalties for repeat offenders, as well as those involved in organized retail theft operations.

The bill, if passed, would reduce the number of people required to constitute a gang or criminal group, modify certain criminal codes so the severity of the offense is based on the retail value of the theft, and would expand the list of offenses, including retail theft, that could be included as part of "a pattern of criminal activity," which stiffens the penalties as well.

Notably, retail crimes being committed by suspects coming from out of state. He also said they are still working through some of the questions and lawmakers expect changes along the way.  stgeorgeutah.com


Security Guard Kidnapping
Man kidnapped Salt Lake security guard for 2 hours, charges say

A Utah man was charged Tuesday with holding a security guard hostage in his car for two hours.

A man was charged Tuesday with holding a security guard hostage in his own car for approximately two hours in a parking lot, despite the guard's attempts to get the attention of others, including a second security guard. Joshua Emmett Barnes, 37, who is believed to be homeless, is charged in 3rd District Court with aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony.

On Jan. 7, a 33-year-old man was just finishing his shift as a security guard and walking to his car near 1594 W. North Temple when he was approached by Barnes who asked for a ride. "(The guard) told Barnes, 'No,' and the two went back and forth for about 10 minutes," according to charging documents.

The guard then got into his car, but Barnes followed and got into the passenger seat and demanded that the man drive him to a nearby gas station. Once there, he "deliberately parked between two parking stalls to try to get the attention of the security guards," according to the charges

The security guard waited two days before reporting to police what had happened. When officers interviewed the second security guard, he admitted that he "thought that it was a strange place for him to park" and that his friend "appeared sweaty and nervous" and also heard him say "'please don't leave'" but he didn't understand what was happening," the charges state. ksl.com


Shoplifting rose 30% in Boston last year. What's being done to stop it?

Retail theft increasing in Shreveport
 

Wichita, KS: Thieves in Wichita are targeting stores that sell Pokemon, Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards
Davin and Bailey Taylor thought about closing up shop after their card store near downtown Wichita was broken into for a second time less than a year after opening. Instead, they decided to close in Wichita at the end of last year and move to Derby, where they will reopen Arena Hobbies on March 1 at 200 N Baltimore Suite No. 900. The two break-ins totaled around $38,000 in merchandise -$8,000 worth taken in the first break-in on July 26 and $30,000 on Oct. 14 - from the store at 1602 East Waterman, Davin Taylor said. There was damage too. And that wasn't the end of break-ins and thefts at stores that sell and host people to play collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon. "Over the pandemic, trading cards blew up. Value spiked. People were scalping Pokemon left and right. People caught wind that cards have value," Taylor said. "And since the pandemic, a lot of people are in the game now, but I believe, personally, that these people realize that hobby shops don't have the level of security that a bank does, but they can probably get just as much value and product as though they were robbing a bank." There have been at least six thefts from different stores since then.  kansas.com


Stoneboro, PA: Pennsylvania State Police investigating attempted break-in at Mercer County gun shop
An investigation is underway after a local gun store owner says several people tried breaking into Griffin Arms in Mercer County on Sunday. Surveillance videos show every second as five people worked to break into the gun shop early Sunday morning. "I don't know if they were juveniles or what, they seem to be young, but yeah, they spent about 45 minutes trying to break into my store," owner Joshua Clark said. Seen in all black, wearing face masks and gloves, the individuals appear to have used several tools to pry open the store's front door around 5 a.m. before taking off, but not before leaving a trail of evidence behind. "Somebody cut their hand and left a bunch of blood at the scene. PSP Forensics came out, and they collected a bunch of DNA. I think there was a stick of deodorant that they left there, too, funny enough, that must have fallen out of their car, so and some other random things that had spilled into the parking lot," Clark said. Clark says in the 10 years he's been open, this is the first time someone tried breaking in, and says police believe the individuals are from the Pittsburgh area.  cbsnews.com


Irvine, CA: Three adult suspects stole over $2K worth of baseball gloves from a store
The Irvine Police Department is trying to identify two men and a woman who stole $2,400 in baseball gloves from a sporting goods store. The IPD hopes to score a homerun by closing this case with arrests!   newsantaana.com


Coconut Creek, FL: Trio Allegedly Steals $2,004 in Merchandise from Kohl's, Flees, Then Returns - Gets Arrested

Mt. Juliet, TN: Police discover stolen tools from Lowe's during traffic stop

Boone County, AR: Man facing 2 felony charges following 2 separate instances of theft on same day; multiple priors