It's Hard to Solve ORC When There Isn't a Consistent Definition for It
What is 'organized retail crime,' exactly?

It depends, and it doesn't help that many retailers don't have a good handle on lost inventory, experts say.

Among the many reasons why the topic of organized retail crime confuses people is that the term, also known as ORC, means different things to different stakeholders.

Some retailers in recent years have reported escalating levels of shrink, and the industry generally attributes that to rising ORC incidents. Yet there's no consistent understanding of this specialized kind of crime among law enforcement or the industry itself, experts say. Even the researchers who spent a year working on a special report on organized retail crime for the National Retail Federation say the imprecision makes it nearly impossible to determine the scale of the problem.

Retailers have poor visibility into where their lost inventory has gone, and theft in general and ORC in particular are getting blamed, without much evidence, according to Brand Elverston, who has worked in retail asset protection for more than two decades, including at Walmart. Industry surveys don't offer much clarity because the people filling them out perceive organized retail crime in a myriad of ways, he said by phone. Meanwhile, the same surveys have indicated for several years that overall shrink rates haven't changed much.

"ORC has never been totally defined as long as I've been in retail, and it raised its head probably about 2006-ish," said Elverston, who now works as a consultant. "There needs to be an industry generally accepted term. But there isn't one."

Indeed, there isn't a single definition of organized retail crime, among industry groups or anywhere, according to Mark Skertic, managing director at K2 Integrity, the risk advisory firm that worked with the NRF on a special report on the topic last year.

"That kind of speaks to one of the problems," he said by phone. "There's no agreed-upon - 'Here's how it happens. Here's how we report it. Here's what we have. What's the difference between somebody shoplifting and somebody taking part in ORC.' There is a difference, but I think that difference is not always really clear."

Shoplifting vs organized retail crime - State laws on organized retail crime - Theft vs shrink:  retaildive.com


Ending 'Cite and Release' for Retail Theft
California lawmakers have a new solution to deter retail thieves - arresting them
A Los Angeles County Democrat proposed legislation that would make retail theft a misdemeanor in an effort that could make shoplifters more fearful of stealing.

The bill would make shoplifting a misdemeanor and allow law enforcement to make warrantless arrests for theft not committed in their presence if officers have probable cause. Democratic Assemblymember Wendy Carillo sponsored the legislation, along with two other Democrats and one Republican lawmaker.

"Right now, there's no fear, right? It's like we can steal, we can commit these petty misdemeanor crimes, but it's cite and release and there's no record," Carrillo told Politico.

AB 1990, also known as the Secured Transactions and Organized Theft Prevention Act, is a result of the state's surge in retail theft that has left small and large businesses alike packing up and leaving big cities where property crime is most common.

"This is just going back to traditionally what we used to have, which was book-and-arrest, so you'll have a record," Carrillo said.

Still, Carillo's legislation does not touch Proposition 47, a measure that categorizes nonviolent property crime that does not exceed $950 in value as a misdemeanor, nor does the bill combine minor crimes to make them more serious.

Democrat lawmakers unveiled provisions in a separate bill last month that would also take small steps to curb the Golden State's theft problem. AB 2943 would impose a criminal penalty of up to three years in prison if a person was found possessing stolen property. It would also allow the value of stolen property to be added up to reach the $950 minimum value for theft to be considered a felony.  gazette.com


Using RICO To Take Down ORC Operations
Retail crime crackdown: The new strategy to stop commercial theft in NYS
A rise in retails thefts has spurred NYS lawmakers and law enforcement to crack down on thieves. Over the course of two days last month, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said its retail theft detail team arrested more than 30 people and recovered more than $7,000 of stolen merchandise.

Sen. Chuck Schumer said those arrests are just a fraction of a much bigger crime trend. "We're going to cut the snake off at the head," Schumer said Tuesday at a press conference in Victor. "That's what we're trying to do."

That "snake" is large-scale retail theft rings, which police say have infiltrated Monroe and Ontario counties.

"This is not just property crime," explained Ontario County Sheriff David Cirencione. "Our shoppers are in trying to shop, and their cars get broke into. People steal their identity, their checkbook, their credit cards, and then they are off at another store making purchases."

Now, federal attorneys are being pushed to prosecute these large-scale criminal operations under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act.

Schumer said RICO effectively curtailed the Italian mafia, and believes the same principles can be applied here.

"It crosses state lines, it has tougher penalties and it uses the long arm of the federal government to put evidence together in different places," he explained. 13wham.com


Chicago Robberies Surge - But Arrests Plummet to Historic Lows
Chicagoans Suffer Decade-High Robberies, Record-Low Arrest Rate
Chicago saw more robbery victims in 2023 than in any year of the past decade, reporting 1 victim for every 250 residents. While crimes surged, robbery arrests hit a record low. Fewer cops is not helping.

More Chicagoans were robbed in 2023 than in any year in the past decade, a jump of 29% in a year.

Robberies had been on a long decline, but in recent years have increased rapidly. That makes another trend especially troubling: the robbery arrest rate fell to a 23-year low of just over 5%.

Robberies also became more violent. There was a 14% jump in aggravated robberies, felonies involving the use or threat of a weapon.

Robberies with a handgun increased by half. Robberies committed with other firearms more than doubled. Only cases of vehicular hijackings and unarmed robbery showed declines.

As robbery victims in Chicago rose to a decade-high in 2023, the police arrest rate for robberies fell to its lowest level since the city started recording the data in 2001.

Perpetrators were arrested in just 5.1% of robberies. Officers made 1,047 fewer robbery arrests last year than when sworn police ranks were at their peak in 2007.

Chicagoans shouldn't be forced to choose between having fewer police officers on the streets and reducing social services to support the city's at-risk residents. Instead, city leaders should balance short- and long-term strategies to target the violence plaguing Chicago's most vulnerable communities. illinoispolicy.org
 
   RELATED: Data Can Build Understanding, Help Solve Chicago's Crime Problem


DOJ Doubles Down on Crime-Fighting Initiatives
AG Garland announces new initiatives to combat violent crime
Attorney General Merrick Garland visited Chicago Wednesday to highlight decreases in violent crime around the country, and announced a surge of investments and resources that he said will be aimed at "doubling down" on recent progress by law enforcement and their local partners.

Garland's comments come in an election year when violent crime is a major campaign issue, and one that Biden's opponent, former President Donald Trump has attacked him on. While violent crime is dramatically falling, Trump and other Republicans have criticized the president over his handling of crime -- often mentioning several high-profile crimes that are alleged to have been committed by immigrants who crossed the southern border illegally.

In remarks at a conference for federal grantees, Garland pointed to statistics showing that last year, the U.S. saw the largest one-year decline in homicides in half a century, including a 13% decrease last year in Chicago.

He credited the progress, in part, to the Biden administration's implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which included new statutes that federal prosecutors have used to charge gun traffickers and individuals who straw purchase firearms. The law also provided $250 million in grants for the department to invest in community-based violent prevention initiatives over a five-year period.

In his speech Wednesday, Garland said $78 million of those funds would be made available to applicants beginning Wednesday.

"Those funds will go directly to organizations, like those represented in this room, that are making strides in driving down violent crime and building community trust across the country," Garland said. abcnews.go.com


New ORC Intelligence Unit in the UK
UK: National police unit opens training to tackle organised retail crime
A new team within the national policing's intelligence unit, Opal, will soon begin gathering and analysing information about organised retail crime groups as part of the government's plan to combat shoplifting.

Funded by the recently established Pegasus partnership, the team is implementing training programs for retailers and police forces. These initiatives aim to guide them how to refer intelligence effectively which can then be analysed and explored on a national scale.

The virtual sessions will take place through April and will demonstrate how the team will work with forces, retailers, businesses and organisation to gather information.

Opal head of intelligence Stephanie Coombes said: "Opal has been carrying out this role for other crime types for a number of years and we have seen significant successes from having a national overview of what's happening in the organised crime world.

"We know that many retailers have intelligence built up through their own systems and processes and the training sessions aim to demonstrate how they can work with us to share that information so action can be taken.

"We need to stress that Opal's service does not replace reporting incidents to your local police force, it is a route for sharing information and intelligence packages and one of the key requirements for making a referral is having a crime number for the related incidents."  retailgazette.co.uk


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Small Businesses Falling Behind in Cybersecurity
What's missing for SMBs? A solid cybersecurity culture

Small businesses can be especially vulnerable to cyberattacks because of their limited resources, and few have employees on staff who truly understand the value of secure business operations.

Multifactor authentication is one of the easiest ways to apply best security practices to a small business. However, this simple step is often ignored.

For example, of those using Microsoft cloud products, including Microsoft 365, a little more than a third have activated MFA.

Login authorizations beyond passwords make up a small part of an organization's security system, and on the surface may not look like a big deal. But other pieces of a good cybersecurity program are missing, too. Businesses have poor password management, intermittent security awareness training sessions, and many lack a data loss prevention plan.

What these organizations lack, more than anything, is a security culture. Without a solid cybersecurity culture, SMBs will struggle to protect networks and data from breaches and other threats.

Developing a culture of cybersecurity isn't just about following procedures and processes - it is when security is an ingrained part of the organization's overall business operations, Richard Balducci, CISO with Integer Holdings Corporation, told an audience at Zero Trust World in Orlando, Florida in February.

When people don't know how to act or apply cybersecurity practices, they'll follow the lead of others who seem to be in the know, Balducci said. People want to conform to what appears to be the norm, but what happens if those who are leading are just as lost as those who are following?

Small businesses can be especially vulnerable to cyberattacks because of their limited resources, and that includes having access to people who truly understand why building security into business operations is necessary in today's work and threat environments. cybersecuritydive.com


Cyberattack Hits CISA
CISA asserts no data stolen during Ivanti-linked attack on the agency

Threat actors gained access to and potentially compromised two CISA systems weeks after the agency applied Ivanti's initial mitigation measures.

A cyberattack targeting the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in late January impacted a pair of the agency's systems, a CISA spokesperson said Monday.

A thus far unnamed threat actor gained access to the CISA Gateway, an integrated collection of vulnerability assessments and tools for critical infrastructure organizations, and the Chemical Security Assessment Tool, a repository of chemical plant security plans. CISA discovered the intrusion, which was linked to widely exploited vulnerabilities in Ivanti remote access VPNs, on Jan. 26.

One of the breaches may have compromised more than 100,000 people.

"We have found no evidence of data exfiltration from either system at this time, and there is no ongoing operational impact," the CISA spokesperson said. "As soon as indications of potential compromise were detected, the agency took proactive measures to isolate the systems, taking them offline and accelerating the decommission of the Ivanti devices."  cybersecuritydive.com


Did Microsoft Fall Short on Cyber Risk Management?
Microsoft Exchange state-linked hack entirely preventable, cyber review board finds

The technology giant's corporate culture fell short on security investments and risk management, and needs significant reforms, according to a damning report by the U.S. Cyber Safety Review Board.

The state-linked intrusion on Microsoft Exchange Online that led to the theft of about 60,000 U.S. State Department emails last summer "was preventable and should never have occurred", the Cyber Safety Review Board said Tuesday in a report.

A series of operational and strategic decisions by Microsoft pointed to a corporate culture that deprioritized investments in enterprise security and rigorous risk management, despite the central role the company plays in the larger technology ecosystem, the report said.

The CSRB urged Microsoft to publicly share its plans to make fundamental, security focused reforms across the company and its suite of products. The board also recommended that all cloud services providers and government partners enact security-focused changes. cybersecuritydive.com

 
Teams Breaking Off From Microsoft Office?
Microsoft To Separate Teams From Office Package Globally After EU Antitrust Concerns
On Monday, the American tech giant announced its decision to offer Teams, its chat and video application, as a separate product globally, independent of its Office suite. This move comes after the company took similar actions in Europe last year in response to antitrust concerns raised by the EU and to avoid potential fines.

Since 2020, the European Commission has been investigating Microsoft's Office and Teams package in response to complaints by Salesforce-owned competing workspace messaging app Slack.

In 2017, Microsoft introduced Teams as a complimentary feature within Office 365, extending its suite of services to customers at no extra cost. It replaced Skype for Business and saw a significant spike in demand during the pandemic because of its video conferencing capability.

However, competitors complained that bundling the products together gives Microsoft an unfair advantage. Following these complaints, the tech giant began selling each product separately in the EU and Switzerland last October. retailwire.com


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