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Retail Violent Fatalities Still Up 36.7% Over Pre-Pandemic 2019

681 Retail Fatalities in 2023 - Down 1.9% From 2022
155 Q4 2023 Fatalities - Down 10% From Q4 2022


Yearly Comparison | 2017-2023



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Alliances Between Retail, Law Enforcement & Prosecutors Key to Stopping ORC
Without support through this "last mile" of asset protection strategies, lock boxes and ink tags are only addressing the problem at the surface, not the root.

Deterring Retail Crime: From the storefront to the backend

By Cristian Lopez, CEO, Alto

As retail crime becomes more prevalent, so do discussions about solutions, from physical security and operational measures to technology and policy. However, what's less frequently discussed is arguably the most effective component - collaboration and information sharing between retailers, law enforcement, state & district attorneys and community organizations to ensure that the proverbial baton is being passed to meet the end goal of lasting crime reduction and safer communities. Without dedicated teamwork and an effort to connect the dots, more retail crimes will slip through the cracks and the cycle of behavior will continue.

Resolving retail crimes is tricky because often the cost of the item or items stolen is less than the resources required to hold a criminal accountable. Only 5% of retail crime cases navigate through the judicial system. If an incident occurs, it is rarely reported to the police because, when it is, it's often deprioritized. If reported, several challenges can prevent a case from being resolved.

These include a lack of evidence, failure to coordinate witnesses or victims (retailers), a lack of case tracking, technicalities and the widespread misconception that retail theft is a victimless crime can all lead to a dropped case and lack of consequences that allow the criminal to continue offending. Without support through this "last mile" of asset protection strategies, lock boxes and ink tags are only addressing the problem at the surface, not the root.

A promising development is the success of new ORC laws introduced with the help of retail stakeholders and policymakers in states like Oregon, Minnesota, Florida and New Mexico. However, according to ICSC, they are among only 16 states where lawmakers are currently addressing retail crime with newly introduced legislation, and only 13 states have dedicated ORC taskforces.

Drafting policies on organized retail crime is certainly an important step toward fixing the issue, but without the effort and collaboration from stakeholders, they will not be implemented, and the same gaps that have fed the ORC cycle will continue to grow and be exploited.

Establishing an alliance between retailers, law enforcement, prosecutors, nonprofit organizations, and government officials is a proven strategy to effect real, long-term change. It's time to organize more task forces, coordinate meetings, reallocate resources and take better advantage of the systems in place to deter criminal behavior from the backend as much as from storefronts. The future of brick-and-mortar retail depends on it. chainstoreage.com


Another State Battles Retail Theft With New Bill
Property crime spiked 142% from 2016 to 2023 in Oklahoma

Oklahoma's Senate Bill 1450 lowers felony threshold
Protecting businesses from retail theft. The state is making efforts to address retail theft, by establishing penalties for the crime based upon the value of the property stolen.

Senate Bill 1450 would create a task force to investigate organized retail crimes so criminal charges can be filed quicker and after a recent amendment, it would also change the felony threshold level for retail theft.

According to OSBI, Oklahoma had over 55,000 property crime cases in 2016. In 2023, that number jumped to more than 133,000 -- that's a 142% increase.

Representative John George says this jump in property crime happened after the felony threshold level for retail theft was raised to $1,000. "You have to steal $1,000 or more to be a felony," said Representative John George.

George wrote an amendment to Senate Bill 1450 that would bring that threshold down to five hundred dollars. "I put the amendment in to lower it back to the $500 to see if we can curtail some of that crime," said George.

One shop owner said that he could see where lowering the threshold to $500 could deter someone who's new to committing retail crime and make them think twice before stealing, but he says that a lot of these reported crimes are of repeat offenders, and he doesn't think that lowering the threshold will keep those people from doing it again. ktul.com


Michigan's 'First-in-the-Nation' ORC-Fighting Unit
New State Partnership Aims To Combat Organized Retail Crime
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel recently announced a partnership between the FORCE Team and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) to tackle organized retail crimes that leverage the postal system to conduct illegal enterprises.

Nessel said "This groundbreaking partnership with the United States Postal Inspection Service comes as recognition of our efforts in the State and also significantly expands our capacity to combat organized retail crime here in Michigan. The addition of a U.S. postal inspector to the FORCE Team allows us to quickly analyze how the postal service is exploited as a supply chain for black-market and counterfeit products across the country. The FORCE Team continues to blaze a path of success in this burgeoning criminal field, and we are proud to set an example for retail crime units nationwide."

The FORCE Team now includes a U.S. postal inspector alongside two assistant attorneys general, Michigan State Police detectives, special agents from the Department of Attorney General's Criminal Investigations Division, and a special agent from the FBI's Detroit Fraud and Financial Crimes Task Force.

The FORCE Team and the Organized Retail Crime Unit were established in 2023 by the Attorney General to target criminal organizations that steal products from retailers to repackage and sell for a profit.

Nessel says this is a first-in-the-nation unit, unique in the 50 states as being the first such unit with embedded, dedicated staff from the Department of Attorney General. whmi.com


UK Wages War on ORC with Opal Team
The UK Government Cracks Down on Organized Retail Crime
Organized retail crime (ORC) has become a widely reported issue within the beauty industry, with cases increasing rapidly worldwide. In the UK, incidents of ORC climbed from an average of 827 in 2022 to an average of 1,300 in 2023, with over £953 million ($1.2 million) worth of products stolen during this period. Of these crimes, the police failed to respond to 60% of those reported, with 44% of retailers reporting police urgency as "poor" or "very poor."

Last year, 88 retailers in the UK-including Superdrug, Boots, Sephora, and SpaceNK-signed a letter to then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman demanding action be taken against the rising statistics of retail theft.

Recently, it was announced that a response to the spearheading retailer's letter had been granted. Opal, a team within the UK's national police's intelligence unit, is set to begin compiling information on ORC groups as part of the government's plan to tackle shoplifting.

Opal will implement training programs for retailers and the police force, teaching them how to correctly gather information and present data surrounding stores' criminal activity. Opal will provide the police with the resources to properly investigate each incident, ensuring no time is wasted.

Opal will help build industry-wide knowledge on the complexities of retail crime, including how to report it and notice the difference between shoplifting and ORC groups.

The UK's Opal approach will likely help retailers and the police come together effectively to gain this understanding and tackle ORC so that no case goes under the radar. While such a program is tougher to organize in the US because many states hold their own laws on ORC and how it is reported, conversations surrounding the technicalities of data collection and industry unification give hope that the industry is moving closer to a cohesive understanding of ORC. Ideally, this would lead to a similar unified database in the US, making it easier to stand up against crime. beautymatter.com


The Great Debate Over Plummeting Homicide Rates Across U.S.
Why homicide rates are falling across the country
A data analysis released last week shows that the number of homicides in cities like Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, are dropping.

While many major cities, especially those run by Democrats with liberal-leaning policies and populations, have received backlash from Republicans for being inundated with violent crime, the new data paints a picture of an improving situation.

Experts, though, aren't agreed on exactly why the number of homicides has fallen so far, so fast.

Boston saw the sharpest decline from 2023 to 2024, with homicides dropping by 82 percent. In Philadelphia, homicides dropped by 37 percent; in Dallas, homicides dropped by 27 percent; and in Chicago, homicides dropped by 6 percent, according to estimates from city police department reports compiled by AH Datalytics.

Jeffrey Fagan, professor of law and epidemiology at Columbia University, attributes the improvements to a typical crime cycle.

Alex Piquero, former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics under President Biden, outlined the factors he argues caused the spike in homicides: Community prevention programs were put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic, and law enforcement pulled back due to the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and because of pandemic staffing issues.

Piquero, a professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Miami, said those conditions have been reset. "Their staffing levels are going up, police are around the community more, they're targeting violent places and violent people using appropriate statistical methodology."

Piquero looks at crime as a local level issue and noted it's hard to tell yet if the funding from the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Biden administration to combat crime is helping.   thehill.com


Retailers Struggle to Hire Amid Soaring Theft
'Employees don't feel safe,' says business pro as theft prompts store closures with locked-up items and hiring struggle

Businesses have revealed that 'employees don't feel safe' after soaring theft triggered a spate of store closures.

Shoplifting in New York State's Long Island spiked by 20% - leaving workers reeling from brazen attempts by thugs, Newsday reported.

"I've actually witnessed some thefts sometimes when I have been in the local supermarket. So I know the impact in the community is that it's hard, especially for the small business owners, because they're losing inventory," said LaShawn Lukes, president of the Hempstead Chamber of Commerce. "Also, it's a two-sided situation because now it's hard to [hire] employees because they do not feel safe."

Law enforcement and retail analysts have pointed to a lack of staff supervising the shop floor, an increase in self-service checkouts and a soaring cost of living for widespread theft.

2023 saw a number of retailers close down, often citing losses from theft. In part fueled by the rise of online shopping and ongoing inflation, many stores have not been able to remain open.  the-sun.com


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