The Great Debate Over Confronting Shoplifters

'Fight back against the shoplifters, and you're out of a job.'
As Retailers Struggle With Flagrant Thievery, Employees Who Go After Shoplifters Are Getting Fired

Many large retail chains have strict 'no confrontation' policies when it comes to shoplifters, in part to avoid liability should resisting the robbers lead to injury or death.

Despite growing public outrage at these kinds of incidents, the country's biggest retailers are holding fast to their policies: Fight back against the shoplifters, and you're out of a job.

Large retailers enforce these policies of nonconfrontation mainly for liability reasons. They don't want an employee or customer getting injured and then suing the store. Critics say this gives shoplifters a free pass. They add that since the start of Covid, thieves can wear masks to hide their identities from security cameras.

Retail theft has become an increasing problem since the start of the pandemic. The largest national retail trade association, the National Retail Federation, calls "retail shrink" - merchandise lost primarily to retail theft - a "ballooning issue" in its 2022 safety report. The organization says retail shrink is a nearly $100 billion problem for the industry.

Lawmakers in California are now debating a bill that would prohibit retailers from requiring their employees to confront shoplifters (learn more here).

In New York on Thursday, an employee at a Midtown Manhattan CVS fatally stabbed a suspected shoplifter after confronting him at the store's entrance. This outcome is why many retailers bar employees from confronting shoplifters. nysun.com


NYC Needs to Tackle Retail Theft Using Same Strategy that Curbed Gun Violence
Grand larceny and petty larceny remains stubbornly high

Opinion-Editorial: Fighting the shoplifting plague: NYC retail theft must be brought under control
Retail theft is not a victimless crime, and it's not a simple crime of poverty. It hammers the bottom line of businesses - thieves don't discriminate between mom-and-pop bodegas and more deep-pocketed chains - and carries with it the ever-present possibility of serious violence. As if New Yorkers needed the umpteenth reminder of that obvious fact, Thursday came the stabbing of a thief by a CVS worker in Midtown.

Therefore, it ought to trouble all New Yorkers that grand larceny and petty larceny remain stubbornly high, essentially flat as compared to this point in 2022 and up 48% and 40% respectively over year-to-date 2021. Nor can one lean on the tired old refrain that it's all so much better than it used to be. Today's grand larceny and petty larceny totals are 37% and 40% higher than they were 13 years ago.

Hearing the complaints of ordinary New Yorkers - who don't want to have to ask a clerk for help getting their ice cream and toothpaste and other items from a locked case - and of retailers exhausted by seeming to have their revolving doors open to shoplifters, Mayor Adams back in May laid out plans to beat back the rise in theft. It's informed by the unsurprising but still stunning fact that just 327 repeat offenders were responsible for 30% of the more than 22,000 retail thefts across the five boroughs.

Adams seems to understand the essential truth that while there's nothing wrong with trying to address root causes to stop people from becoming shoplifters in the first place, in the here and now, there must be swift, sure consequences for chronic law-breakers, whether they're individuals or functionaries of organized crime syndicates. Get them out of circulation so they can stop victimizing others.

Is the Adams plan working? The proof will be in the stealing of the pudding, as we see whether theft numbers that are now essentially flat start bending in the right direction as the year progresses. After a year of concerted, intelligent enforcement, shootings are decisively trending down. Now do the same for theft. yahoo.com


NYC Retail Employees Reaching Their Limits Over Crime
NYC retail workers on edge after stabbing death of shoplifter at Midtown CVS
The deadly confrontation between a chronic shoplifter and a CVS store clerk shocked the city - but those who work in retail say dealing with an epidemic of shoplifting has become a troubling part of their working days.

New York City has been hit with a post-COVID spike in shoplifting, with petty larcenies jumping 44% between 2021 and 2022. Employees at beauty stores, drug stores and supermarkets told The Daily News they grapple with confronting people taking items from their stores.

Some, after seeing people try to sneak out with stolen goods in hiking backpacks, grocery carts, plastic bags and in their pants pockets, try to calmly ask them to return the items. Others don't see the risk as worth it, no matter how much merchandise they might take from the store.

The deadly confrontation at CVS took place July 6, when Charles Brito punched store clerk Scotty Enoe in the face as Enoe tried to prevent him from shoplifting. The two men, prosecutors say, had tangled before, but this time Enoe pulled out a knife and stabbed Brito in the torso. Enoe is facing charges in the killing.

As of July 2, petit larcenies in the Midtown North precinct jumped 14.6% - with 170 more cases this year than 2022 - according to NYPD stats. Compared to the same period in 2021, the precinct saw a huge 54.4% jump in petit larcenies.

In response to the surge in shoplifting, some larger chain stores have beefed up their security, while small businesses unable to staff more people are feeling more precarious.

For Lloyd, the possibility of not just violence but also a potential lawsuit is a deterrent to confronting thieves. Employees at the store are advised not to confront shoplifters because of the potential for violence or bigger programs, but that confrontations do happen.

"You do feel bad, but you try to avoid having problems," Lloyd said of letting shoplifters get away with it. "You just try to avoid the worst of it." nydailynews.com


Real-Time Crime Centers Becoming More Common Across the U.S.
'We aren't catching the wrong people anymore'

The Quiet Rise of Real-Time Crime Centers

Cities across the US have established RTCCs that police say protect the rights of innocent people, but critics warn of creeping surveillance.

Each RTCC is slightly different, but their function is the same: gather surveillance data across a city and use that to build a live picture of crime in the city. Police departments have an array of technologies available to them that span from CCTV, gunshot sensors, and social media monitoring to drones and body cameras.

In Ogden, Utah, police even floated the idea of a 30-foot "crime blimp." In many cases, images that police systems collect are run through facial recognition technology, and the data gathered is often used in predictive policing.

Erik Lavigne is a detective at the Fort Worth Police Department in Texas and communications director at the National RTCC Association. He says there has been a boom in RTCCs over the past year because officers believe they help with more precise policing. He likens the scattered approach to policing in previous years to throwing out a fishnet and hoping to catch something. "For what we had at the time, that worked.

But what inevitably happens is, you end up alienating the community because you're not just stopping the bad guys, you're also stopping innocent people that are just trying to live their lives," he says. "A real-time crime center is a scalpel. We aren't catching the wrong people anymore."

Lavigne says RTCCs are also a cheaper alternative to hiring more boots on the ground because each camera becomes, in effect, a stationary officer keeping watch over an area. Lavigne says this has proved so effective that analysts at RTCCs have been recording more crime than they can deal with, and the Fort Worth RTCC has significantly helped decrease vehicle thefts. wired.com


Record High Violence in Washington State - Murders Up 17%
Murders, violent crimes hit all-time highs in Washington in 2022, crime report says
The number of violent crimes in Washington state increased and murders rose to an all-time high in 2022, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC).

The WASPC released its 43rd annual crime in Washington report on Monday, noting that murders statewide surged 16.6% to an all-time high of 394 in 2022, topping 2021's total of 325. Community members said they see the problems playing out in their own neighborhoods.

Violent crime was up 8.9% in 2022, robberies increased 18% and vehicle theft increased by 34.1%, according to the report. Domestic violence offenses made up 45.9% of all crimes, according to the report.

"Property crimes, stolen cars, gun violence. There's a lot of drugs out here on the streets," said Roosevelt Jenkins, who thinks communities need more resources to steer youth away into positive activities to help break the cycle that perpetuates crime.

Assaults on officers are up 42% since 2018 after making another jump in 2022, according to the report. Steve Strachan, the executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, said law enforcement leaders are seeing this happen across the state.

"More people willing to confront and to attack law enforcement," Strachan said. "Perhaps it's a sense that there are not as many consequences, or there are fewer law enforcement officers out there." komonews.com


Progressive Policies Fueling the Shoplifting Wave?
Opinion: Liberal 'Solutions' for Shoplifting Only Make Matters Worse
In the furtherance of left-wing ideology, California passed Proposition 47 in 2014, reducing thefts totaling less than $950 from felonies to misdemeanors. According to the Desert Sun, "Many police say this law is a major factor in the wave of shoplifting that has plagued cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles and closed many stores."

Stores have adapted by (a) closing or (b) locking things up. At the same time, they instruct their employees not to stop thieves, on pain of being fired.

Meanwhile, New York City's shoplifting complaints rose 44% from 2021 to 2022. All this retail theft angered businesses in his city, so Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan. Dead last of his seven points is the creation of an "Organized Retail Theft Task Force." Higher up are "two diversion programs" for offenders, and the installation of "resource kiosks in stores to connect individuals in need to critical government resources and social services."

Adams was once a cop, so he ought to understand the criminal mind a bit better.

The recidivist thieves driving that 44% increase are likely opportunists exploiting a system they know won't catch or punish them-not low-income mothers desperate for Pampers.

Former professional booster Jared Klickstein gets it. He wrote that "no matter how shiny or sophisticated, no electronic kiosk would have prevented me from shoplifting to feed my $350-a-day heroin and cocaine habit."

Not helping, New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg has allowed a relative handful of career thieves to be released time and again, such that they account for half the shoplifting in the city. dailysignal.com


'Emergency Public Safety Bill'
Facing 'emergency,' DC prepares to pass new crime bill
Politicians in the nation's capital are expected on Tuesday to pass what is being called an emergency public safety bill to address rising crime rates in the city.

As of Monday, homicide in Washington was up 17% year-to-date compared to 2022, while reported robberies were up 52% and motor vehicle thefts were up 117%, according to police statistics.

"We are in a state of emergency right now. ... And like in any emergency, we have to act like it and we have to act urgently as a government to address the problem that we're seeing," Councilmember Brooke Pinto told reporters on Monday.

Pinto, who chairs the council's judiciary and public safety committee, said that "when we have members of our community being shot and killed at rates that we haven't seen for 20 years, that's an emergency. Period. That was an emergency several months ago. That's an emergency today."

Some of the proposed emergency laws include removing requirements for a person to be held for a dangerous crime -- such as carjacking, kidnapping, felony assault with a knife or other weapons -- and for juveniles to be held whether or not they were armed if they are suspected of committing a dangerous crime. abcnews.go.com

  RELATED: D.C. mayor tries to shore up support for crime bill ahead of vote


New Virginia Law Takes Effect
The law makes "organized retail theft" a Class 3 felony - punishable by up to 20 years behind bars.

As Fairfax County sees decline in retail thefts, Virginia passes new law to address it
Fairfax County is reporting a sharp decline in retail thefts, attributing the change to a summer crime initiative it participated in during June. Part of the initiative was to increase patrols at certain locations across the county, based on retail theft data, for the month.

"We saw some good reductions in overall retail theft in the month of June because of our enhanced commitment," said Chief Kevin Davis. "But we've got a long way to go."

On July 1, more than $37,000 worth of items - ranging from perfumes to jeans and backpacks - were allegedly stolen by two men. The two suspects could be among the first to face punishment under a new law, which went into effect on July 1 in the Commonwealth. The new law made "organized retail theft" a Class 3 felony - punishable by up to 20 years behind bars.

The punishment could be handed down to two or more people who conspire to steal more than $5,000 of retail items in a 90-day period. dcnewsnow.com


Queens, NY: Editorial: Rampant shoplifting just has to stop

After holiday week marred by mass shootings, Congress faces demands to rekindle efforts to reduce gun violence

Assessing Company Culture to Ward Off Corporate Wrongdoing
Like anything, it starts at the very top

Culture, ethics audits can prevent malfeasance: study
Companies are failing to prioritize assessments of their work culture and missing an opportunity to ward off corporate wrongdoing that can occur when values are mismatched, a recent study by AuditBoard found.

Executive behavior is seen as a critical indicator of company culture, with 68% of internal auditors surveyed in AuditBoard's 2023 Organizational Culture and Ethics Report pointing to poor tone or executives not living up to company values as a key risk indicator.

Particularly concerning for study authors Richard Chambers and Cynthia Cooper is "how little is being done by organizations to really assess culture and obtain assurance regarding the health of the culture,' Cooper said in an interview with CFO Dive alongside Chambers.

For Cooper and Chambers - who have both been studying organizational culture for several decades - that executive behavior plays a key role when it comes to cultural risk is less than surprising. It is "very difficult" to change company culture from the middle of an organization, Cooper said.

"It most often is set at the top and driven at the top and any transformational change needs to come from the top," she said of culture. cfodive.com


The Pendulum Swings Back Toward Employers
The 'Great Resignation' Is Over. Can Workers' Power Endure?

The furious pace of job-switching in recent years has led to big gains for low-wage workers. But the pendulum could be swinging back toward employers.

Tens of millions of Americans have changed jobs over the past two years, a tidal wave of quitting that reflected - and helped create - a rare moment of worker power as employees demanded higher pay, and as employers, short on staff, often gave it to them.

But the "great resignation," as it came to be known, appears to be ending. The rate at which workers voluntarily quit their jobs has fallen sharply in recent months - though it edged up in May - and is only modestly above where it was before the pandemic disrupted the U.S. labor market. In some industries where turnover was highest, like hospitality and retail businesses, quitting has fallen back to prepandemic levels.

Now the question is whether the gains that workers made during the great resignation will outlive the moment - or whether employers will regain leverage, particularly if, as many forecasters expect, the economy slips into a recession sometime in the next year. nytimes.com


Company Diversity Programs Could Soon Face Legal Pushback
Affirmative Action Decision Impacts Employers

Supreme Court decision could lead to more challenges for corporate DEI initiatives.

While the decision does not directly affect workplace DEI programs and affirmative action plans, employers can expect to see a potential increase in legal challenges to their DEI programs based on it sometime in the future, observe attorneys Andrew Turnbull, Carrie Cohen and Michael Schulman of the Morrison & Foerster law firm. "Employers should consider their workplace DEI programs and strategies as they brace for the potential impact of the court ending affirmative action for college admissions."

Other attorneys are of the firm belief that such legal challenges to DEI initiatives will be mounted shortly, citing the widespread opposition embodied by anti-DEI laws that has already been adopted by some state legislatures. Public opinion and corporate culture also are showing signs that the pendulum of social experimentation may be swinging away from the direction of intersectionality and critical race theory, along with other initiatives seeking to require companies to adopt environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) practices, which embrace DEI. ehstoday.com


Here's what grocery executives made in 2022
Base salaries for many top executives in the supermarket industry saw little change in 2022, relative to the prior year, although mid- and lower-level corporate compensation edged up slightly.

"People are adding more and more responsibilities in their positions - much more than they had just two, three or four years ago," he said. "There is a lot more analytics involved in their jobs." supermarketnews.com


More than 2,200 stores are closing across the US in 2023
More than a dozen major retailers have said they will close US stores in 2023, a combined total of 2,285 locations.

Amazon, Bath & Body Works, Walmart, and Foot Locker are among the chains shutting down stores.

Bed Bath & Beyond closed 896 locations amid bankruptcy - the most of any retailer on the list.

It's not exactly the retail apocalypse of prior years, but it's a shakeup nonetheless. businessinsider.com


Retail defaults set to jump this year, Moody's says
Moody's expects defaults among retail and apparel to jump from 6% to 8.6%.

Buy Buy Baby stores set to shutter as Go Global's deal to save chain falls apart at eleventh hour

Inflation Drops to Lowest Level in More Than 2 Years

$20M Stolen in Payment System Breach
Flaw in Revolut payment systems exploited to steal $20 million
Organized criminal groups exploited a flaw in Revolut's payment systems and made off with $20+ million of the company's money, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing people with knowledge of the situation.

Revolut is a privately held financial technology company that offers a variety of services to over 30 million customers around the globe. It is headquartered in London and licensed and regulated by the Bank of Lithuania (within the EU).

In September 2022, the company suffered a data breach that affected 50,150 customers worldwide: the attackers grabbed those customers' names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, part of the payment card data, and account details.

A few days later, some Revolut users complained online that they started receiving SMS phishing messages aimed at stealing personal and financial information. According to Financial Times' unnamed sources, the newly revealed cash grab happened before that, in early 2022.

"The problem stemmed from differences between European and US payment systems, which meant that when certain transactions were declined Revolut would erroneously refund accounts, handing them its own money," the business publication explained.

The criminals "encouraged" individuals to make expensive purchases that would end up being declined, but the flaw made it so that Revolut would erroneously make refunds to accounts.

This concentrated fraudulent effort apparently went on for several months before the company realized it was happening and closed the loopohole.

FT says that the discovery happened after "a partner bank in the US notified the fintech that it was holding less cash than expected," and the failure to unearth the ongoing fraudulent scheme in time ended up costing Revolut over $20 million. (The money was stolen from the company, not from customers' accounts.) helpnetsecurity.com


Cybersecurity Professionals are Flying Blind
One third of security breaches go unnoticed by security professionals
While surface-level confidence around hybrid cloud security is high, with 94% of global respondents stating their security tools and processes provide them with complete visibility and insights into their IT infrastructure, the reality is nearly one third of security breaches aren't spotted by IT and security professionals, according to Gigamon.

Hybrid cloud security breaches expected to surge

According to Flexera, 74% of organizations now exist in the hybrid cloud and this infrastructure is considered the 'norm' by Forrester analysts. Yet it comes with a number of security concerns, clearly recognized by respondents to the Gigamon's survey; 93% predict cloud security attacks are only going to increase, and 90% had experienced a breach in the last 18 months.

The issue is that 31% of breaches are being identified later down the line, rather than preemptively using security and observability tools - either by data appearing on the dark web, files becoming inaccessible, or users experiencing slow application performance (likely due to DoS or inflight exfiltration). This number rises to 48% in the US, and 52% in Australia.

The good news is that collaboration across IT is on the rise. 96% of IT and Security leaders around the world believe cloud security is everyone's responsibility, and almost all (99%) see CloudOps and SecOps working towards a common goal.

Yet there is still more to be done, while CloudOps seems to be leading on strategy, 99% of respondents claim a lack of a security-first culture means vulnerability detection is often siloed to the SecOps team.

Legislation and attack complexity keep CISOs awake at night

The Gigamon report also identified that the key stressors for IT and security leaders in 2023 aren't what many may have anticipated. It is unexpected blind spots (56%), legislation (34%) and attack complexity (32%) that keep CISOs and other IT leaders up at night, while a lack of cyber investment is only worrying 14 percent of global respondents, along with just 20% who were concerned about the ongoing skills gap.

Blind spots across hybrid cloud infrastructure | Zero trust rises as top priority for IT and security leaders: helpnetsecurity.com


Threat Actor Infiltrating Amazon Web Services
'ScarletEel' Hackers Worm Into AWS Cloud

A toolset upgrade is making ScarletEel more slippery than ever while it continues to manipulate the cloud to perform cryptojacking, DDoS, and more.

Researchers have observed the financially motivated threat actor ScarletEel infiltrating Amazon Web Services (AWS) to steal credentials and intellectual property, plant crypto mining software, perform distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and more.

The threat actor was first revealed in a February blog post from cloud security firm Sysdig. The group is very clearly savvy with AWS tools, injecting itself into a cloud environment and using native AWS functionality to move laterally with ease. And with the right kind of access, it is known to perform a double whammy: planting cryptomining software while also stealing intellectual property.

ScarletEel also continues to refine its tactics, according to the latest analysis from the firm - evading cloud security detection mechanisms and reaching into the little-touched AWS Fargate compute engine. And it has expanded its arsenal by adding DDoS-as-a-service to its list of exploitation techniques. darkreading.com


Malware delivery to Microsoft Teams users made easy
As noted by Jumpsec researchers Max Corbridge and Tom Ellson, Microsoft Teams' default configuration lets external tenants (i.e., M365 users outside the organization) message an organization's employees.

The same configuration doesn't allow external tenants to send files, but that restriction can be bypassed by switching the internal and external recipient ID on the POST request, the researchers found.

"When this vulnerability is combined with social engineering via Teams it becomes very easy to start a back-and-forth conversation, jump on a call, share screens, and more," Corbridge explained.

Microsoft says that the flaw does not "meet the bar for immediate servicing" since successfull exploitation hinges on social engineering. helpnetsecurity.com


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Weston, FL: Masked thief snatches $180k worth of luxury handbags from Weston consignment store
A thief was caught on surveillance swiftly making off with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from a high-end handbag store in Weston. The thief escaped with 30 handbags and three accessories from Season 2 Consign, totaling approximately $180,000, in a matter of minutes, store management said. Caught on surveillance cameras late Saturday night, a masked individual can be seen holding a flashlight and a storage tote. The intruder appears to quickly fill up the tote with designer handbags - including luxury brands such as Chanel, Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Gucci - before making a rapid exit.   nbcmiami.com


Memphis, TN: Urban Outfitters ransacked in overnight $5,000 burglary
Urban Outfitters was ransacked during an overnight burglary on Tuesday, causing at least $10,000 in damages, Memphis Police Department (MPD) said. MPD said officers found clothes scattered in the roadway on Cooper St. and throughout the store when they arrived at the Urban Outfitters located at 2151 Central Ave. Tuesday, July 11 at 2:06 a.m. According to MPD, approximately $5,000 worth of merchandise was stolen from the store, but there may be more damages and loss of merchandise discovered when the investigation is completed. MPD said surveillance cameras located at Cooper St. and Central Ave. showed a gray Chevrolet Traverse with front end damage and a missing headlight and a white Chevrolet Colorado with no tags in the store parking lot. The gray Chevrolet Traverse acted as lookout, MPD said. The video shows one man pulling on the store doors at the entrance of the store and four other men wearing dark colored clothes inside the store stealing merchandise.  localmemphis.com


York County, PA: Police arrest man wanted for stealing $22,000 trading cards from store
A man accused of stealing thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from a trading card store in York County is now in custody. West York police said Jonathan Eisenhuth was arrested by state police in Bellefonte, Centre County, following a traffic stop and foot chase. He will eventually be extradited to York County. Eisenhuth, of Snyder County, broke into Common Ground Collections on June 29, according to police. Officers said security footage shows Eisenhuth wearing a ski mask, smashing the door and making his way behind the counter. He grabbed about $22,000 worth of sports cards in less than a minute, police said.  wgal.com


Albuquerque, NM: APD arrests three men charged with stealing nearly $1,700 of liquor from Walgreens
APD officers and detectives worked together to charge and arrest three men who are believed to be part of a group that has been stealing liquor and other merchandise from convenience stores in the Northeast Heights. Several suspects were highlighted in a video shared last week through social media as they walked out of a Walgreens store with liquor. Three people were arrested today. A fourth suspect, Oliver Manning, 43, has a warrant for his arrest. Detectives with APD's Organized Crime Unit were investigating the thefts when they were contacted today about two of the suspects, Nathan Castillo, 43, and Brian Singer, 35, who stole merchandise from the Walgreens.. They got into a bus/van. Detectives followed the van, where they made contact with the two men. The men were arrested for stealing merchandise worth more than $300. The manager of the Walgreens positively identified the men and told police that Castillo was at the store the previous day, on July 10, and vandalized the plexiglass to steal alcohol valued at more than $1,400. The manager said Castillo has stolen merchandise in the past and has threatened violence against employees. Detectives are charging Castillo under a new law that Mayor Keller supported that combines the value of stolen merchandise so the suspect can be charged with a felony, rather than separate misdemeanors.  cabq.gov


Harris County, TX: 2 suspects sought for shoplifting over $4,000 worth of Dior cosmetics from Ulta

The Villages, FL: Woman with several priors charged with Felony Theft of $668 in failed attempt at Walmart

Glenview, IL: Duo steals 2 carts filled with 30 Bottles Of Booze