NRF Seeks to Send Loud Message to D.C. on 'Fight Retail Crime Day'
NRF is uniting the industry to call for action and raise awareness.

Three ways to fight retail crime

NRF is uniting the industry on Fight Retail Crime Day on October 26

The surge in organized retail crime is significantly impacting consumers, retailers, workers and the communities they serve. In response to this crucial issue, NRF has designated Oct. 26 as Fight Retail Crime Day - an annual event that mobilizes the entire retail business community to advocate for effective solutions in combating this problem.

It's clear that addressing these crimes requires a collective effort - which is why NRF is uniting the industry to call for action and raise awareness. Here are three ways you can join NRF and the retail industry to help fight retail crime.

Advocate for change

During Fight Retail Crime Day, NRF is empowering all retail advocates to take action in support of policies that enhance community safety and address the growing issue of retail crime, including the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act. This bipartisan, federal solution would establish a national coordination center, combining expertise and resources from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and retail industry representatives to curb organized retail crime.

Connect with leading policymakers

The NRF 2023 Fight Retail Crime Day Fly-in will see over 50 retail leaders representing nearly 30 brands taking to the halls of Congress to meet directly with lawmakers, urge them to support CORCA and share stories on how rising retail crime affects their stores, associates and communities directly.

NRF has also named nearly 90 lawmakers as "Retail Crime Fighters" in recognition of their commitment to fighting retail crime by sponsoring CORCA. These lawmakers will receive a digital "Proud to be a retail crime fighter" badge to post on their social media accounts as a visible symbol of appreciation and support.

Activate the retail community

Fight Retail Crime Day will rally thousands of retail advocates in a collective grassroots call to action with the aim of delivering a significant volume of messages supporting CORCA to Capitol Hill. Last year, we sent more than 800 messages to Congress on Fight Retail Crime Day and our goal is to far exceed that number. We encourage anyone interested in joining our effort to take action through our grassroots alert and share the link with their networks.

Learn more about Fight Retail Crime Day and sign up to receive all the latest news here. nrf.com


Using Facial Recognition to ID 'Prolific Retail Offenders'
Scotland Yard to use facial recognition tech to nab shoplifters in UK

Scotland Yard on Thursday announced plans to use innovative facial recognition technology to identify London's most prolific retail offenders and shoplifters.

The city's Metropolitan Police force said retail crime is responsible for the loss of an estimated 1.9 billion pounds in revenue in London each year and that alongside financial harm, more than 1,000 cases of abuse and violence against staff are reported annually.

With one in 10 Londoners working in retail, the force said it was important to tackle the issue head-on with an innovative approach.

"We're pushing the boundaries and using innovation and technology to rapidly identify criminals. The results we've seen so far are game-changing. The use of facial recognition in this way could revolutionise how we investigate and solve crime," Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said.

A new joint protocol unveiled as part of the crackdown will see the police joining forces with retailers to focus combined efforts on targeting those causing the most harm. At the end of September, the Met Police said it wrote to 12 leading London retailers asking them to send CCTV images of their top 30 prolific, but unidentified, offenders.

A specialist team at the force is now using facial recognition technology that maps facial features from the CCTV stills against images in the custody image database at a rapid pace, with any matches revealed in around 60 seconds. Within a matter of days, 149 suspects had been identified from 302 CCTV stills, with some suspects wanted for more than one offence.

"This initiative is the latest example of how we're taking a precise and technology-led approach to tackling the crimes that are impacting communities," the Met Police said.

"This approach has allowed us to target our tactics against those causing the most harm to Londoners. We're now exploring how we apply the principles behind this not just against VAWG and retail crime, but against all sorts of crime types," it added. deccanherald.com


Bail Reform's Impact on Retail Theft
Uptick in property crime cases sparks debate on bail reform and repeat offenders
Many believe the way to help end retail theft and property crime in Central New York starts with getting suspects in front of a judge. That's when the district attorney takes over and prosecutes suspects and holds them accountable.

Chuck Keller, who's running for Onondaga County District Attorney, shared that he believes bail reform laws are an issue but they're not the only reason we're seeing an uptick in property crime throughout the city.

In 2019, bail reform was passed by legislation to eliminate cash bail for most misdemeanors and some nonviolent felonies, but as leaders have seen in Syracuse, repeat offenders are committing larceny and shoplifting then being released and committing the same crime over again. The City of Syracuse has seen a 55% spike in shoplifting since 2021.

Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick said on Monday that more often than not, those stealing from businesses like Rite Aid are repeat offenders. Not just once or twice, but sometimes being arrested for theft as much as 29 times.

He later told CNY Central he wants lawmakers in Albany to allow judges to use discretion when a repeat offender appears before them: "When you commit 27 to 28 burglaries and you're still out, and you're still destroying businesses; destroying neighborhoods, you don't have any incentive."

According to the district attorney, in the past 10 and a half months, there have been zero petty larceny trials in Syracuse city courts - despite the nearly 2,500 larceny offenses in the city so far this year.

Recently, Assemblymember Phil Steck, a Democrat in Schenectady, has introduced legislation in the assembly that would give judges the ability to set bail if someone is charged at least three times with the same offense over a period of two years. cnycentral.com


The Great Debate Over Retail Theft Data
The Shrinking Truth About Retailers' Theft Complaints
The recent spate of headlines about the retail theft crisis implies that shoppers have suddenly gone rogue, on a crime spree ranging from cheating at self-checkout kiosks to those brazen smash-and-grab attacks.

But a look behind the headlines suggests there is a problem but not really a crisis. Furthermore, it's less about customer behavior than it is about gaps in merchants' inventory controls and a plague of cheap counterfeit goods available online, which are considered retail theft crimes.

For starters, the notion that shrinkage - the industry term for all categories of missing inventory - is a crisis is not backed up by the math, nor some experts. The biggest headlines were those reporting a study released last month by the National Retail Federation, a trade group, that estimated a 20% surge in total retail "shrink" last year, or about $18 billion worth of goods.

That's a big number, but as a percentage of all retail sales in 2022 (about $5 trillion), the increase represents about one third of one percent - a pretty small number in the overall scheme of things.

Furthermore, the NRF said that when survey respondents were asked to disclose their inventory shrink as a percentage of sales, the average was 1.6%, slightly above a five-year average of 1.5%. And when companies talk about shrinkage they are referring to causes that include goods that are damaged, expired, stolen from warehouses, and stolen by employees.

According to a report on Marketplace.org, Lewis did a deep dive into the issue and concluded that retail theft "remained stable from 2016 to about 2022." She said data on retail theft is scarce and she couldn't find a single agency that breaks out shoplifting as a specific category of crime. forbes.com


Gun Homicide Hot Spots Clustered in the South
America's highest gun death rates are in the South

Cities with the most reported gun-related homicides per capita, 2022

The cities with the highest firearm homicide rates are clustered in the South, generally in states with less restrictive gun laws, according to an analysis by the left-leaning Center for American Progress Action Fund provided exclusively to Axios.

Why it matters: There's a distinct gap between urban firearm homicide rates in blue states - which tend to have stronger gun safety laws - and those in red states, the report concludes.

What they're saying: "There's already a lot that cities are trying to do to address gun violence locally ... but when they're hamstrung by state policies and can't control the flow of guns or how guns are carried in their cities, there's only so much city officials can do." .

What's more, some blue-state cities, like Chicago, are bordered by red states with looser gun laws.

Zoom in: St. Louis had America's highest gun homicide rate in 2022, followed by Birmingham, Ala., New Orleans, Jackson, Miss., and Baltimore.

By the numbers: The average gun homicide rate in blue-state cities was 7.2 per 100,000 residents from 2015 to 2022, the analysis found. In red-state cities, it was 11.1 deaths per 100,000.

Yes, but: Gun homicide rates were higher overall in blue cities - as defined by the mayor's party affiliation - than in red ones. But cities also typically don't have much control over gun laws, experts say.  axios.com

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The Beginning of the End for Self-Checkout?
Opinion: Self-Checkout Is a Failed Experiment

Please, not another "unexpected item in the bagging area."

All is not rosy in the world of self-checkout, and some companies seem to realize it. Walmart has removed the kiosks entirely from a handful of stores, and is redesigning others to involve more employee help. Costco is stationing more staffers in its self-checkout areas. ShopRite is adding cashiers back into stores where it had trialed a self-checkout-only model, citing customer backlash. None of this is an indication that self-checkout is over, exactly. But several decades in, the kiosks as Americans have long known them are beginning to look like a failure.

And then, of course, there's theft. Not only does the act of bagging up your own stuff create new opportunities to make it out the door without paying for everything, but understaffed stores also enable theft overall. The most reliable way to deter shoplifting is to make thieves think they're going to get caught, but when even customers who want to pay for something struggle to flag down an employee, the store has already forfeited that battle entirely. Theft, as well as the losses from the unscanned and mis-scanned items that poorly designed kiosks create, is a trade-off of which retailers are well aware.

But, of course, stores don't really mention self-checkout when they panic about retail theft. Instead of hiring enough people to run a functional store, companies push the task of deterrence onto customers who are already doing the scanning and bagging work of a cashier. By generating widespread fear of a retail-crime spike, stores that rely on self-checkout can deputize the public and put pressure on law enforcement to become more visibly involved: People become more suspicious of the shoppers next to them, local police feel obligated to change patrols to ensure that stores are safe, and governments pour additional public money into theft prevention.

Some retailers seem to realize that they may have overcorrected in their swing toward unmanned checkout, and are adding more human labor back into the checkout process on a trial or permanent basis. Still, self-checkout kiosks as they are currently constituted are likely to persist for years to come, because the machines were so expensive to install in the first place.

Amazon continues to tinker with its Amazon Go store format, which requires you to check in to the store from the company's app but lets you leave with no checkout at all. Perhaps that is the future, but for now, a familiar limitation of many grand tech-industry promises endures: At the bottom of all the supposed convenience, you do actually just need a lot of people to operate a store. theatlantic.com


Workplace Safety Rankings
New ranking reveals Rhode Island, Connecticut and Arizona are the best states for workplace safety
A new study has revealed the safest states for workers with Arizona being named the third safest alongside Washington. Not only did the two states report just 2.1 fatal injuries per 100k full-time workers over the last year- for Arizona this figure has dropped by 32% compared to the year before.

Researchers at Venture Smarter ranked each state based on the average number of fatal work injuries reported per 100k full-time workers, according to the latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This data also reveals which states have seen a year-on-year increase in deadly incidents and where workers are now less at risk than previously.

You are least likely to have a deadly workplace accident in Rhode Island, with a rate of just one fatal injury per 100k. Following behind Rhode Island, the second safest place for workers is Connecticut, with only 1.4 fatal injuries reported per 100k. Deadly accidents are also decreasing in the state, as the rate decreased by 22% compared to the year before.

Joining with Arizona, Washington ranked third with 2.1 incidents reported per 100k in the latest data. This is a 16% decrease from the fatalities reported the previous year.

The findings also show states that are in need of improving workplace safety such as Wyoming with an injury fatality rate of 154%. Wyoming has 10.4 fatal workplace injuries per 100k.

A spokesperson from Venture Smarter warns employees to be vigilant of workplace hazards and urges employers to prioritize safety. kvoa.com


Retailer Honors First Responders
JCPenney launches initiatives to benefit first responders

Department retailer JCPenney has announced new initiatives to honor National First Responders Day on Oct. 28.

From Oct. 27 to Nov. 2, the retailer will donate a portion of sales from its The Workshop collection of apparel matched by a donation of $100,000 to the American Red Cross. The donation will go towards the Red Cross Resuscitation Suite Training Courses, which offers education resources for licensed first responders.

In the Workshop collection, shoppers will find a combination of national brands like Dickie's, CAT, Berne, and more, as well as the retailer's private brands.

"We recognize the essential role first responders play in our communities - from extinguishing fires to being first on the scene of an accident, they make every moment count to protect and support the communities they serve," said JCPenney chief customer officer Katie Mullen. "At JCPenney, we strive to do the same and offer our customers the attention, value, choice and shopping experience they deserve, in a way no other retailer can." chainstoreage.com


Thrift store chain case was no bargain for Washington attorney general; legal fees top $4.2 million
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson's long-running legal case against the thrift store chain Savers Value Village turned out to be no bargain, as the state has been ordered to pay the company nearly $4.3 million in legal fees.

King County Superior Court Judge David Whedbee issued the award on Tuesday, eight months after the state Supreme Court unanimously rejected the attorney general's claims that marketing practices by the thrift store chain were deceptive. The judge called the state's lawsuit "needless." knkx.org
 

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'Walmart Responsible AI Pledge'
Walmart commits to secure, transparent AI usage

Walmart is issuing a new public guarantee that it will only develop and deploy artificial intelligence (AI) technology in a safe and ethical manner.

The discount chain is releasing the Walmart Responsible AI Pledge. The pledge is centered around six commitments that the company says highlight how customers, members and associates can expect us to use AI responsibly, and throughout all phases of AI technology:

1. Transparency: Walmart will commit to helping customers, members and associates understand how data and technology, including AI, are being used by the company and what its goals are as it uses AI.

2. Security: The retailer will use advanced security measures to protect consumer data. Walmart will commit to continuously reviewing security practices aimed at mitigating current and emerging threats.

3. Privacy: Walmart will commit to evaluating AI systems so that the sensitive or confidential information it stores is used in ways that protect privacy.

4. Fairness: The discounter will evaluate AI tools for bias that have the potential to affect the lives of its customers, members and associates. Walmart will seek to mitigate bias and commit to regular evaluations.

5. Accountability: Walmart will use AI managed by people and commit to holding itself accountable for the impact of AI.

6. Customer-centricity: The retailer will measure customer satisfaction with AI interactions and listen to feedback, and commit to continual reviews of its AI tools to ensure the technology is accurate, relevant and helping consumers and employees.

In July 2023, chief Walmart rival Amazon joined six other high-tech companies in a Biden administration-supported initiative committing to the safe, secure and transparent development of AI. The other participating companies are Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and Inflection.

Walmart develops AI tools: chainstoreage.com

 
140K Devices Exposed?
Tens of Thousands of Cisco Devices Hacked via Zero-Day Vulnerability

Tens of thousands of Cisco devices have reportedly been hacked via the exploitation of the zero-day vulnerability CVE-2023-20198.

While the networking giant's blog post suggests that CVE-2023-20198 was exploited in targeted attacks, two cybersecurity companies claim the implant actually reached tens of thousands of Cisco devices.

Vulnerability intelligence firm VulnCheck started conducting an internet scan using indicators of compromise (IoCs) provided by Cisco and quickly saw over 10,000 compromised switches and routers, but the company noted that the scan had yet to be completed so the actual number is likely higher.

LeakIX, which scans the internet for vulnerable systems, reported seeing the malicious implant on roughly 30,000 Cisco devices, including many in the United States, Philippines, and Latin America.

A Shodan search shows that more than 140,000 Cisco IOS XE devices exposing their web user interface. VulnCheck has made available an open source tool that can be used to scan for the malicious implant.  securityweek.com


Federal agencies are falling behind on meeting key privacy goal set five years ago

Several federal agencies are playing catch-up on meeting recommendations from NIST detailed in a 2018 framework for how government should incorporate privacy into their risk management strategies.

Nearly five years after standards were established for how federal agencies should incorporate privacy concerns into their risk management strategies, many have still failed to do so, illustrating the major hurdles the U.S. government faces in safely collecting and storing a wide range of personal data that relates to everything from peoples' health care information to national security.

These findings come a year after a report from the Government Accountability Office concluded that 14 agencies had failed to incorporate privacy into their risk management strategies. Federal agencies' delays in meeting these standards illustrate both the complexity of managing privacy concerns among an ever-growing federal IT bureaucracy and a lack of consequences for failing to implement them. cyberscoop.com


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Stores in Gastonia, Hickory fall victim to trend of stolen Lego sets
Gastonia Police say two men stole thousands of dollars' worth of Lego sets from the Target on Cox Road Wednesday morning. The big-box retail store is the latest business to be hit recently by thieves looking to cash in on the high-dollar toy sets. "It's one of those things where you are like, 'You should always listen to your gut feeling,' you know?" said Jimmy Woody, owner of Back in Time Collectibles. When four people entered Woody's collectible store in Gastonia trying to sell Lego sets, his gut suspected something was off. But he bought them. But what he didn't know at the time was that they were stolen. While thieves are trying to sell Woody their stolen merchandise, national retailers like Target are the ones being stolen from. Gastonia Police say the suspects involved with the theft there Wednesday appear to have committed the same crime at other stores. This summer, Hickory Police say a suspect stole two shopping carts full of Lego Star Wars sets. Target Loss Prevention reported the toys were valued at $2,000. In April, police in Overland Park, Kansas, searched for two people who stole thousands of dollars' worth of Lego sets, again from Target. In Franklin Tennessee, police are seeking to identify shoplifters accused of stealing six Lego sets from the local Target.  qcnews.com


Kearny, NJ: Solid Detective work pays off; suspect identified in TJ Maxx/ Marshalls theft
For two months, Jean investigated the shopliftings allegedly done by the same person at the Marshalls store. These are the reported dates and net proceeds: March 10, $549.91; March 12, $1,079.80; again on March 12, $744.78; April 3, $419.93; April 23, $389.93; April 26, $809.88; and May 3, $409.91 Surveillance was ultimately conducted and the suspect, Wanda A. Devers Benitez, 42, of Newark, was identified. Jean learned she was also shoplifting at a TJ Maxx in Bayonne and a Marshalls in Jersey City. She was surveilled after one of those shoplifting incidents, too, by another agency.  theobserver.com


Springfield, MO: Police arrest 2 for causing crash after theft from Harbor Freight
Police arrested two people wanted for causing a crash outside of a Springfield store after a theft at a nearby store. Officers responded to the crash on North Kansas Expressway, near I-44, around 2:45 p.m. on Thursday. Investigators say the man stole items from the Harbor Freight store. Witnesses told police he jumped into a blue SUV and took off. Investigators say he crashed into a truck heading northbound on Kansas Expressway. Witnesses chased the man after he left the crash on foot. The crash injured two others in the truck.  ky3.com


Columbus, OH: Thieves get away with $40,000 in merchandise from Columbus gaming store

Wilkes-Barre Twp, PA: Three accused of stealing from Targets across Eastern PA; Dyson Vacuums, Coffee Makers, and other various electronic items

Oklahoma City, OK: The Multi-County Grand Jury has indicted 4 men for operating skimming devices in central Oklahoma

Irvine, CA: The Irvine Police are searching for a man who stole two Keurig coffee machines from a Target store
 

NRF has declared Oct. 26 as Fight Retail Crime Day

 A day of action to unite the retail community to advocate
for solutions in combating organized retail crime.