Vector Security Networks Debuts the Forklift Security Cam for Loss Prevention and Forklift Orderpicker Safety at ProMat 2023

All-in-one solution helps warehouses, fulfillment and distribution centers improve operations, manage risk and mitigate loss.

PITTSBURGH, March 14, 2023 – Vector Security® Networks, a division of Vector Security®, Inc., and the single-source provider of physical security solutions and managed network services to multi-site businesses across North America, will debut the Forklift Security Cam, a one-of-a-kind multi-sensor video solution for loss prevention and forklift orderpicker safety at ProMat 2023, March 20-23, in Chicago.

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ORC Task Forces Popping Up Across the Country
Local task forces emerge as an effective means to disrupt these criminal organizations

Why Retailers Need Task Forces To Fight Organized Retail Crime
The fight against ORC is a complex challenge that calls for action on a multitude of levels. It’s encouraging to see both the U.S. House and Senate considering bills that would strengthen the federal response to this continuing issue. But the legislative process is slow moving — and retailers need solutions faster than the gears of Washington can turn.

Establishing Greater Coordination

That’s why it’s so promising to see local task forces emerge as an effective means to disrupt these criminal organizations on a broad scale. By establishing greater coordination between law enforcement agencies, local government, and retailers — and by deploying data analysis to identify the root causes of the issue, rather than the symptoms — these partnerships leverage the most advanced and targeted methods to detect and deter behavior related to ORC.

Across the country, states like Washington, Colorado, Illinois, Utah, and California are taking matters into their own hands by launching and expanding task forces dedicated to fighting ORC. These types of task forces are gaining popularity because they’re a mutually beneficial way to stop organized crime.

Oftentimes, law enforcement cannot devote resources to cases that initially appear as low-level retail theft. Retailers, on the other hand, depend on law enforcement and prosecutors to root out criminal organizations and bring bad actors to justice.

Data Collection Technology

Recognizing broader patterns of organized crime is not easy, which is why ORC task forces have become the preferred tool of choice for so many states and cities. By working together under the umbrella of a task force, all involved parties can share data that helps them quickly identify where ORC is happening, how it’s happening, and who’s behind it.

At their core, the ORC task force is a refinement of existing law enforcement techniques, enhanced by surveillance and data collection technology that reduces crime by helping to catch repeat offenders earlier. Typically, a retailer’s asset protection team would conduct an internal investigation by collecting video and transaction data about ORC, then deliver it to law enforcement and prosecutors for further action.

Law Enforcement Work - Retail Parking Lots - Law Enforcement Resources - Organized Retail Crime: securityinformed.com

Is Crime Fueling Store Closures?
Big city store closures spark a nationwide political dispute

US retail stores’ closure sparks debate
The closure of retail stores in some major US cities has sparked a political dispute about the reasons, with organized shoplifting rings and employee safety often cited.

Recently, the mayor of Portland, Oregon, Ted Wheeler, said the largest US retailer Walmart is leaving the Northwest city because of crime.  “The retail industry is changing and retail theft is a national issue,” Wheeler said.

Footwear giant Nike, headquartered in Oregon, had offered to pay off-duty Portland police officers to provide security at one of its stores. Nike has said that the problem is nationwide, and some of its warehouses and even trains carrying its merchandise have been hit.

In a March 8 hearing on a bill in the Oregon Senate, law enforcement officers, grocery store representatives and lobbyists for the retail industry backed increasing jail time for those involved in organized retail theft.

Retailers say the main problem is organized rings that involve multiple suspects rushing through stores and stealing large quantities of goods. In New York, there also have been problems with repeat individual offenders.

New York Mayor Eric Adams has endorsed Governor Kathy Hochul’s plan to allow judges more leeway in determining bail amounts for criminal defendants.

Last year, legislators in California, Florida, Louisiana and North Carolina increased penalties for stealing from stores. Under an amended law in Louisiana, those caught stealing as part of a group could face up to seven years in prison.

Retail industry executives in San Francisco blame a 2014 ballot measure that reclassified nonviolent thefts as misdemeanors for goods worth less than $950. In November, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced efforts to curb rising retail crime. bloombergnewstoday.com


Is the Death of Data-Driven Policing Fueling NYC Crime?
Opinion: Why NYC crime policy-makers are now ignoring data
Last month, at the City University of New York, I lectured about how evolutions in data-led policing strategies helped New York City reduce annual murder numbers from 2,245 in 1990 to just 292 in 2017 — and from 93 annual fatal police shootings in 1971 to just six a half-century later.

In the 1990s, CompStat — which tracks crime and holds precinct commanders accountable for their numbers — pushed police to identify more nuanced patterns in this data, such as when shootings coincided with illegal dice games.

These insights enabled cops to disrupt lower-level offenses, while preventing more serious crimes.

But today, even relative progressives like Mayor Adams are having little luck with data. Last month Adams requested data-driven legislative changes that would help keep the 327 shoplifting recidivists responsible for 30% of the city’s retail theft from causing more mayhem.

But his proposal was dismissed—a pattern that will likely persist unless our data-hostile climate changes. Data is also becoming more difficult to come by following a suppression in record-keeping as a result of the 2017 Raise the Age legislation.

This city used to care about intelligent, informed policymaking – because we cared about actual New Yorkers’ outcomes. Now we only care about whose version of reality sounds (or feels) the least racist.

The city achieved truly meteoric declines in violence, imprisonment and use of police force by letting the data tell us nuanced — sometimes unintuitive — stories. If we keep muffling that data, we will never see those wins again. nypost.com


Biden's New Executive Order on Expanding Background Checks
Biden to sign new executive order on guns, expanding background checks

Two months after a deadly California shooting, the president will unveil a plan to expand background checks without Congress.

President Joe Biden will sign an executive order aimed at expanding background checks during his visit Tuesday to Monterey Park, Calif., where 11 people were gunned down in January. The White House said the move will get “the U.S. as close to universal background checks as possible” without legislation, as Congress remains gridlocked on the issue. Gun safety advocates have pushed administration officials on this front for months.

The executive action will direct Attorney General Merrick Garland to address a background check loophole by clarifying the definition of “engaged in the business” of selling firearms, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters late Monday ahead of the announcement. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed last summer updated federal law, requiring anyone who sells guns for profit to be licensed and conduct background checks on buyers. By clarifying who qualifies as a gun dealer, the federal law will require a greater number of sellers to conduct background checks on prospective buyers.

The executive order also directs members of Biden’s Cabinet to focus on raising public awareness of red flag laws and safe storage of guns and to address the loss and theft of firearms, the official said. The president will also take additional steps aimed at holding gun manufacturers accountable, including by encouraging the Federal Trade Commission to analyze and report how gun manufacturers market firearms to minors. politico.com


NYPD's 'Alarming' Police Exodus Continues
NYPD cops resigning in new year at record-breaking pace — with a 117% jump from 2021 numbers
New York City cops are resigning at a record-breaking pace this year as the NYPD’s alarming exodus continues, according to new data obtained by The Post.

“The NYPD staffing emergency is approaching the point of no return,” said Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch.

The shocking stats show 239 officers tapped out in January and February, a 36% spike from the 176 who fled in the same period last year and a disturbing 117% jump from the 110 in 2021, NYPD pension data show.

That’s the highest number of resignations for the first two months of a year since 250 members quit in 2007 during a contentious contract dispute,

“The NYPD needs to be rebuilt from the ground up — it’s unfixable in its current state,” a veteran Manhattan cop told The Post. nypost.com


Will 2023 Be a Record-Breaking Year for Mass Shootings?
Already a bad year for mass shootings in the US
It only took until March 5, or 64 days, for the US to reach 100 mass shooting incidents in 2023. That was the quickest timeframe since at least 2014, when it took 159 days, according to Gun Violence Archive.

A mass shooting is defined as an incident where four or more people were shot, excluding the attacker.

As of March 5, 149 people had been killed and 399 people injured in mass shootings, a rise of 75 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively, compared to the same period last year. ft.com


FBI releases revised hate crime stats showing 12% increase in 2021
More than three months after the FBI released incomplete data about documented hate crime incidents across the U.S., supplemental figures published Monday found that reports of bias-motivated attacks rose by nearly 12% in 2021.

‘Rapist’ was out on the streets thanks to NY’s soft-on-crime attitude

Michigan lawmakers to roll out gun reform bills