Another Successful RILA AP Conference Wraps Up in Denver

By Barbara Jones, CEO & Founder, Freeing Returns

The RILA Asset Protection conference finished up yesterday. The morning session began with Walmart's VP of Asset Protection, Christyn Keef and Sr. Director of AP, Joshua Ridgeway describing how to create value for customers while doing asset protection. Author Amanda Ripley spoke on the science of conflict-- both good and bad. Private investigator Michelle Stuart's workshop was excellent. She gave new ways to look at bad actors-- not just with exception-based reporting but also using social media for more data points.

On the flight back to Atlanta, I reflected on my gratitude for how the conference went. The Gaylord Rockies hotel was phenomenal. RILA staff did a great job organizing everything. Bravo to the entire conference team.

My highlight? Meeting all of you! One person in particular who I loved meeting (again) was Elizabeth Rush, a divisional LP director at Lowe's. She and I first met at RILA back in 2017 and she'd been following my company's growth and development since then. Elizabeth has been cheering us on. Looking forward to seeing you all at the next LP event.

Registration is now open for RILA's 2024 Retail Asset Protection conference, which will take place April 14-17, 2024 in Dallas, TX.

     


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San Francisco's Crime 'Doom Loop' is Pushing Away Retailers
After Nordstrom store closures, what can SF do to stop the retail exodus?
Nordstrom’s decision to shutter two San Francisco stores at Fifth and Market streets, including its massive flagship at the Westfield mall after 35 years, is another gut punch to a downtown battered by the exodus of more than two dozen retailers during the pandemic.

The loss of Nordstrom, a neighboring Saks Off 5th store and other global brands like Uniqlo, Gap and H&M hurts not only the city’s sales tax base and labor force, but also the vitality of critical downtown streets where tourists flock, helping shape San Francisco’s global reputation.

The city’s economic malaise was brought on by remote work and the pandemic, but some city officials and Nordstrom’s landlord also blamed an inadequate response to crime as a key reason for the spate of closures in the city’s chief shopping district.

Last week, on the same block as Nordstrom’s flagship store, an alleged shoplifter at a Walgreens was fatally shot by a security guard. And, three blocks west on Market Street, Whole Foods closed temporarily last month after what shoppers called rampant theft and drug use, including an overdose death in a store bathroom last year.

Weeks of grim news have fueled a debate over public safety and how the city can best promote an economic recovery — or at least stop the bleeding of losing store after store, which feeds into fears of an economic “doom loop.”

Amid the turnover, there’s hope among city officials that changes to zoning laws could promote a more diverse array of businesses in the empty retail floors that Nordstrom and others are leaving behind.

Nordstrom said downtown San Francisco “changed dramatically over the past several years, impacting customer foot traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully.”

Mall owner Westfield was more blunt, blaming the retailer’s closure in part on “unsafe conditions” and “lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity.”  sfchronicle.com
 
   RELATED: What’s really going on with crime in San Francisco?


It's Not Just San Francisco: Big City Retailers Across U.S. Grapple with Crime 
Nordstrom Is Closing San Francisco Stores as Cities’ Retail Pain Grows

Lower levels of foot traffic, perceptions about crime cloud picture for merchants in large cities

San Francisco's closures also reflect the challenges that merchants face in key business districts in large cities across the country, as they deal with rising operating costs, concerns about crime, and foot traffic remaining well below prepandemic levels.

The problems in San Francisco and other locales are becoming more acute as business owners and consumers rethink spending plans amid concerns about an economic slowdown. Some mayors have pushed businesses to reinstate office attendance mandates as a way to boost commerce—and potentially tax receipts—in key areas.

“Downtown America has been particularly hard hit by this combination of higher interest rates and working from home,” said Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management in New York.

The loss of Nordstrom adds to the exodus of office and retail tenants out of San Francisco, following one of the slowest returns to in-person work in the country. Dozens of stores have shuttered over the last three years in downtown and adjoining areas, including H&M, Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap and Crate & Barrel in and near Union Square. Other large retailers such as Whole Foods Market and Walmart this year have announced plans to close stores in urban areas.

San Francisco has a lower violent crime rate than many other major cities, but one of the highest property crime rates. Robberies, motor vehicle thefts and larceny theft all increased in 2022 from the year prior, according to police statistics, while homicides were flat.

Large retailers have been vocal about the problems they face in urban and other locations regarding an increase in shoplifting and other community issues. Executives from chains such as Home Depot and Best Buy have said they were stepping up locking away items on store shelves to prevent theft and keeping close tabs on high-risk goods. wsj.com


Drugs & Higher Felony Theft Thresholds Fueling ORC Surge?
Expert says violent, organized retail crime on the rise across Midstate
Metro Police say they have not seen an increase in organized retail crime, but an officer we spoke with who works for Krogers across the state says he has seen an uptick in these types of thefts.

Imagine seeing a group of people running into a store and within 10-15 seconds, they clean out shelves, and then they're gone, which is what investigations manager for Kroger’s Organized Crime Unit, Glenn Alred, says happens on a regular basis.

“What is kind of the driving force behind it?” asked FOX 17 News' Kaitlin Miller. Drugs, a lot of the people who steal are motivated by drugs or money and it’s a very lucrative business," replied Alred.

Alred explains his unit goes after the high-end thefts and he says these thieves go on to sell these products on the black market, which is very lucrative, or he says they sell the products for drugs.

Alred says a major change with this type of crime recently has been an uptick in violence.

He says in 2017 Tennessee’s law changed making $1,000 worth of stolen goods and above a felony instead of what it used to be: $500.

“It’s really hurt retailers because they were fighting it already at $500 and now the felony is $1,000, so instead of people going to jail for stealing $900 they are getting a ticket,” Alred said.

He says there needs to be more laws and more prosecution and adds it also would be a good idea for retailers to join forces.

He says the more people come together, the more they can generate more ideas for new laws. fox17.com


Walmart's Battle Against Self-Checkout Theft Makes Global Headlines
Walmart issues warning over self-checkout theft as it plans new technology to crack down
US retail giant Walmart is testing new technology to try and tackle self-checkout theft and shoplifting from stores. Walmart, along with many stores is facing an increasing issue with theft and is now testing new technology in Canada to try and tackle self-checkout theft and shoplifting from stores.

Walmart's US CEO Doug McMillon previously said there is a growing problem with stealing in stores and warned that the increase in shoplifting could even lead to increased prices in stores and closed stores if the problem persists.

Speaking to CNBC in December he said: "Theft is an issue. It's higher than what it has historically been."

Canadian stores are facing similar issues so the new technology is being tested there and could then be rolled out. The company said it has been working on internal processes and in collaboration with the Retail Council of Canada (RCC) to fight the stealing issue.

Walmart President and CEO in Canada, Gonzalo Gebara, told CTV News: "We have been working on internal processes. We have been working on investing in technology."

He continued: "We have been very well connected with the RCC and collaborating with everyone so that we can make our stores the safest place for our customers to shop and for our associates to work."

There has been discussion around self-checkouts, with some people warning they are part of the problem - but the company has insisted it has no plans to cut back on self-checkouts in response to rising thefts. mirror.co.uk


Shoplifters Emboldened By New York Lawmakers Refusing to Fix Bail Reform 
Opinion: Albany did absolutely NOTHING to undo bail reform damage and make New Yorkers safer
To listen to our politicians you’d think everything in New York City was hunky-dory. “We’re safer than Chicago, Philadelphia and Baltimore,” they say. New York has been safer than those cities for decades.

Crime here declined even as crime rose in those cities — until the 2019 bail reform.

The mayor touts the city’s 125 murders so far this year, an 8% decline, as “progress.” If you were honest about crime, you’d compare city crime now with crime in 2019, before these criminal-justice “reforms” took effect. Then you’d see the havoc these laws have created.

Murders are up a staggering 44% from the same period in 2019. Index crimes (murder, rape, robbery, burglary, felony assault and auto theft) are UP 47% from 2019. Reported petit larcenies are UP 36%, but you have to wonder why anybody even bothers reporting petit larcenies these days.

In response to these sobering numbers, the only “substantive” change legislators made in the law was to change the requirement that the judge set the “least restrictive conditions that will reasonably assure the defendant’s return to court” to a requirement that the judge’s conditions of release must “reasonably assure the defendant’s return to court.”

This change, by itself, will mean little because a judge still cannot consider whether the defendant poses a danger to the public or is at a high risk of reoffending. A judge still cannot, except in very limited circumstances, set bail on defendants charged with “nonviolent felonies” or misdemeanors.

Car thieves, drug dealers, shoplifters, commercial burglars, pickpockets, phone thieves and catalytic-converter thieves, for example, CANNOT have bail set no matter how many prior convictions they have, unless they have another open case.

Thus a defendant arrested for shoplifting who has dozens of prior convictions could literally tell the judge to hurry up with the arraignment because he has to get to Macy’s to steal a suit for his future court appearances, and the judge could not set bail on him. nypost.com


74% Decrease in Law Enforcement Deaths - 33 Year-to-Date
7 Deaths in April: 5 Gunfire - 1 Illness - 1 Vehicular Assault
In April, 7 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty. The cause breakdown (April 2023 only) is: 5 gunfire, 1 9/11 related illness, and 1 vehicular assault. This means that the year-to-date total for line of duty deaths is at 33, a 74% decrease from the same time last year.

The Officer Down Memorial Page extends our deepest condolences to the families, friends, and agencies who lost a loved one to a line of duty death this past month. We encourage our supporters to read the memorials of each of the officers who died in the line of duty.  odmp.org

America Seeing 'Remarkable' Surge in Mass Killings
Frequent shootings put US mass killings on record pace

97 people have been killed in the 19 mass killings in 2023

This year, the United States continues to experience a high frequency of mass killings. The recent incident in which four individuals were fatally shot inside an RV in California marks the 19th mass killing of the year.

Violent incidents have erupted across the United States, and have been motivated by a variety of factors. These include murder-suicides and domestic violence, gang reprisals, school shootings, and workplace grievances leading to acts of vengeance.

Mass killings are happening with staggering frequency this year: an average of nearly one a week, according to an analysis of The AP/USA Today data.

The 2023 numbers stand out even more when they are compared with the tally for full-year totals since data was collected. The U.S. recorded 30 or fewer mass killings in more than half of the years in the database, so to be at 19 a third of the way through is remarkable. foxnews.com


Another Progressive DA Facing Backlash
Innocent LA father killed after DA Gascon gives violent career criminal multiple diversions
A violent career criminal who was on the streets and not in jail because she was assigned mental health treatment instead of prison time is accused of killing an innocent Los Angeles father.

Jade Simone Brookfield, 23, was arrested in April and charged with murder after she allegedly fatally stabbed 40-year-old Dennis Banner during an argument in a street. Law enforcement sources tell Fox News that Brookfield had a lengthy criminal history for alleged assault, assault with a deadly weapon and multiple violent felonies with knives, but she had inexplicably avoided incarceration and was repeatedly given mental health diversions.

It took a family losing their father for Brookfield's diversion to be terminated, and only now is the suspect finally being held in custody. This heartbreaking case is a prime example of the disaster that can happen when California's loose mental health diversion laws combine with progressive L.A. District Attorney George Gascon's soft-on-crime approach to seek diversion whenever possible. foxnews.com


Business owners eager for Portland retail theft task force to get to work

Atlanta 'active shooter' situation leaves at least 1 dead, 4 injured