ORC: The Fastest-Growing Workplace Safety Threat?
Organized retail crime is a threat to workplace safety
One of the least-discussed yet fastest-growing threats to workplace and consumer safety is organized retail crime. Instead of one individual engaging in isolated acts of petty theft, organized retail crime is strategic and significant theft, orchestrated by sophisticated and coordinated crime syndicates.

Organized retail crime is not going away, and government inaction is allowing this black market to grow, putting Nevadans in harm’s way. The harm comes in a few different forms.

First, such crime is driving up the cost of goods when businesses must raise prices to offset this increasing level of theft. Second, the people engaging in this activity are experienced and organized, and they are in stores, working as teams, to distract employees and move merchandise.

Finally, consumers are put at risk when not just stolen merchandise but, especially, counterfeit merchandise is sold anywhere from garage sales to online marketplaces.

There are things that our government can and should be doing to counter this growing trend. Last year the Legislature declined to enact legislation that would have increased transparency in online marketplaces. The pandemic accelerated online commerce, which, in turn, brought more crime to the internet. Retailers reported a more than 20 percent increase in fraud using multichannel sales between 2020 and 2021.

These stolen goods were then flooded into online marketplaces as consumers searched the internet for the best “deals” while many stores were still limiting in-person shopping.

Las Vegas is in the top 10 U.S. cities most affected by organized retail crime, and the crime syndicates running this racket are the same groups engaged in human, drug and gun trafficking as well as terrorism. Our state and local governments need to make more funding available for investigating and prosecuting organized retail crime as well as aggressively pursue federal grants.

The missing piece to this puzzle is the government’s response to prosecution. There are laws on the books, and our local, state and federal law enforcement officials are doing the investigations. But until our elected district attorneys and our appointed U.S. attorneys start prosecuting these cases like organized crime and not like petty theft, this problem will continue to grow and keep our communities at risk. reviewjournal.com

Anti-Theft Product Lockdowns Making the News
With theft on the rise, these are the 'hot products' that drug stores are most likely to lock up

Companies opt for plastic anti-theft cases as employees are prohibited from stopping shoplifters.

As inflation rises, concerns about theft are increasing, too — and stores are opting for more security to address the issue. Spam, the canned meat product priced at $3.99 for 12 ounces, is the latest item to be locked up in an anti-theft case at a Duane Reade location in New York City.

A can of Starkist Tuna — $1.89 — is also locked up at the city's Port Authority bus depot, located in an area where crime is up 52% according to Fox News.

"To put Spam in a cage is stupid — and kind of insulting to the customers that would buy it," shopper Dennis Snow said in the Fox News report. Grand larceny has gone up 41% in New York along with robbery and burglary going up 34% and 36%, respectively, Fox News reports.

The most commonly stolen items from stores include cigarettes, over-the-counter medications, contraceptives, liquor, teeth-whitening strips, and health and beauty products. Retail loss expert Adrian Beck explained to CNN that drug stores are targeted for carrying these "hot products," and stores must protect the "vital few" profitable items over the less lucrative "trivial many."

Many companies prohibit store employees from stopping shoplifters, but the plastic anti-theft cases only go so far. "I don't think they stop anything," a store clerk said to Fox News about the anti-theft cases. "It's security theater. If you really needed it, you would stomp on it." businessinsider.com

America's Mass Shooting Epidemic
Why Are There So Many Mass Shootings in the United States?
Like the United States, much of Latin America is saturated with firearms, and military-style rifles play a significant part in gun violence. Yet by one measure, Latin American countries are stunningly divergent from their North American counterpart: mass shootings by a “lone wolf” gunman are exceedingly rare.

Amid an unrelenting series of gun massacres, many have asked why the United States is more prone to mass shootings than any other country. Americans had barely begun to process the horrific killings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas—just ten days apart in May 2022—before being confronted with yet further shootings, in Highland Park, Illinois, on July 4, and Greenwood, Indiana, on July 17. As after earlier such incidents, the policy response has been hampered by politics: many Democrats, and those supporting stricter gun laws, assert that lax controls on the gun market are to blame; Republicans, and defenders of unfettered gun rights, maintain that a pathological culture and mental illness are the real culprits.

But as Latin America shows, the United States is hardly alone in having large quantities of guns. And the causes that Cruz and others have identified for this “cultural sickness”—fatherless families, declining church attendance, antisocial video games and online content, bullying on social media—are also prevalent in many European countries. Still, no other region of the world comes close to the United States in mass shootings.

In fact, the United States stands out internationally for two important and interrelated reasons: easy access to guns and a culture that privileges a largely unfettered individualism. Partly as a result of cultural forces that are stronger in the United States than in many other parts of the world, a larger sliver of men and boys, lacking effective social supports, become aggrieved outcasts, and in extreme cases, are driven to seek recourse in indiscriminate violence.

Combined with the ready availability of weapons, the considerable privacy and autonomy that U.S. culture offers to these anti-social boys and men ensures that more of them will act on their murderous fantasies. In no other part of the world do gun access and culture interact in the same way: Although many European countries share the same cultural forces that produce aggrieved social outcasts, they place far greater restrictions on guns. foreignaffairs.com

Will This Crime-Stopping Plan Catch on Nationwide?
Portsmouth plans to give residents free doorbell security cameras to deter crime

Interim Police Chief Stephen Jenkins said city leaders will hand out free doorbell security cameras starting next month.

Police are stepping up surveillance in Portsmouth. Interim Police Chief Stephen Jenkins said the department plans to issue free doorbell cameras to residents to help curb crime in the city. Some residents welcome the idea.

Jenkins said city leaders are working to get more cameras in the community as a crime deterrent. Starting next month, the city will hand out free doorbell cameras, called Blink, with a one-year membership included.

"It's changing the folk that participate from community members to community partners," said Kenny Miller, a retired Petersburg police chief and 40-year law enforcement veteran. Miller said doorbell cameras are an effective way to increase surveillance, even in areas with already existing cameras.

“Now, instead of one camera on the corner, I can have ten on the block," he said. City leaders hope residents and businesses register their cameras with police, so investigators can access the devices if a crime happens nearby.

Portsmouth police are also working to launch a Real Time Crime Center to serve as an information hub, according to Jenkins. 13newsnow.com
 
State Legislators Conf. Reviewing Arrest Alternatives & Bail Reform
Great to see the content - Retailers should have an educational & impact session

National Conference of State Legislators
2022 NCSL Legislative Summit, Aug. 1-3

Criminal Justice policy, research and news.

State Legislators planning criminal justice segments at their upcoming conference. From police response to mental health treatment to pretrial detention and bail reform. It'll be interesting to see the impact. Here's a look at three segments:

Event: Five Big Ideas To Improve Crisis Response
Many people who lack access to mental health treatment end up arrested or in emergency rooms—which doesn't always mean the best care. Join us Aug. 1-3 at the NCSL Legislative Summit in Denver to hear faculty pitch ways to change the status quo from leveraging the new 988 crisis hotline to crafting arrest alternatives.

NCSL Resource: Updated Pretrial Policy Resources
NCSL has new and updated 50-state resources on pretrial policy topics including state constitutional rights to bail, pretrial detention, pretrial risk assessment tools and legal presumptions created by statute to guide court pretrial decision making. These resources and more 50-state pretrial information can be found on NCSL’s pretrial policy state laws page.

NCSL DATABASE:
With unprecedented legislative action in the last three years on law enforcement policy, NCSL has updated and added sections to the Law Enforcement Statutory Database. New 50-state information is available on investigation and prosecution of use of force, law enforcement officer bills of rights, collective bargaining and community oversight. Search the full database for information on twelve policing policy areas. mailchimp.mp ncsl.org

New Zealand: Reports of retail crime nearly double in 5 years
Reports of retail crime - from shoplifting to vandalism and ram raids - have almost doubled in five years, with police and the sector confirming a "violent trend".

'Clear' online warning signs pre-dating mass shootings going unchecked: Why?

Misogyny is fueling the country’s gun violence epidemic, experts say

US: 93.2M Cases - 1M Dead - 88.3M Recovered
Worldwide: 583.3M Cases - 6.4M Dead - 553.8M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 360  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 787
*Red indicates change in total deaths

The Post-COVID Remote Work Debate is Over
What Remote Work Debate? They’ve Been Back at the Office for a While.

Cubicles are largely empty in downtown San Francisco and Midtown Manhattan, but workers in America’s midsize and small cities are back to their commutes.

The competition for parking space is getting steeper. Commutes are inching longer. Workplace lounges are filling up with commotion as junior associates play cornhole. What return-to-office debate? In some parts of the country, it’s been settled.

More than two years into the pandemic, American corporate workplaces have splintered. Some are nearly as full as they were before Covid-19 struck; others sit abandoned, printers switched off and Keurig cups collecting dust.

Workers in America’s midsize and small cities have returned to the office in far greater numbers than those in the biggest U.S. cities. Some executives in large cities are hoping they’ll catch up, though they’ve been impeded by safety and health concerns about mass transit commutes, as well as competitive job markets where employees are more likely to call the shots.

In small cities — those with populations under 300,000 — the share of paid, full days worked from home dropped to 27 percent this spring from around 42 percent in October 2020. In the 10 largest U.S. cities, days worked from home shifted to roughly 38 percent from 50 percent in that same period.

Offices have filled back up fastest in areas where Covid lockdowns were shortest and where commutes are done by car, according to Mr. Davis. Many cities in California and New York, in particular, have been slower to return to the office than those in Florida and Texas. nytimes.com

NYC Retail's Pandemic Rebound & Evolution
New York City’s Retail Investment Market is Poised for Greater Activity
Many of the businesses that have grown stronger under pandemic conditions have heavily or exclusively shifted to delivery rather than on-premise shopping or dining. Similarly, some landlords have leased former retail spaces as small-scale fulfillment centers that put operators close to the densely populated neighborhoods they serve.

These distribution-focused businesses are often eager to take well-located spaces and may be less concerned than traditional retailers with having showrooms, storefronts and exterior visibility to potential customers.

With fewer customers visiting stores in-person, many landlords and retailers have downsized the showrooms in their properties. This can reduce overall size to make leased space more affordable and can free square footage to process growing volumes of order processing for shipping and returns, making spaces more appealing to today’s retailers. rebusinessonline.com

National Vaccine Shortage
California, Illinois declare states of emergency over monkeypox

White House to Appoint National & Deputy Monkeypox Coordinators

California, the most populous state in the United States, had recorded 827 monkeypox cases as of Monday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — second to New York, which had recorded 1,390 cases as of Monday and last week declared a public health emergency. Illinois had recorded 520 cases. The nationwide tally is more than 5,800.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared an emergency in response to the monkeypox outbreak. The city its cases double in one week and now reach 310 people with infections, over a third of the more than 786 cases reported statewide.

There are increasing concerns about the federal supply of monkeypox vaccines. The United States recently received hundreds of thousands of additional doses, but is not expected to receive another shipment until October at the earliest — with cases expected to continue multiplying until then amid a dwindling supply of shots. washingtonpost.com

'Living with COVID': Where the pandemic could go next

Biden covid case highlights confusing CDC guidance on ending isolation

T-Mobile Franchise Owner Ran Worldwide Cellphone Black Market Even After T-Mobile Terminated Contract For Unlocking Cellphones
Fraudulently unlocking hundreds of thousands of cellphones & Using overseas call centers

Former Owner of T-Mobile Store in CA Found Guilty of Committing $25M Scheme to Illegally Unlock Cellphones
LOS ANGELES – A former owner of a T-Mobile retail store in Eagle Rock has been found guilty by a jury of 14 federal criminal charges for his $25-million scheme to enrich himself by stealing T-Mobile employee credentials and illegally accessing the company’s internal computer systems to illicitly “unlock” and “unblock” cellphones, the Justice Department announced today.

Argishti Khudaverdyan, 44, of Burbank, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, two counts of accessing a computer to defraud and obtain value, one count of intentionally accessing a computer without authorization to obtain information, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, five counts of money laundering, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Khudaverdyan ran a multi-year scheme that illegally unlocked and unblocked cellphones, which generated approximately $25 million in criminal proceeds. During this time, most cellphone companies – including T-Mobile – “locked” their customers’ phones so they could be used only on the company’s network until the customers’ phone and service contracts had been fulfilled. If customers wanted to switch to a different carrier, their phones had to be “unlocked.” Carriers also “blocked” cellphones to protect consumers in the case of lost or stolen cellphones.

From August 2014 to June 2019, Khudaverdyan fraudulently unlocked and unblocked cellphones on T-Mobile’s network, as well as the networks of Sprint, AT&T and other carriers. Removing the unlock allowed the phones to be sold on the black market and enabled T-Mobile customers to stop using T-Mobile’s services and thereby deprive T-Mobile of revenue generated from customers’ service contracts and equipment installment plans.

From January 2017 through June 2017, Khudaverdyan and a former business partner were also co-owners of Top Tier Solutions Inc., a T-Mobile store in Eagle Rock Plaza. However, after T-Mobile terminated Khudaverdyan’s contract in June 2017 based on his suspicious computer behavior and association with unauthorized unlocking of cellphones, Khudaverdyan continued his fraud.

Rare case and worth the extra read: Continue Reading

Risk Mitigation:

"Preparedness Mind-Set Becoming More Important As Climate Change Intensifies."
They're Sounding the Alarms on Intensified Storms & Wildfires

Wildfire Season Is Now All Year, Forcing Businesses to Think Ahead

Every U.S. state but Delaware had wildfires last year, meaning companies nationwide should take steps to mitigate risk, experts say

As the U.S. gets hotter, wildfires are becoming a year-round challenge for businesses nationwide, though experts say proactive measures can help.

“It’s about not being reactive—it’s about being proactive,” said Richard Standring, a senior risk consultant at insurer Allianz SE. “No states are immune from wildfire. The map is really being redrawn.”

Though wildfires are a national concern, California, the usual U.S. wildfire epicenter, remains the most imperiled. The state has more than two million properties at high to extreme risk from wildfire, far more than second-place Texas with about 718,000 properties at risk, according to an analysis by Verisk Analytics Inc.

Insurance premium payments have risen 300% to 400% from the previous year in California.

Insurers, have led much of the work trying to mitigate the damage from weather events, including wildfires. Pushing businesses to spend far more time thinking about wildfire response.

Steve Hernandez, a risk control expert at CNA, said that businesses have broadly become more aware of the risks, and C-suite executives and board members have started to take an interest in modeling scenarios of how things might go wrong and running table-top exercises.

That preparedness mind-set has become more important as climate change intensifies.

“Events have transitioned from a wildfire season to a wildfire year.” wsj.com

500 Inspections - 300 Violations - + 2 Employee Complaints Drive $1.2M Fine
Family Dollar hit with $1.2 million in OSHA fines for violations at 2 Ohio stores

"Discounting safety: Dollar Tree’s history of ignoring workplace safety,
hazards continues with $1.2M in penalties at two Family Dollar stores in Ohio"

COLUMBUS, OH – One of the nation’s largest discount retailers continues to expose employees to the risk of injuries by flagrantly ignoring workplace safety regulations, this time with hazardous conditions found at two Ohio locations, in Maple Heights and Columbus.

Since 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and state OSHA programs have conducted more than 500 inspections at Family Dollar and Dollar Tree – operated by their parent company, Dollar Tree Inc. – and found more than 300 violations. During these inspections, OSHA routinely find exit routes, fire extinguishers and electrical panels dangerously obstructed or blocked; unsafe walking-working surfaces; and unstable stacks of merchandise.

Following the Ohio inspections, OSHA proposed penalties of $1,233,364 for multiple violations.

“Family Dollar and Dollar Tree stores have a long and disturbing history of putting profits above employee safety,” said Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker. “Time and time again, we find the same violations – blocked or obstructed emergency exits and aisles, boxes of merchandise stacked high or in front of electrical panels and fire extinguishers. Each hazard can lead to a tragedy.”

On Jan. 31, 2022, OSHA initiated an inspection following an employee report of unsafe conditions at the Family Dollar store on Dunham Road in Maple Heights. The agency issued citations for one repeat violation and four willful violations, with proposed penalties of $685,777.

Two weeks later, OSHA opened an inspection on Feb. 10, 2022 in response to an employee complaint of water leaking through the ceiling causing wet floors and ceiling tiles on the floor at the Lockbourne Road store in Columbus. As a result, the agency proposed $547,587 in penalties for one serious and one repeat violation, and four willful violations.

In both inspections, OSHA found hazards related to, obstructed egress, unstable stacks, inaccessible electrical equipment and fire extinguishers, as well as trip and fall hazards caused by water, carts, boxes, trash and merchandise spread throughout walking-working surfaces in the retail areas and storerooms. osha.gov cnbc.com

The Ongoing Union Push
Starbucks union asks to extend pay hikes, benefits to unionized stores

The company said it is unable to make changes at organized stores without bargaining.

With pay increases set to kick in at Starbucks cafes around the U.S. on Monday, labor organizers are asking the coffee giant to extend the benefits to unionized stores as well without going through the bargaining process.

The request comes after Starbucks announced in May that it would hike wages for workers and add other benefits such as credit card tipping by late this year. But the Seattle-based coffee chain said it wouldn’t offer the enhanced benefits to workers at unionized stores because it needs to go through bargaining to make such changes.

In a letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz obtained by CNBC, Workers United said the company can legally offer benefits to employees at unionized stores without bargaining, as long as the union agrees. The letter notes other companywide benefits announced in recent months, including faster sick time accrual and medical travel reimbursement for employees seeking abortions or gender-reaffirming care. cnbc.com

15 Minneapolis Starbucks Workers Stage Two-Day Strike Over Wages
And so it begins.

UK-US deal, legal changes could jeopardize EU data-sharing agreements

Some of America's biggest companies are flashing warning signs on the US economy

The rise, fall, and comeback of Victoria's Secret

Heavy Rain Hits Kentucky as Death Toll From Floods Rises to 37


Quarterly Results

Publix Q2 comp's up 7.8%, sales up 9.3%

Travel Centers of America Q2 store & retail sales up 3.1%, non fuel sales up 10.3%, fuel sales down 1.6%
 

Senior LP & AP Jobs Market

Job Reposted
Director LP & Analytics job posted for Dollar Tree in Chesapeake, VA
The Director of Analytics and Support for Protection measures the effectiveness of asset prevention programs for the enterprise and delivers valuable insights to support the successful operations of the company as it relates to loss reduction. The Director possesses a high degree of knowledge and experience in Asset Protection that is vital to the business operation. The Director must foster good working relationships with corporate work groups to develop and support programs based on data, observations and recommendations to improve inventory shrinkage and operations.  sjobs.brassring.com