RILA-NDAA Retail Crime Partnership in the News
Retail Industry Joins With Law Enforcement to Keep Communities Safe

The aim of the partnership is to focus resources on cases that are vital to public safety.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) are entering a first-of-its-kind national partnership to combat retail crime.

The launch of the collaboration follows a summit held on June 30, which brought together leading retailers and prosecutors' offices from around the country to establish open lines of communication between prosecutors and retailers, identify common challenges, share information on repeat offenders, and work together to identify criminal networks targeting local retailers.

Bringing together prosecutors and retailers is essential to combatting organized retail crime and keeping communities safe, the associations jointly stated. Law enforcement agencies at multiple levels, including the federal government, have established the nexus between organized retail crime and violence, as well as broader criminal activity that includes human trafficking, cybercrimes, drug trafficking, domestic violence and sexual assault.

By sharing information and working together to identify the organized criminal networks operating in communities, the aim of the partnership is to focus resources on cases that are vital to public safety.

Through the partnership, NDAA and RILA will develop training, best practice guides, thought pieces, policy papers, webinars and other educational resources for retailers, prosecutors, law enforcement and communities.

To kick off the partnership, the two organizations will host a webinar on Oct. 8 on the new retail theft task force recently launched by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in Phoenix.

More information on training courses is available here.  csnews.com

Read more about the partnership in the D&D Daily's Special Report here

Bridging the Crime Data Gap
Estimates Will Help Fill in Crime Statistics Gap

Transition to NIBRS crime statistics ongoing

When the annual Crime in the United States (CIUS), 2021 data is released this fall, it will look different from previous releases. CIUS 2021 will only represent state-level data and federal data reported by law enforcement. In conjunction with CIUS, the FBI will release a trend study that will look at a year-over-year change in violent crime and property crime.

The reason for the change is that not every law enforcement agency in the U.S. has successfully moved to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) for reporting their crime data to the FBI. With support from the FBI, some agencies have been reporting crime statistics via NIBRS for more than 20 years. After the CJIS Advisory Policy Board adopted the recommendation in 2015 to retire the traditional Summary Reporting System and transition to the more comprehensive NIBRS by January 2021, more agencies made the switch to NIBRS reporting. Every state is now NIBRS compliant and can accept NIBRS data. A few major cities, however, are still working on the transition.

Crime estimates will fill in the gaps where data is not available this year. Estimation has been associated with the release for more than 50 years. This year, FBI data experts will use robust estimation tools, developed in collaboration with the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, to create the most accurate crime estimates possible during this transition period.

Although this year may present a challenge for those studying and addressing crime in the short term, in the long term, NIBRS will be a more effective system. It will have better data and will help law enforcement and communities improve public safety.

As of June 1, more than 12,000 law enforcement agencies are reporting their information to NIBRS. This outpaces last year, when less than 11,000 agencies reported NIBRS data for the entire year. All reported data will still be available on the Crime Data Explorer. fbi.gov

Business Leaders Rethink Doing Business in Big Cities as Crime Surges
Goldman Sachs CEO laments NYC crime: ‘The city is certainly less safe’
Goldman Sachs boss David Solomon lamented the surge in crime in New York City, which he says has become “a little grittier and a little dirtier” — a key factor that he said has kept his employees away from the office.

High-profile incidents of violence have made it harder for Mayor Eric Adams and business executives like Solomon to convince New Yorkers in the tech and finance sectors to return to the office full-time. Solomon said gone were the days when the city was “extraordinarily” safe and he was comfortably raising his kids in a low-crime environment.

The latest New York City crime figures obtained by The Post show a rise in stabbings citywide. Since the start of this year, there was an 11% rise in the number of stabbings through Aug. 7 compared to the same span last year.

Fatal stabbings rose a whopping 43% — from 48 to 69 — during the same period, according to the data. Law enforcement officials have blamed bail reform laws that allow recidivist criminals back onto the street even after they are arrested.

The rise in violent crime nationwide has also prompted other businesses to re-evaluate their location. Earlier this summer, Ken Griffin, the hedge fund billionaire, announced that he was moving his company, Citadel, out of its longtime headquarters of Chicago in favor of Miami.

According to official statistics provided by the Chicago Police Department, there has been a 16% decrease in the number of murders from the start of the year through Aug. 7 — from 474 a year ago to 396 this year. But there has also been an 18% increase in the number of robberies, a 32% increase in burglaries, a 67% increase in theft cases, and a 54% increase in motor vehicle theft, according to CPD data.
nypost.com

Why NYC Doesn't Feel Safe Anymore
Op-ed | Reviving NYC: Tackling crime and recidivism
Rising crime gets most attention when it comes to negative perceptions about the safety of the city. Hardly a day passes without headlines featuring tragic shootings, smash and grab robberies, brazen shoplifting, senseless hate crimes, and violence against subway riders and transit workers.

Statistics released last week by the mayor and NYPD support the argument that the criminal justice reforms enacted by the state in 2019 have contributed to increased recidivist offenses by a relatively small number of repeat offenders.

These conditions did not start with the pandemic. A crucial contributor may have been legislative action that dates to 2016, when the New York City Council and the de Blasio administration decriminalized so-called quality of life offenses, changing longstanding standards for how seriously we take violations like littering, public urination, and public consumption of alcohol and drugs. Arguably people should not go to jail for these offenses, but they also should not be deemed acceptable behavior.

Mayor Eric Adams was elected to make our city safe and livable. He is taking action to do that, for example, with increased police presence in the subways, getting unprecedented numbers of illegal guns off the streets, expanding funding for violence interrupters, tightening policies around garbage storage and collection, and expanding psychiatric beds and services.

But the mayor cannot achieve a safer and more livable city on his own, nor will fixing the criminal justice laws and processes be the cure-all solution for what makes New Yorkers feel unsafe.

If we want our city to feel safe and secure again, we cannot stand by and ask government to solve every problem. New Yorkers have it within their power to take the collective actions to ensure that we remain the safest big city in America and the world. caribbeanlife.com

Retail Crime is a Global Crisis
'Brazen, organised and violent': Increase in retail crime a societal issue
Retail crime is organized, brazen and violent and costs the country more than $1 billion a year, according to a retail advocacy group. Retail NZ chief executive Greg Harford said smash and grabs, ram raids and general burglaries were significant issues impacting the retail sector across multiple locations and were often committed by the same offenders.

His comments came after an incident at Downtown in Palmerston North last Tuesday, when about 30 teens assaulted food court staff and damaged and stole property. He said there was no single silver-bullet solution to retail crime, which was a significant societal issue that required multiple approaches.

Retail NZ had supported recent law and policy changes to address the increase in crime, which was costing Aotearoa an estimated $1 billion a year, he said.

“Retailers across the country are valued members of communities, we know that Kiwis support multiple steps to address this escalating issue.”

A spokesperson for Downtown on Broadway said security at the centre had been increased following last week’s incident, and they were working proactively with police to assist with inquiries. stuff.co.nz

SouthCoast police acquire greater firepower as mass shootings increase

Hochul targets toy guns in bid to reduce New York crime

US: 95M Cases - 1M Dead - 90.2M Recovered
Worldwide: 598.3M Cases - 6.4M Dead - 572.3M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 362  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 793
*Red indicates change in total deaths

No More Hazard Pay for Grocery Workers
Seattle City Council repeals $4 hazard pay for grocery workers
On August 2, the Seattle City Council voted 5 to 2 to repeal the hazard pay mandate on grocery stores with over 500 employees. The move will result in a massive pay cut for thousands of workers in the area when it goes into effect by September 10.

The mandate, originally passed in February 2021, required stores to provide a $4 hourly pay increase to all workers, in addition to their regular pay. Councilwoman Teresa Mosqueda sponsored the legislation to appease grocery workers, who were fed up with being paid abysmally low wages despite the sacrifices they made every day as “essential” workers.

The decision is driven by the nationwide campaign to rip up the last public health measures implemented during the pandemic, under the guise that coronavirus is “endemic” and will never be brought under control. It comes as the CDC ends recommendations on social distancing and quarantining, paving the way for yet another massive surge of cases in the fall.

By ending the mandate, the council members are also enforcing the suppression of wages which has preoccupied the entire political establishment. The Federal Reserve under Biden has raised interest rates in a bit to prevent a “wage-price spiral”—that is, wages which keep pace with the rising cost of goods.

Grocery workers are a highly exploited section of the working class. Decades of sellout agreements negotiated by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) have driven down their wages, benefits and working conditions. They often get paid close to minimum wage, which is currently $17.27 in Seattle, one of the most expensive cities in the country. According to Bankrate, rent prices jumped 29 percent from 2021 to 2022, with Seattle’s average rent now standing at around $2,774 per month. wsws.org

CDC Plans to Speed It Up & Use Plain Language
CDC director announces agency overhaul, says it must ‘do better’ after COVID-19 review
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday that the agency “did not reliably meet expectations” and would overhaul its operations after an external review found shortcomings in the COVID-19 response.

The review, begun in April, comes after the CDC faced heavy criticism for its stumbles both in the early days of the pandemic and more recently, with critics pointing to confusing guidance and slow responses.

The CDC said Wednesday that it is taking a number of steps to change its culture and prioritize direct public health impact over a more academic mindset.

The agency said in a summary of potential changes that its “guidance documents are confusing and overwhelming; the website is not easy to navigate.”

It said it is considering restructuring its website and producing “plain language” guidance and also said it “takes too long for CDC to publish its data and science for decision making.” thehill.com

California officials warn of misleading COVID rapid test results
At-home coronavirus screening has become a way of life for many Californians, but some medical experts are now cautioning that one test may not be enough to definitively determine whether someone is infected.

Updated COVID boosters could be available in 3 weeks

U.S. to end purchase of COVID vaccines as industry pivots to commercial market

More Retailers accused of using Clearview app to catch shoplifters
Lawsuit filed against retail giants in Illinois alleges biometric data privacy violations
A group of major retailers with stores in Illinois are facing a potential class action lawsuit alleging they violated the State’s biometric data privacy rules by contracting Clearview AI.

The Cook County Record reports that after their attempt to include a new set of retailers including Kohl’s, Walmart, The Home Depot and Best Buy in multi-district litigation against Clearview for the use of its facial recognition was rejected, plaintiffs filed a new suit in federal court.

The suit alleges that each retailer used Clearview’s biometric service to search faces captured on their surveillance cameras against the company’s database of images scraped from the internet.

The new allegations include claims under the Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act’s rules on collecting informed consent from people before capturing their biometrics, providing a written policy on biometric data retention and destruction, profiting from people’s biometrics and disclosure or dissemination of biometric data. Those rules are covered in BIPA Sections 15 (a, b, c and d). biometricupdate.com

Big Pharmacy Chains Held Responsible for 'Fueling Opioid Epidemic'
CVS, Walgreens and Walmart Must Pay $650.5 Million in Ohio Opioids Case

A federal judge ordered the big pharmacy chains to bear partial responsibility for the deadly drug crisis.

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered three of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains — CVS, Walgreens and Walmart — to pay $650.5 million to two Ohio counties, ruling that the companies must be held accountable for their part in fueling the opioid epidemic.

The decision is a companion piece to a November jury verdict that found the companies had continued to dispense mass quantities of prescription painkillers over the years while ignoring flagrant signs that the pills were being abused.

The ruling is the first by a federal judge that assigns a firm money figure against the pharmacy chains for their roles in the opioid crisis. Here, the judge, Dan A. Polster of United States District Court in northern Ohio, who has overseen more than 3,000 cases in the opioid litigation, ruled that the pharmacies bore responsibility for one-third of the amount that Ohio’s hard-hit Lake and Trumbull counties need to address the continuing damage wrought by the epidemic.

Representatives for CVS, Walgreens and Walmart expressed their disappointment in Judge Polster’s ruling and said their companies would appeal. Fraser Engerman, a spokesman for Walgreens, described the judge’s analysis as flawed, and said the company would appeal. “We never manufactured or marketed opioids nor did we distribute them to the ‘pill mills’ and internet pharmacies that fueled this crisis,” he said.

Michael DeAngelis, a CVS spokesman, also said the company would appeal, adding, “Pharmacists fill legal prescriptions written by D.E.A.-licensed doctors who prescribe legal, F.D.A.-approved substances to treat actual patients in need.”

Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for Walmart, said: “Instead of addressing the real causes of the opioid crisis, like pill mill doctors, illegal drugs and regulators asleep at the switch, plaintiffs’ lawyers wrongly claimed that pharmacists must second-guess doctors in a way the law never intended and many federal and state health regulators say interferes with the doctor-patient relationship.”  nytimes.com

Sexual Harassment & Retaliation at McDonald's
McDonald’s workers say sexual harassment and retaliation persist

Employees say they have been fired and written up after reporting sexual harassment to corporate HR

Workers at McDonald’s, the largest fast-food chain in the world, are highlighting sexual harassment and retaliation against workers at its stores, an issue they say persists despite claims of reforms and changes by McDonald’s in recent years.

Rosalia Manuel of San Jose, California worked at McDonald’s for 24 years, first starting when she was 17 years old. On 8 July, Manuel was fired from her job, a decision she says was made in retaliation for reporting the sexual harassment of a co-worker to corporate HR, while she was told the termination was because she didn’t take a work break early enough in her shift.

In 2020, a class-action lawsuit was filed against McDonald’s in the US over systemic sexual harassment issues in restaurants, representing 5,000 women at more than 100 McDonald’s locations. A judge denied the company’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in 2021.

In April, McDonald’s reached a $1.5m settlement over a separate class-action lawsuit filed in 2019 over sexual harassment issues in Michigan.

On 28 July, a worker at a McDonald’s in New Orleans, Louisiana, filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s for sexual harassment they experienced on the job and retaliation they experienced for reporting it to management in late 2020 and early 2021.

An international coalition of labor unions in 2020 filed a complaint with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in the Netherlands against McDonald’s, accusing the company of systemic sexual harassment globally, citing numerous incidents in the US, Brazil and France. theguardian.com

Apple Shortchanged 15,000 Retail Workers Over Security Bag Checks
Judge OKs Apple’s $30M employee settlement over bag checks
A federal judge in California has signed off on Apple’s $30.5 million settlement in a nearly decade-old lawsuit claiming the company shortchanged 15,000 retail workers by not paying them for time spent in security checks after their shifts.

US District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco approved the settlement in the 2013 class action on Saturday. The California Supreme Court in 2020 used the case to rule that state law requires employees to be paid when they go through mandatory security screenings.

Walmart and Amazon are also among major US employers to face similar lawsuits. Amazon and a staffing agency last year agreed to pay $8.7 million to 42,000 warehouse workers to settle one of those cases.

The plaintiffs in Apple’s case claimed retail workers often waited several minutes after clocking out, and sometimes longer, to have their bags checked before they could leave the stores where they worked.

Alsup had dismissed the case in 2015, saying the workers were not under the company’s control during security checks because they were not required to bring personal items to work that would have to be screened.

A federal appeals court asked the California Supreme Court to decide whether time spent in post-shift screenings had to be compensated under state law.

The state court in 2020 ruled against Apple, saying it was impractical to expect employees not to bring personal belongings to work. The federal court then revived the case and Alsup last year said he planned to grant summary judgment to the plaintiffs and order a trial on damages. nypost.com

Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed Over Nike Murder
Nike Sued By Family Of Murdered Man, Killed During Violent Incident Over Sneakers
Nike is facing a wrongful death lawsuit, filed by a grieving mother, whose son was murdered during a violent incident over a pair of shoes.

According to new legal documents, obtained by The Blast, the woman is suing the shoe giant -- along with Shoe Palace -- a Los Angeles retail store where her son was working at the time of the incident.

In the filing, the woman claims on August 11, 2021, her 26-year-old son was working at the store during a Nike shoe release event. At the time, a raffle was being held to determine who would get the new shoes, a pair of Nike "Dunk Low" sneakers. On that day, the mother says her son died at his workplace, "attempting to defend his girlfriend and coworker from a group of violent men at a Nike release raffle event."

The victim -- Jayren Bradford -- was reportedly coming into work that day when he "witnessed an altercation." A group of male customers was at the raffle booth, "appearing to be angry about something with their raffle tickets." His girlfriend, and coworker, was working the event at the booth, "without any form of security and without any type of training on how to deal with this type of violence." The lawsuit states, "Worried for his girlfriend, the employee approached the booth attempting to diffuse the situation. However, this group of male customers shifted their aggressive energies to (him), which ultimately led to the shooting." yahoo.com

The rise and fall of Bed Bath & Beyond
Once one of America's most beloved big-box retailers, it's now on the brink

Hy-Vee Expands Rollout of Self-Scanning Solution

Stores and suppliers clash over price hikes as shoppers hit by sticker shock

Hearing aids approved for sale over-the-counter


Quarterly Results

BJ's Wholesale Club Q2 comp's up 7.6%, membership fees up 11.3%, total sales up 19.8%

Krispy Kreme Q2 organic growth up 8.9%, net sales up 7.5%

Tapestry Q4 sales up 1%, Full Year sales up 16%
   Coach Q4 net sales up 2%, FY up 16%
   Kate Spade Q4 net sales up 1%, FY up 20%
   Stuart Weitzman Q4 net sales down 15%, FY up 12%

Khol's Q2 comp's down 7.7%, net sales down 8.5%
 

Senior LP & AP Jobs Market

Director of Safety & AP job posted for VASA Fitness in Centennial, CO
The purpose of the Safety & Asset Protection is to ensure a safe environment for our team members and members through establishing processes and procedures and monitoring all assets in the club. The Director will investigate and resolve asset losses, member injuries, physical conflicts; and support the operations team through education and coaching, to ensure processes and policies related to safety, risk, compliance, and asset protection (AP) are followed and minimized. indeed.com