More States Increase Jail Time for ORC Rings
Tougher laws & robot security guards. How North Carolina is fighting rise in organized retail theft
Cabarrus County District Attorney Ashlie Shanley says organized retail theft is happening across the region, state and country.

Stolen merchandise costs North Carolina businesses more than $3 billion in 2021, according to the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association. Shanley has seen a steady increase in these kinds of organized retail theft rings over her 25 years working in the criminal justice system.

But now Shanley’s in a position to influence how organized retail crime is handled at a national level. This summer, Shanley was appointed to chair the National Organized Retail Crime Advisory Board. Created last year by the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the National District Attorneys Association, the board works to promote improvements in retail security.

CHANGING RETAIL THEFT LAWS

Given the scope of organized retail theft, state and federal lawmakers are working to strengthen laws dealing with such crimes. In January, a bill introduced in Congress would establish an Organized Retail Crime Coordination Center at Homeland Security to help further investigate organized retail crime rings. Meanwhile, a new law in North Carolina will increase potential jail time for organized retail crime rings. In December, state legislators passed the “Organized Retail Theft” bill, which allows prosecutors to combine the value of stolen goods across county lines, allowing for more serious felony charges. It’s the difference between putting someone in jail for about three years, or more than 19 years, Cabarrus County GOP Rep. Kevin Crutchfield said.

Another bill, this one sponsored by Crutchfield, would allow for harsher sentencing if the merchandise is from an organized retail crime ring. The bill passed the House but has yet to be voted on in the state Senate. This bill will help prosecutors stop repeat offenders, Ellen said.

TURNING TO ROBOTS TO DETER RETAIL THIEVES

In March, Mooresville-based Lowe's began using 400-pound security robots in select stores as a pilot program, Lowe’s spokesman Larry Costello told The Charlotte Observer. Those robots, made by Silicon Valley-based Knightscope, are in Lowe’s stores in the Charlotte area, Costello said.

Lowe’s wants to prioritize using technology to enhance its efforts against retail theft, as well as be proactive with customers service and asset protection, Costello said in an email.  charlotteobserver.com


California's Employee-vs-Shoplifter Bill in the News
Legislators Propose Bills to Address Employee Injury Due to Shoplifting
As retailers grapple with how to protect employees from shoplifters, legislators are working on bill that would protect workers from workplace violence due to theft.

Legislators in the California Assembly nixed a provision of S.B. 553 that would require businesses to have anti-violence strategies. The bill, retailers said, would have made it illegal for workers in retail stores to stop shoplifters.

The provision was removed, officials said, when businesses complained that the proposed legislation would prevent them from having any employee, even security guards, stop shoplifters. Businesses said the bill essentially left them without any security.

Incidents of employees injured, or even killed, seem to be on the rise. Retailers are reporting increases in the number of thefts. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), retail stores reported losing more than $94 billion in 2021 because of theft and other shrinkage factors. Organized retail theft – when groups of shoplifters act in unison – was up 26.5 percent, a survey by the NRF found, with 80 percent of those surveyed reporting that violence and aggression associated with organized event was also up.

According to the National Retail Association, more than 37 percent of retailers said in a survey that their policy is that employers are not allowed to intervene if they catch someone shoplifting.

"More and more we’re seeing the risk being brought into the stores, and people being hurt, or people even being killed in many cases because of these folks," Home Depot Vice President of Asset Protection Scott Glenn said earlier this year. "They just don't care about the consequence."

Mark Walls, vice president of client engagement at Safety National Casualty Corp., told Business Insider the issue is complicated. Many retailers already have policies in place keeping workers from stopping or approaching would-be shoplifters. At the same time, retailers have faced lawsuits following incidents where shoplifters were detained by retail stores but not charged. workerscompensation.com


Retailers Worldwide Deploy Body Cams to Fight Theft & Violence
Coles supermarkets to introduce body-worn cameras at 30 stores to combat theft and violence

The cameras will be fitted to workers and will beam vision back live to management.

An Australian supermarket giant will arm workers with new devices to combat the increasing number of threats against staff and a shoplifting scourge that costs the industry $9 billion annually.

Coles will roll out body-worn cameras across 30 high-risk stores in South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. You may have already noticed them, with security guards and retail staff having trialled the wearable recorders over the last few months.

Coles transformation general manager Sophie Wong said the company was adapting to an increase in retail crime, as well as growing physical and verbal abuse targeted at staff amid increasing cost-of-living pressures.

The cameras will be fitted to workers and beam vision back live to management. “(It enables) us to understand in real time what is happening to our team members and the community as well,” Wong said.

Retail experts say theft costs Australian businesses about $9 billion every year. Wong said the cameras comply with Australian privacy laws and regulations and that Coles would not hold on to the vision “for any longer than a few weeks”.

Body-worn cameras, which have also been trialled by other supermarket chains including Woolworths, are just one element of the fight against crime, with Coles also investing in duress watches. 7news.com.au


'Soros-Backed Rogue Prosecutors' Fueling Big City Crime
Opinion: Organized shoplifting is a $100B problem. Here's why we're all screwed

Theft is hurting businesses big and small, as shoplifting costs jobs and even lives

Corporate America is finally waking up to the fact that woke policies on crime are costing them billions. Organized shoplifting efforts and flash mobs of robberies across the country caused businesses $100 billion in losses in 2021 and have only gotten worse since then according to the National Retail Federation.

And a lawless society is bad for business. Big companies, from Whole Foods, Walmart and Walgreens to Nordstrom, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Lululemon and more have all suffered. Mom-and-pop businesses have suffered too.

As a result, companies have closed stores, revised earnings estimates, and taken hits to their top and bottom lines, resulting in loss of shareholder value and harm to the communities they serve.

But why is this happening now? The answer is simple: George-Soros-backed rogue prosecutors. In big cities across the country, these so-called public servants refuse to prosecute petty thieves and even go so far as to call their illegal behavior "quality of life" crimes which, according to them, don’t harm anyone.

Not only do these crimes hurt businesses, large and small, they also harm the people who work in those businesses and the city residents who shop at those businesses. Plus, employees and customers face danger from these offenders too.

There is a common-sense and simple solution to this recent phenomenon. Prosecute every person who steals, even if it’s a misdemeanor. Why? Because not doing so contributes to a lawless society, and criminals must be held accountable.

It's time for local district attorneys in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, New York City and elsewhere to do their jobs. Businesses large and small, their employees, customers, shareholders and investors deserve no less. foxnews.com


Stores Across the Pond Either Closing Or Turning Into Security Fortresses
High street shops are turned into fortresses with everyday goods under lock and key amid shoplifting epidemic

Stores introduce extra guards, security barriers and body cams for employees

High street stores are being turned into fortresses amid a shoplifting epidemic – with everyday items from duvets to washing powder put under lock and key. The problem has even led to the Co-op warning some communities could become 'no-go' areas for shops.

And a Sainsbury's in south London, which was once the chain's biggest supermarket in the country, is set to shut later this year with staff claiming theft is one of the factors behind the decision.

Fortress stores are introducing extra guards, electronic security barriers at self-service tills, body cameras for employees and even facial recognition systems to spot known shoplifters. Some retailers are putting dummy packages on sale – for products such as coffee – which have to be taken to the till to be swapped for the real thing.

It comes after The Mail on Sunday yesterday launched a major campaign to crack down on shoplifting, a crime now so widespread a theft takes place every two seconds.

Our sister paper had backing from political and business heavyweights in its call for the police, Crown Prosecution Service and courts to be much tougher with shoplifters, and for a change in the law to make abuse or violence towards staff a specific offence.

Generally, officers do not attend and prosecute reports of shoplifting if the value of items taken is below £200.

The British Retail Consortium has reported a 27 per cent surge in losses due to shoplifting which has, in some cases, become organised looting, taking the figure close to £1billion a year. dailymail.co.uk


Illinois' statewide no-cash bail policy begins Sept. 18
Ending cash bail could bring ‘chaos,’ increased taxpayer costs, opponents warn
Judges will still have discretion about who should remain behind bars pending trial. “What those are are generally crimes that are classified as forcible felonies, so involving some element of violence or threatening another person,” Ruddell told The Center Square.

Ken Good, an attorney and member of Professional Bondsmen of Texas, predicts things will be chaotic.

“Your criminal justice system will collapse unless they just are hiding it by dismissing cases until people decide to work together to find policies that will provide public safety,” Good told The Center Square.

In an Op-Ed, state Sen. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport, said the 48 hours prosecutors have to make the case to hold a criminal defendant pending trial will be during a time when a crime may still be under investigation. That will require more taxpayer resources, Chesney said, to comply with a “very high bar.”

“The law is mostly silent about how weekends and holidays affect this schedule, so courts are now looking at adding Saturday and holiday hours, and additional personnel to ensure compliance,”

Good said Illinois’ policy could lead to many criminal defendants not showing up for hearing dates.

“They have to commit another crime to come back into the system so you’re going to have people not show up for court and you don’t have the manpower or the people to do anything about it,” Good said. thecentersquare.com


McDonald's Theft Prevention
Say goodbye to self-serve soft drinks at McDonald's
The owner-operators interviewed by the State Journal-Register said several factors contributed to axing the soda machines from dining rooms, including food safety, theft prevention, and fewer dine-in customers.

My day watching shoplifters at the stores under siege by thieves
Cheese, wine and steak is being placed under lock and key as Britain’s shops face an epidemic of brazen petty crime.

Minnesota's violent crime went down in 2022, but not significantly

Allen declines to release additional records related to mall mass shooting