Indiana Retail Organized Crime Coalition -
Fighting ORC Since 2011
 

By Matt Thompson, Regional LP & Safety Director, Lowe's and President of IROCC

This coalition was formed in 2011 when members of the retail community and law enforcement got together to discuss ORC and its impact on our businesses. After trial and error, deciding who should be part of the meeting and figuring out what we wanted to accomplish we have started moving in the right direction. There is still a ton of hard work to do, but I am confident with more support, resources and buy-in from all segments of the retail business we will continue to move forward. Our goal 4 years ago at the initial symposium was just to educate and try and bring as many stakeholders together to discuss ORC, more of a 101 course. Today we are working to create an ORC law for Indiana (like several other states already have), educate law enforcement at all levels and all phases of their careers, build relationships and training, have consistent/standardized store level LP meetings and conduct training with prosecutors. Currently our main focus as an organization is getting the ORC Bill passed in 2016. Click here to view House Bill No. 1363.

We currently have over 300 registered members from all segments of retail, prosecutors, law enforcement and other areas of the retail business. Our site has been up since year one and is funded by our partners at Wal-Mart. The site is used not only to post retail BOLO's but law enforcement from across the state uses it to identify other criminals. As we all know ORC is a gateway crime and there have been many cases solved due to someone from the retail world recognizing and identifying a suspect. We have a mix of retail, prosecutors and law enforcement on the current board of directors. Our meetings have been held monthly up until this point and we are moving towards quarterly with different sub-committees (investigations/training etc..) also meeting quarterly. We have hosted 3 symposiums now and are planning our 4th one in 2016 as well as a separate law enforcement training presentation in the near future. We have held raffles that have helped the Wounded Warrior Foundation as well as provided PD with bicycles.

For more information on this ORC organization and to become a member, click here


Founding Members

Matt Thompson, Regional Loss Prevention and Safety Director, Lowes
Jason Petty, Regional Loss Prevention Manager, Wal-Mart
Russ Sering, Indianapolis Police Department
Rick Jones, Indianapolis Police Department
Mike Daily, District Loss Prevention Manager, JCPenney
Grant Monahan, President Indiana Retail Council
Scott Sunderman, Investigator, Target
Andrew Wignall, Marion County Prosecutors Office
 

Picture of Matt Thompson, President of Indiana Retail Organized Crime Coalition and his team of store level LP Managers during a community event, hosted by Indianapolis Police Department, at which the IROCC put on kids clinic at Broad Ripple Park in Indianapolis.

From Left to Right: Andrea Dalton, Evan Edwards, Matt Thompson (middle),
Braden Pothier (behind Matt), Chris Nilo and Kyle Harrell.