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History of Los Angeles Area Organized
Retail
Crimes Association (LAAORCA)
By Detective III Joseph Hopkins, Los Angeles Police
Department, Commercial Crimes Division, Community Business Coordinator
Past
In December 2007, at the direction of former Los Angeles Police
Department (LAPD), Chief of Police (COP), William Bratton, detectives from LAPD,
Commercial Crimes Division (CCD), Southwest, Northeast, and Van Nuys Areas met
with representatives of the Target Corporation to develop specific strategies in
reducing crime in and around their stores. Stores in these areas were selected
due to the high volume of crime in what Target called "Safeness Incidents"
(property theft, theft from motor vehicles, etc.). Sharing information between
the LAPD and Target stores regarding various thefts especially organized retail
crime greatly improved as a result of this partnership.
 After
seeing the impact this newly formed partnership had in helping Target and LAPD
work together to keep crime volume low, CCD assisted in the creation of a
program called Los Angeles Area Organized Retail Crimes Association (LAAORCA)
www.laaorca.org, which would bring various loss prevention store agents
together from the Greater Los Angeles area to share and discuss what ORC crime
trends they were seeing in their stores, how it was impacting the business
community and the use of a real-time intelligence sharing website to keep
retailers and law enforcement professionals aware of any threats.
In April 2009, LAAORCA was founded by a select group of loss prevention (LP)
agents from CVS, GAP, JC Penney, Lowes, Safeway/Vons, Target, Walgreens, a
representative from the National Retail Federation, and LAPD, CCD, Commanding
Officer, Captain Bill Williams and Detective III Kent Oda. Captain Williams,
Detective Oda and a retailer traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico and met with
Kenneth Cox and Craig Davis from Target. Cox and Davis had created a similar
retail program and provided invaluable guidance. Since April 2009, LAAORCA
members have held general membership meetings and tailored a program where law
enforcement and retailers can share information regarding ORC trends with one
another on a continuous basis. This organization is propelled by CCD and not
seen as a single retailer driven program.
Present
LAAORCA now has well over 2,100 members representing over 350 companies and in
excess of 120 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. LAAORCA held
its very first training conference in 2010, with attendance over 600. The
following years thereafter, LAAORCA has recorded attendance from 850 to 1000
each year, free to attendees, which provides an excellent venue for training and
networking opportunities. In addition, LAAORCA held two golf tournaments, one
softball tournament, and made a donation to an under privilege children's
non-profit foundation.
Currently LAPD, CCD, Commanding Officer, Captain John Romero is the LAAORCA Law
Enforcement Co-Chair and Albertsons/Von's/Pavilions, Area Asset Protection
Manager, Mr. Ron Foss, is the LAAORCA Retail Co-Chair.
Future
Prior
to their retirement, Captain Bill Williams, Detective Kent Oda and several
retail members envisioned the expansion of LAAORCA, by creating a regional
partnership to address the underserved areas in the State of California. This
led to the creation of the California Organized Retail Crimes Association
(CAL-ORCA)
www.cal-orca.org, which would address regional needs of the State, while
LAAORCA and the other local ORCA programs continue to resolve issues within
their area. Kent Oda continues to volunteer his time to facilitate and organize
CAL-ORCA's creation.
LAPD, CCD, Detective Joe Hopkins is the CAL-ORCA Law Enforcement Region
Representative as well as the LAAORCA Law Enforcement Liaison. He can be reached
at Telephone No. (213) 486-8739 / E-mail:
34096@lapd.lacity.org.
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