History of Georgia Retail Association Organized Retail Crime Alliance (GRAORCA)
Written by:
Chad McManus, RLPM, T-Mobile and Vice-Chair of Georgia Retail Association Loss
Prevention Council (GRALPC); Dave Magersupp, National Manager of LP, Verizon Wireless and GRALPC Council
Member; Rory Stallard, ORC Manager, The Home Depot and GRAORCA Chair
The Georgia Retail
Association Loss Prevention Council (GRALPC) was formed in 2010 after the
successful passage of the Georgia Smash and Grab act. This legislation was
developed, lobbied, and enacted into law as a direct result of the GRA formed
coalition of Retail Loss Prevention, Corporate and Regional leaders. The
GRALPC's mission was to provide guidance to its membership and law enforcement
partners in the areas of education, professional networking, legislative
initiatives and community outreach. As part of the GRALPC's roadmap for success,
establishing and maintaining an Organized Retail Crime Alliance was something
the members felt was a necessary and an important step in bringing together law
enforcement and retailers to help with the ever increasing challenge of
Organized Retail Crime.
In 2012, the Georgia Retail Association Organized Retail Crime Alliance (GRAORCA)
became a reality. Since its inception, GRAORCA membership has continued to grow
and currently includes over 600 law enforcement and retail loss prevention
professionals from major retailers, specialty chains, and law enforcement
jurisdictions in the state of Georgia and the surrounding Region. The platform
for the alliance is
graorca.org, a secure website which allows approved GRAORCA members to share
intelligence relating to the businesses and communities we serve. Information
includes, but is not limited to, organized theft crimes, robberies,
counterfeiting, check and credit fraud, prescription fraud, identify theft and
other activities perpetrated by organized crime groups. The GRAORCA website not
only enables members to communicate about ORC, but also saves the information in
a written and mapped format, searchable by crime and suspect type. This gives
all members the ability to search the website, connect cases and establish
patterns and trends. In addition members may upload photographs and crime
bulletins to share with the GRAORCA community. GRAORCA also holds a monthly
forum to network and share intelligence, and provide enhanced training in
regards to ORC.
As a result of the intelligence sharing and monthly forums, there have been
multiple success stories. The majority of our successes have started with simple
information sharing between retailers and resulted in multi- jurisdiction
arrests and elimination of ORC groups.
Here are two recent success stories since GRAORCA was formed in 2012:
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●
A multi-retailer case was identified and developed
with Atlanta PD and the Fulton County DA, which resulted in a local
drug dealer arrest who was also acting as a fence buying OTC and
laundry detergent from boosters and reselling to local bodegas.
Arrests were made, cash drugs and guns seized and the realized
retail impact was over $300,000. |
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● Another multi- retailer case involved a traveling ORC group that affected multiple states. An ORC crew was breaking
into locked showcases and taking electronics and designer goods to
resell at flea markets across the Southeast and online. Three major
ORC players were arrested and charged under the RICO statute in
metro Atlanta, the retail impact was over $400,000. |
The GRALPC and GRAORCA
also look to make additional impacts in the state of Georgia. Recently GRAORCA
held its 5th Annual Retail Crime Conference at AmericasMart in downtown Atlanta.
The annual conference brings together 400-500 Law Enforcement and Retail
Security professionals for a full day of networking and training, in an effort
to combat Organized Retail Crime groups that negatively impact the security and
safety of the communities that we do business in. As part of the conference and
mission statement of the GRALPC and GRAORCA, over $30,000 has been donated to
nonprofit organizations such as the Police Athletic League of Atlanta and Care
for Cops. The GRALPC and GRAORCA have also recently partnered with the Criminal
Justice Department of Kennesaw State University to provide scholarships to
students interested in a career in Retail Loss Prevention. GRAORCA also holds
various ORC trainings for law enforcement jurisdictions and leads GRAORCA "Road
Shows", most recently in Savannah where retailers and law enforcement partners
held a meeting to discuss ORC impacts and partnerships outside Metro Atlanta.
As GRAORCA continues to grow, we are focused on continuing to develop
partnerships between Law Enforcement and Retailers in fighting ORC in the State
of Georgia and beyond. GRAORCA also has plans for additional roadshows in 2016,
as well as holding a law enforcement only conference in early 2016. Plans are
also being set for the 6th annual Retail Crime Conference to be held in August
of 2016.
