When Violence Spills In:
How Retail Has Become a Catch-All Stage for Public Conflict

By the D&D Daily Staff

As rates of public conflict rise, retailers are increasingly finding themselves on the frontlines—not just of theft and organized crime, but of broader societal violence.

While theft and shoplifting remain central concerns, security professionals are now grappling with a troubling shift: a growing number of violent incidents in stores are not related to retail crime at all.

Police reports and store surveillance from multiple regions show a rise in altercations that start elsewhere—domestic disputes, road rage encounters, even social media feuds—and escalate inside stores. In one June incident in Phoenix, an argument between two individuals over a personal dispute ended with gunfire inside a supermarket. In another case in Chicago, a confrontation between neighbors turned violent inside a discount store, endangering shoppers and staff who were uninvolved.

According to a recent Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) security roundtable, more than half of surveyed loss prevention professionals said they’ve seen an uptick in “spillover incidents”—violence that is not rooted in theft or store policy but drawn in from outside.

“This is part of a larger pattern,” said one major retailer’s director of safety. “Our stores are public spaces where personal and community tensions are increasingly playing out—sometimes with tragic consequences.”

In addition to organized retail crime, these incidents are prompting new safety measures: staff training in de-escalation, rapid lockdown protocols, and partnerships with local law enforcement aimed not just at shoplifting, but at managing unpredictable public violence.

Retailers are also reevaluating the traditional open-access model of storefronts. Some are exploring architectural changes—single entry/exit points, security vestibules, and mobile panic systems—as ways to better control who enters and how incidents are contained.

As communities face rising tensions, retail has become the spillway—and the risk environment is evolving far beyond loss prevention.


Enforcement of the INFORM Act is Critical in the Fight Against ORC
'As retailers continue their fight against organized retail crime, the law provides a much-needed layer of accountability for online marketplaces'

Retail leaders urge FTC to enforce INFORM Act ahead of anniversary

RILA urges the FTC to use its authority to crack down on illegal digital commerce by ensuring online platforms comply with the INFORM Act.

WASHINGTON — The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) is calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to intensify enforcement of the INFORM Consumers Act, urging the agency to prioritize transparency, accountability, and consumer protection in online marketplaces as the law nears its two-year anniversary.

In a statement on Thursday, RILA urged the FTC to exercise its authority to crack down on illegal activity in digital commerce by ensuring that online platforms fully comply with the INFORM Act’s requirements. The law requires third-party sellers on high-volume online marketplaces to verify and disclose key business information — a measure designed to curb the sale of counterfeit, stolen, or hazardous goods.

“As retailers continue their fight against organized retail crime, the law provides a much-needed layer of accountability for online marketplaces to stop bad actors and it creates an environment of transparency in a previously dark web of fraudulent activity. But for the law to have its greatest impact in protecting consumers and increasing community safety, the FTC must step up enforcement efforts to ensure the collection, disclosure and enforcement of critical information so these criminal actors are identified and prosecuted,” said RILA Sr. Executive Vice President of Public Policy Michael Hanson.

The INFORM Act, which passed with bipartisan support in December 2022, was championed by a broad coalition of stakeholders, including consumer advocates, manufacturers, law enforcement, and intellectual property rights groups. The law empowers both the FTC and state attorneys general to enforce compliance through penalties and rulemaking authority.

RILA’s message to the FTC is clear: now is the time to escalate enforcement. massmarketretailers.com


July 4th Holiday Week Cargo Theft Surge
Heightened cargo theft risk during July 4th holiday week
Verisk CargoNet, an industry leader in cargo theft prevention and recovery, today issued an urgent advisory to the logistics industry warning of significantly increased cargo theft risk during the upcoming July 4th holiday week. Extended business closures generally create advantageous operating conditions for cargo thieves, making this period particularly vulnerable for supply chain security.

Key Findings from Five-Year Analysis

• Peak Risk Days: July 1st and July 3rd represent the highest-risk days during the holiday period, with theft activity generally concentrated around extended weekend closures.

• Dramatic Surge in Theft Activity: Cargo theft rates have escalated far beyond historical norms. While Verisk CargoNet averaged four theft reports per day between 2013-2022, recent years show the problem continues to escalate: eight reports daily in 2023, ten in 2024, and eleven in 2025.

• Geographic Hotspots: California, Texas, and Illinois remain the most targeted states. Logistics operations in Los Angeles County, CA; San Bernardino County, CA; Dallas County, TX; Cook County, IL; and Shelby County, TN face the highest risk exposure.

• Prime Targets: Current theft trends focus heavily on non-alcoholic beverages, vehicle accessories (especially tires and automotive parts), computer electronics, and major appliances.

• Theft Methodology: Reports of direct cargo and vehicle theft continue to significantly outnumber reports of sophisticated fraud schemes, indicating a higher rate of direct action theft during vulnerable periods.

Notable July 4th Holiday Thefts | Industry Impact and Recommendations: ajot.com


New ORC Law Makes More Headlines
Maximum penalties range from five to eight years in prison

This new Oklahoma law targets organized retail theft. How does it work?
After a push from big retailers and law enforcement, a new Oklahoma law will give the state Attorney General the power to prosecute crime rings that steal retail goods to sell online for profit. But a provision to lower the dollar amount to charge shoplifters with a felony didn’t survive.

Under the new law, which takes effect in November, shoplifters can be prosecuted with organized retail crime if at least two aggravating circumstances are present including:

• Two or more people are involved

• Tools like tag cutters, foil-lined bags, weapons or other items that help avoid detection are used

• Those involved use fire escapes, employee exists or other non-public exits

• Anti-shoplifting or inventory control devices are removed, destroyed or deactivated

• Someone possesses or purchases the stolen items with the knowledge that they were stolen

• A getaway driver or a rented or stolen vehicle is used

• A fraudulent, paper or obstructed license plate is used

Maximum penalties range from five to eight years in prison, depending on the value of the stolen merchandise. Anyone convicted of organized retail theft must pay restitution to the retailer where the merchandise was stolen.

The Oklahoma Attorney General’s office plans to spend about $1.1 million to hire six staffers to investigate and prosecute retail crime under the new law.

Retail industry groups have advocated for states to enact harsher penalties for organized retail crime in recent years. At least 30 states have passed laws targeting organized retail crime, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. oklahoman.com


Chicago's Drop in Arrests - A Permanent Shift in Police Practices?
Sharp drop in arrests, other long-term crime trends shown in new Cook County data dashboard
Throughout 2019, Chicago police officers made nearly 80,000 arrests before scaling them back significantly during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the following spring. Now five years later, that drop appears not to be just a COVID-era blip: In recent years, arrests have rebounded slightly, but annually police still are recording tens of thousands of fewer arrests than they did in 2019.

The trend is among a number of long-term shifts in how the criminal justice system operates in Cook County, according to Loyola University researchers who in partnership with local officials produced a data project that seeks to shed light on how “shocks to the system” like the pandemic have reshaped how crime and violence are handled in Chicago.

The publicly available data dashboard, unveiled by officials on Tuesday, integrates information from police, the court system, jails and prisons with the goal of creating a fuller picture of how cases move through the system from start to finish.

According to the dashboard, arrests have declined since the pandemic — with police in total making more than 47,000 arrests in 2024 compared with more than 78,000 in 2019 — the researchers noted that incidents reported to police have not seen the same sustained sharp decrease, an indication that police practices may be shifting.

“(Arrests have) gone up a little bit since 2020 but certainly are not back to the levels that you saw before COVID,” Stemen said.  chicagotribune.com


Baltimore crime data: Uptick that began in May pushes burglaries ahead of 2024 pace

Are property crimes on the rise in Forsyth County? Here’s what recent data shows
 

Hackers Go from Retail Sector to Aviation
Scattered Spider appears to pivot toward aviation sector

A cyberattack on Hawaiian Airlines carries some hallmarks of the notorious cybercrime group.

Hackers who appear to be part of the Scattered Spider cybercrime gang have launched attacks on airlines and potentially other industries after moving on from the retail and insurance industries, according to multiple threat researchers.

The researchers’ warnings, which did not identify specific victims, come at a time of heightened concern about the safety and resilience of commercial aviation. Scattered Spider has been on a tear since April, targeting American and British retailers, and then insurers earlier this month.

“Organizations should be on high alert for sophisticated and targeted social engineering attacks and suspicious MFA reset requests,” Sam Rubin, senior vice president of consulting and threat intelligence at the company, said via email.

The FBI said it has seen Scattered Spider expand its targeting to the aviation industry, in a statement.

Scattered Spider often impersonates employees or contractors to deceive IT help desks to grant access to systems, and often add unauthorized devices to compromised accounts as part of bypassing MFA. cybersecuritydive.com


Cutting Attacks on Security Operations Center by Half
How exposure-enriched SOC data can cut cyberattacks in half by 2028
Gartner projects that by 2028, organizations enriching their Security Operations Center (SOC) data with exposure insights will reduce the frequency and impact of cyberattacks by 50%. This bold forecast underscores a crucial shift: proactive exposure management is quickly becoming foundational to modern cyber defense.

Why organizations struggle to prioritize what matters

Security teams are responsible for defending an organization against looming cyber threats. Needless to say, they’re inundated with data from constantly expanding attack surfaces. But what are teams supposed to do with all? Addressing thousands of vulnerabilities is far from realistic.

Enter the looming spiral of trying to pick the most critical vulnerabilities. Without real context, it’s a struggle to identify the real threats, prioritize what matters most, and do so with speed and precision. Most teams lack sufficient environmental awareness and a clear understanding of asset to business mapping, threat intel, and additional business context to effectively prioritize in a timely manner, if at all.

More tools or manual testing just add noise. Teams may waste valuable resources chasing low-impact issues while critical threats go unaddressed. Time is inefficiently spent mapping ownership or assessing business impact while critical threats remain exploitable.

Bottom line: Detection alone isn’t enough. Detecting issues is only the beginning. Once identified, a strong proactive exposure management framework must be established to develop an understanding of where your weaknesses lie, which assets are business critical, what mitigating controls are in place, and how adversaries can exploit them.  helpnetsecurity.com


Fraudsters behind €460 million crypto scam arrested in Spain
Spanish authorities arrested five members of a criminal network responsible for laundering €460 million stolen through global cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes.

The operation, led by the Guardia Civil with support from Europol and law enforcement in Estonia, France, and the United States, uncovered that more than 5,000 victims worldwide were defrauded.

The action day led to: 5 arrests (3 on the Canary Islands and 2 in Madrid), and 5 searches (3 on the Canary Islands and 2 in Madrid).  helpnetsecurity.com


Are we securing AI like the rest of the cloud?

US government warns of new Iran-linked cyber threats on critical infrastructure

El Monte, CA: Thieves steal millions from El Monte jewelry store by breaking in through roof
A local family-owned jewelry store is in shambles after thieves took almost everything in a million-dollar heist. Now, they're trying to rebuild. This is not the first time that Meza's Jewelry on Main Street in El Monte has been targeted by thieves. But this time, they got away with much more. The store's owners tell Eyewitness News that when they showed up on Sunday morning, they realized the store's entire back room had been cleared out. The owner believes the suspects got in through the roof and crawled down through the ceiling to get into the back room off the shop. They got away with gold and jewelry worth well over $1 million. The thieves even put blankets up so people on the street couldn't see what they were doing. The shop owners say every night, they put all of their valuables in a few large safes in the back room, and that's exactly what the thieves targeted. The alarms on the safes went off around 9 p.m., shortly after they closed, but the security company apparently never contacted police.  abc7.com


Sunnyvale, CA: Thieves Use Stolen Vehicle for Daring Daylight Robbery at Sunnyvale Jewelry Store
A Sunnyvale jewelry store became the target of a gang of thieves who used a stolen vehicle to smash into the establishment yesterday. The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety has reported that the incident occurred around 2:45 PM in the 1000 block of East El Camino Real, when suspects brazenly drove a vehicle through the store's entrance to gain access. After creating a forced entry by ramming the building, the culprits swarmed inside, hammers in hand, to shatter glass displays and snatch an undisclosed value of jewelry. According to the City of Sunnyvale, they then scattered in several waiting vehicles, abandoning the rammed car, which was later ascertained as stolen. While speeding away, one of the culprit’s vehicles caught the attention of public safety officers, ensuing a pursuit that had to be called off citing safety concerns for other residents. The reckless heist left one person injured inside the store, who subsequently received medical attention for non-life-threatening injuries at a local hospital.  hoodline.com


Macedonia, OH: Accused serial shoplifter arrested in local Kohl’s parking lot; linked to $51K in stolen merchandise
A woman was arrested in a Kohl’s parking lot Friday evening following a traffic stop that turned up stolen merchandise in the back of her vehicle, the Macedonia Police Department said in a statement. Officers were called to a Kohl’s on 8100 Macedonia Commons Blvd. after the woman, who was “linked to an organized crime theft investigation,” was spotted shopping, police said Officers arrived on scene and saw her shopping, but she soon left the store after looking around and not taking anything. Police said they were able to identify her as Ashley Hoysack, who had multiple arrest warrants in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Officers said they pulled her over in the parking lot and she was arrested and taken into custody. Upon searching her vehicle, officers said they “found the entire back seat filled with merchandise, estimated to be worth just under $1,500, believed to have been stolen from stores in the area.” Kohl’s told authorities the woman is “linked” to $51,000 worth of stolen merchandise in the two states last year.   yahoo.com


Richmond, TX: Suspects lead police on car, foot chase after allegedly swiping $12K in perfume from Ulta Beauty
Rosenberg police said over $12,000 of perfume was recovered from a vehicle after two people were taken into custody on Sunday for allegedly stealing from an Ulta Beauty store in the Brazos Town Center. Officials said that officers with the Rosenberg Police Department responded to the shopping center and saw the suspects fleeing in a car. Police say an attempt to stop the car was made, but the suspects refused, leading to a chase across I-69 through Crabb River Road until FM 762 into Richmond. The pursuit eventually ended after the suspects crashed into another vehicle at the Highway 90 and FM 762 intersection before they took off on foot. Officials said officers deployed a K9 unit to assist. The driver was found hiding in a nearby parking lot and was taken into custody.  abc13.com


Chittenden County, VT: Law enforcement works to curb millions of dollars lost from shoplifting