Is Retail Winning the War Against Theft?
CNN: What ever happened to America’s shoplifting crisis?
Coming out of the pandemic, many retail chains, political leaders, law enforcement officials and others told America there was an unprecedented level of shoplifting. But national crime data never showed a retail theft wave, though shoplifting did spike in certain cities like New York.

William Blair retail analysts in 2023 suggested that chains had “overexaggerated” the impact, using it as an excuse for inventory mismanagement and strategic mistakes. Walgreens’ then-chief financial officer even said “maybe we cried too much” about lost merchandise and overspent on security measures.

Retailers and officials are painting a much different picture today: They say their anti-theft strategies and public policy changes are making an impact, and data shows shoplifting rates are falling around the country.

There are several reasons for the shift in messaging and improved trends. For one, retailers’ tools for tracking products became more accurate in recent years. Cities and states devoted extra resources to breaking up organized theft rings. Lawmakers and voters approved stiffer criminal penalties for smaller levels of theft and larger organized crime. And companies adapted by investing in internal security—including removing self-checkout stations and locking up products to the point it turned off customers.

It’s a major shift from the messaging just two years ago.
 
Part of the muddiness in the data is because of flaws in the measurements retailers use to calculate shoplifting and lost merchandise — but stores say this is improving quickly thanks to updated processes and partnerships.

Retailers have cautioned that shrink is an imperfect metric that does not fully capture theft or organized crime, as well as the impact of violence against workers, physical damage to stores and customer and employee perceptions of store safety.

Still, many retailers have said recently that their shrink rates are getting better, driven by their strategies to prevent shoplifting and work with law enforcement. cnn.com

Facial Recognition is Key to Retail Crime Prevention
Rebranding will not stop retail crime – biometrics might

Shoplifting is up, burglary is down. Two contrasting headline claims from the UK, but what if store theft and burglary were the same thing?

The Economist reports “shoplifting” is up eight-fold in a decade, to around 20 million offences per year, a staggering figure for any crime. At the same time, others say we should celebrate the consistent fall in burglaries recorded over the past 20 years. But here’s the thing:

There’s no such offence as shoplifting. The criminal law in England and Wales has a basic offence of theft and it’s a serious one. Stealing (its verb form) can get you 10 years’ imprisonment. If convicted of stealing from a shop, you’re not a shoplifter, you’re a thief.

The UK government’s Crime and Policing Bill aims to treat shop theft “more seriously” by removing the artificial limit on the value of goods that must be stolen before they are tried in a certain way – but to what effect? Lowering the bar so all shop thefts can be tried by a jury when there aren’t enough juries to go round already doesn’t seem like an answer to an additional 20 million crimes. Wouldn’t it be better to stop the behaviour, whatever label we give it?

In every jurisdiction I have worked with, trespassory theft is treated specifically and seriously. Shop theft already meets most of the criteria for burglary but relabelling it is unlikely to have any material impact on the enormous problem that retail crime has become. The thing that will improve the situation is prevention. And we know that can be achieved because it’s already happening up and down the UK’s high streets. Shops that have installed live facial recognition security systems have seen immediate and sustained reductions in incidents of up to 70 percent while the labels haven’t changed.

Tackling crime effectively involves recording and responding, and the main difference between classification and prevention is that one puts victims first. We are seeing how biometrics can put thousands of potential victims of serious retail crime beyond the harm that lies behind each statistic. biometricupdate.com
 
 
Retail Theft in NYC Down 22% in August
NYC shootings, subway crime at record lows, shoplifting down as crime takes a hit
New York City’s decline in major crimes continued this year with record-low shooting incidents and shooting victims through the first eight months of 2025, and the overall safest August ever, officials said Tuesday.

Even with a recent spike in gun violence in the Bronx, and threats from the White House to crack down on crime in the city, Big Apple police brass boasted about new numbers that they said painted a rosy picture on everything from gang takedowns to the number of cops on the street.

According to NYPD data, the city recorded 489 shooting incidents and 611 shooting victims, compared with 502 and 612 in 2018, the previous all-time lows during the CompStat era, which started in 1994. The shooting numbers helped drive declines in major crime, with a 6.7% overall drop in August 2025 compared with the corresponding period last year, officials said.

According to the data, crime has consistently declined each quarter since January 2024, marking the city’s seventh straight quarter of major crime decline.

August also saw a record-low number of burglaries, while retail theft declined 22%, officials said. Officials patted themselves on the back for a decline in retail theft, the kind of crimes that have frustrated customers at places like Walgreens, where basic items like shampoo, toothpaste and Tylenol are now often under lock and key.

According to the data, retail theft was down 12% for the first eight months of the year, and 22% in the month of August. Officials said they have attacked the retail theft trend by having more officers on foot patrol, and by coordinating with transit cops, who catch shoplifters fleeing in the subway. nydailynews.com


“Safe Stores are Staffed Stores” Ordinance Takes Effect in CA
California city orders retailers to staff self-checkout counters
Beginning 21 September 2025, Long Beach, California, will enforce a groundbreaking ordinance requiring grocery and drug retail stores to maintain specific staffing levels at self-checkout stations.

This regulation, known as the “Safe Stores are Staffed Stores” ordinance, aims to address concerns over retail theft and enhance customer service.

The ordinance mandates that for every three self-checkout stations, at least one employee must be dedicated solely to supervising these areas during operational hours. Additionally, a traditional, staffed checkout lane must be open whenever self-checkout stations are in use.

This ensures that customers have access to assistance when needed and that transactions involving age-restricted items or security-tagged products are properly managed.

This move positions Long Beach as a pioneer in regulating self-checkout operations. The city’s initiative responds to a 16% increase in petty theft between 2023 and 2024, highlighting the challenges posed by under-staffed checkout areas.

Major retailers, including Walmart and Target, are now required to adjust their self-checkout practices to comply with the new staffing ratios and item restrictions.

While proponents argue that the ordinance will reduce theft and improve customer service, some critics express concerns about the potential for increased operational costs and the effectiveness of such measures in addressing the root causes of retail crime. finance.yahoo.com


Can Surveillance + Humiliation Stop Theft?
How a Scottsdale boutique is using humiliation to stop thefts
A Scottsdale shop is using a combination of surveillance and humiliation to prevent thefts.

Emma Knight is the store manager of Rolling Rack Boutique in Old Town Scottsdale. She said employees had noticed shoplifters coming in and sneakily walking off with hundreds of dollars’ worth of merchandise this year. So cameras were installed.

“When we do have someone stealing or lingering around, we are able to focus in on their face,” Knight said.

But even with cameras everywhere, it was still a problem. Knight felt she needed a public solution.

“We’re a very bold brand, so this kinda represents us. We have a little sassiness to us so if you steal from us, we are going to post you everywhere,” she said.

Knight said the posters are deterring crooks. “We believe that it’s done really well for our business. People have respected us a little bit more for it. We get only positive comments from it,” she said.

In addition to the photos on the window for all passersby to see, they also added new tech. “It’s an AI technology that can focus on and identify who they are. It’s our job as much as possible to protect our product and our merchandise,” Knight said. azfamily.com


Gift Card Fraud Funding Sex Trafficking?
Organized retail theft rings now “poisoning” gift cards to steal money
Have you bought a gift card recently from a big-box retailer? You could have inadvertently funded the sex trafficking of a child or the war in the Ukraine. Gift-card fraud is the latest trend in organized retail crime.

Thieves steal the gift cards, then replace the bar codes on the back and return the cards to the racks. When the tampered cards are loaded up with money, that money diverts to a sophisticated, international crime ring which uses it to fund a variety of illegal activities.

“It’s easier to steal from a retail establishment (to fund their cause) than to steal from a bank,” said Mark Johnson, retired senior vice president of government affairs for Washington Retail Association.

He estimated organized retail crime costs cities the size of Snohomish hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in tax revenue, as well as untold damage to the mental and emotional health of employees and customers. It’s cost the state billions of dollars each year in lost tax revenue.

“This isn’t just a nameless, faceless, crime,” said Crystal Leatherman, Johnson’s successor at the Washington Retail Association. “Organized crime rings cause harm to the community both directly and indirectly.” Retail theft has soared 93% between 2019 and 2023, according to the National Retail Federation, and Washington ranks first in the rate of reported retail theft incidents. snoho.com


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