No community, it seems, is immune from the recent spike in organized retail crime (ORC), which is the term security specialists use to distinguish planned, large-scale stealing to supply the black market from individual cases of the “five-fingered discount.” The impression that the problem is growing comes not only from viral videos depicting masked people smashing display cases and dumping the contents into large bags. It is also based on data: A study published by the National Retail Federation in April reported that 70 percent of retailers surveyed in 2022 considered ORC a growing burden on stores. And ORC accounted for half of the $94.5 billion in losses due to theft that companies reported in 2021, a nearly $4 billion increase over 2020. Causes of the surge range from the opioid epidemic — ORC rings often recruit addicts to steal for them — to lax enforcement of shoplifting laws in some jurisdictions to the ease with which goods can be resold online.
The half-dozen-member ring arrested in Montgomery is typical in size; ORC is not organized on a national scale. Yet that does not mean combating it can be left to local officials alone, although more, and more aggressive, local police work of the kind Montgomery County demonstrated obviously forms much of the solution. Federal and state action will be needed, in part because some ORC — as in the D.C. area — does cross state lines and in part because its cumulative impact extends widely.
Though small in relation to overall sales of over $5 trillion per year (excluding “noncore” items such as gasoline), the cost of retail stores’ anti-theft measures gets passed on to paying customers; states cannot collect sales taxes on stolen goods; and, in extreme cases, unchecked theft can force stores out of business, contributing to urban decay. This is not “just” a property crime: When thieves smash glass cases with crowbars — the Montgomery County group’s M.O. — it can traumatize onlookers. “They put fear in people’s hearts — workers at stores who are just trying to earn a living and people who were out shopping,” the county’s police chief, Marcus Jones, told The Post.
The most significant federal measure to date, the Inform Act, took effect on June 27. Under the law, online marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon have to collect, verify and disclose certain identifying information about high-volume third-party sellers of consumer products, to help deter vendors of stolen and counterfeit goods. (The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, is the founder of Amazon; interim CEO Patty Stonesifer is on Amazon’s board.) Also in June, California’s attorney general Rob Bonta (D) announced a plan for voluntary information-sharing between brick-and-mortar stores, online marketplaces and law enforcement.
It’s too early to judge these policies’ impact. But at least they reflect the reality, articulated in the National Retail Federation’s April report, that ORC’s decentralized nature makes fighting it largely “an intelligence problem,” which calls for “significant improvements in data collection.” The next step should be for Congress to enact the bipartisan Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, which has been pending in both houses since early this year. The bill declares that ORC “threatens … safety and liberty,” and gives federal prosecutors the authority to go after money laundering connected to ORC. Most important, it would establish a federal ORC coordination center, staffed by officials from federal law enforcement agencies and housed in the Department of Homeland Security, to facilitate information-sharing among investigators at all levels of government and the businesses affected.
Government and business have been slow to react to ORC, at times seeming almost bewildered by the sheer brazenness and undeniable smarts with which the thieves and associated fencing rings have operated. Meanwhile, damage has been done to the economy and to the public’s basic feeling of safety in retail spaces. Law enforcement needs to be given the tools to respond — then use them with countervailing speed and sophistication.
