Today we will be talking about Organized Retail Crime. It is not just shoplifting; it is a large-scale effort to steal retail merchandise and resell it for financial gain. It is not a new topic; it has been a problem for the retail industry for many years.

Although reliable statistics is a challenge, there are indications the problem has increased in recent years. The results of a 2023 National Retail Federation national survey of 63 retailers showed that losses from shrink was $112 billion in 2022. In increase of 20% over 2021. External theft accounted for 36% of the losses and internal theft 29%.

A recent case in North Carolina illustrates the challenge in dealing with organized retail theft. When authorities entered the home of a couple they were investigating, they discovered over a million dollars in stolen merchandise from Lowe’s home improvement and other retailers in the area. The couple was selling the merchandise online that several others had stolen for them – which is typically how organized retail theft works. The couple was convicted of the thefts and served 9 months in prison.

In June 2023 the Fairfax County Police Department announced they were focusing on retail crime as a part of their Summer Crime Initiative.

We are fortunate to have with us today the Chief of the Fairfax County Police Department - Kevin Davis. He was appointed Chief in April 2021. Previously he served as the City of Baltimore’s police commissioner from 2015 to 2018, chief of the Anne Arundel County, MD, and as assistant chief of the Prince George’s County, MD police department where he started his career in 1992.

Today, we will be talking about Capital Region Real Time Crime Center in Tallahassee, Florida that was launched in February 2023. The first real time crime center was established by the NYPD in 2005. It was originally designed to operate 24/7 to provide information support to patrol officers and detectives in real time – as they were responding to and investigating events on the street. The concept has evolved over the past 18 years to take advantage of a wide range of technology resources. RTCC’s have been adopted by police agencies across the country. Many of them integrate technology such as cameras, gunshot detectors, license plate readers and analytical software to provide operational information support to field operations.

In a unique partnership Florida State University hosts the Capital Region Real Time Crime Center in which the FSU Police Department, Leon County Sheriff’s Office, Tallahassee PD, Capitol Police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are working together to provide information and analytical support as they respond to calls and investigate crime in the field. The RTCC includes an in-house learning lab in which students and researchers from FSU’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice can provide immediate analysis of crime trends.

We are fortunate to have with us today Professor Brian Stults from the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University where he has been a faculty member since 2006. He is also the Director of Research and Evaluation for the RTCC. Brian’s research addresses issues of race, crime, and community in urban areas, with a particular focus on residential segregation, racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and spatial and temporal patterns of crime.

Also joining us is Leslie Rabon who is the Executive Director of the Capitol Region RTCC. She began her career with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office in 2004 when she was hired as the agency's first Intelligence and crime analyst. Leslie has been involved in the development of strategies related to intelligence, data-driven approaches, gang enforcement, prevention, and intervention on a local, state, national, and international level. Mrs. Rabon holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a master’s degree in critical incident management from St. Leo’s University.

In this Episode we discus the Allied Universal World Security Report published in September 2023. The report – Allied’s first - is based on a survey of 1,775 Chief Security Officers from large global companies in 30 different countries.

Some of the key findings in the 54-page report include:

· 88% of the CSOs report that company leaders are more concerned with cyber security than physical security.

· 80% of the CSOs believe that recruitment and retention of security professionals will be a major problem over the next five years.

· 90% of the CSOs indicate that it is more important for security professionals to have technological capabilities and a high level of customer service training.

· More than $1 trillion dollars in revenue was lost in 2022 from internal and external physical security incidents in 2022.

The report is filled with interesting insights into the growing challenges of private security. We only have time to touch on a few of them, so we encourage you to read the report. You can find it here: https://www.worldsecurityreport.com/