Ever wonder why razors and baby formula and other random items are locked in cases in stores? What makes some items more valuable than others? Is it the price of the item? Is it because it is dangerous? It may not be what you think. Yes, certain items tend to be stolen more often than others – especially razors and baby formula – but it is the amounts and what happens afterwards that may be surprising. Would you be able to spot $2,000 of baby formula as it walked out of a store? Or an entire shelf of razors all at once? It seems like it would be obvious, but it is happening every day at major retail stores across the country.

A Public/Private Partnership

Enter the Cook County Regional Organized Crime (CCROC) Task Force, which was founded in 2010 to combat this type of theft colloquially dubbed "boosting". Boosters steal large quantities of desirable items such as alcohol, cologne, razors and baby formula. Even more important to CCROC is stopping what comes after the boost: organized crime. Those stolen razors and baby formula more often than not become part of organized crime via a "fence", which is an operation, either a brick-and-mortar store or online e-fence, that resells the merchandise for pennies on the dollar. CCROC is a nonprofit association (501c4) that is made up of law enforcement personnel (federal, state and local) and corporate retail partners (more than 200) whose goal is to "more efficiently and effectively prevent, investigate and prosecute these criminals."

Historically, communication among law enforcement and retailers, and retailers to each other, would be limited and reactive. With CCROC, retailers are talking to each other and to law enforcement proactively and regularly; this is crucial to putting a stop to boosting and fencing operations. Technology is the enabler in this case, for example: records management systems (RMS) keep track of incidents/offenders and help to identify patterns, video accelerates identification and apprehension of offender(s), solidifies successful prosecution and increases officer/retail investigator safety to name a few. Additional solutions for CCROC and similar organizations (there are more than 20 in the United States) include Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC), Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) and two-way radios.

Why should we care?

Per the National Retail Foundation (NRF), organized retail crime costs retailers $15-30 billion dollars a year. Yes – billions – which in the end equates to price increases for consumers. In addition, taxes are not being paid, which is a loss to that community. Most of the fencing operations attract gang members and drug users, thereby making the neighborhood less safe and more prone to crime, including violent crime. Many fences have been linked to sending money overseas to fund terrorism. So this isn’t just a law enforcement problem or a retailer’s problem; it affects residents and consumers alike.

Motorola Solutions is lending its public safety and retail expertise to help combat this growing problem – read more here in this solution brief: Police and Retailers Join Forces to Fight Organized Retail Theft, and stay tuned for more on our Organized Retail Crime (ORC) solutions.

Karen Bartuch has been in law enforcement since 2002 and still works part-time for a small county west of Chicago. She is the president and founder of the Women's Tactical Association, a charity that brings tactical training to female law enforcement. She joined Motorola Solutions in 2011 and is a Solution Sales Center of Excellence Team Leader.

Read additional blogs by Karen Bartuch here.

Learn more about the Real-Time Crime Centers here.

Motorola's Real-Time Crime Center and Loss Prevention