Colorado Organized Retail Crime Alliance (COORCA) launches its third state chapter

The Colorado Organized Retail Crime Alliance (COORCA) launched its third regional chapter on August 29. The “COORCA North” chapter held its inaugural meeting at the Loveland Police Department, facilitated by Officer Andrew Bird of Greeley PD, Officer Peter Bowden of Longmont PD, and Sr. Investigator Nathan Bandaries of Safeway. Some 43 people attended from more than a dozen retailers and law enforcement agencies, including one police detective from Cheyenne in the neighboring state of Wyoming.

COORCA’s model has evolved to become a statewide alliance, but with regional chapters. The three current regional chapters are COORCA Metro, which serves the Denver metro area, COORCA South, which serves the Colorado Springs and Pueblo areas, and now COORCA North, which covers the Ft. Collins, Loveland, Greeley and Cheyenne (WY) areas.

Each chapter is managed by a leadership team, overseen by a statewide COORCA board. The board’s Law Enforcement Chair is Detective Russ Johnson from Westminster PD, and the Co-Retail Chairs are Charlie Memmer from Target and John Lites from Safeway.

Statewide, COORCA now has over 725 members since its inception in March 2012. Membership is approximately 40% law enforcement and 60% retail investigators.

More information and membership applications may be found at www.coorca.org.

Pictured below are images from the COORCA North launch meeting.