Taking a bite out of organized retail crime

By Katie Tuttle
Content Manager

Founded in 2009, the Los Angeles Area Organized Retail Crimes Association (LAAORCA) was one of the first ORCAs, designed to stop and disrupt organized retail crime through networking. LAAORCA is a public-private business sector partnership that is currently co-chaired by Captain Bill Williams of the LAPD and Debbie Ho of the Target Corporation, with Sr. Advisors to the Co-Chairs, George Torres and retired LAPD Detective Kent Oda.

Although LAAORCA was officially established in 2010, work on it began back in December of 2008 when LAPD Chief William Bratton decided he wanted to work and foster better relations with some of the retailers in the area. Los Angeles is made up of 21 police districts and of those, Target Corp. has stores in at least three. Because of this, the LAPD started working with Target first, having meetings every quarter to identify problems specific to each of the locations. After the specific problems were discussed, they came up with strategies to fix the problems, as well as reporting any successes or failures from the previous quarters. This plan was very successful for them and statistics showed that crime was decreasing.

After the success of their meetings with Target, the group invited representatives from JC Penney, Lowe’s, CVS, Gap, and Safeway. With the entire group together, it became clear that the specific problem they were all having was organized retail crime. The group began to look at the program the Albuquerque Retail Assets Protection Association (ARAPA) was using. Along with deciding to create a similar website, the group also got some good ideas from ARAPA, bringing them back to be used in LA. The group knew it didn’t want to only include the LAPD, but also other law enforcement agencies in the area, along with Federal authorities. And thus LAAORCA was born.

LAAORCA now boasts 140-150 different organizations and 70 law enforcement agencies. Members include representatives from Home Depot, Wal-Mart, AMEX, UPS, Sephora, TJMaxx, Toys "R" Us, Limited Brands, Kroger Co, Rite Aid and Saks 5th Avenue. In addition, the law enforcement representation spans wide to include Los Angeles County Sheriffs, Ventura County Sheriffs, Santa Barbara Sheriffs, San Diego P.D, and includes smaller departments such as Seal Beach P.D, Cypress P.D. In 2011, the L.A. office of the United States Secret Service also partnered with LAAORCA to help combat organized financial crimes committed in the area.

Currently, LAAORCA meets every six weeks. A regular meeting agenda includes discussion of any internal issues, as well as a time to talk about cases. Members are given a week before each meeting to get information on any open cases to a LAAORCA representative. The rep then puts a PowerPoint together and the individuals are allowed to give a presentation on their case. It is not unusual in a meeting for someone from another retailer to identify someone or something in the case. In fact, recently a retailer was presenting on a team that had been heavily hitting their stores and a Sephora agent was able to identify exactly who one of the members was, along with providing their name and information. The next meeting will be held October 18 and more information can be found on the website.

Along with discussing cases at the meetings, members of LAAORCA are also encouraged to discuss any thefts or cases on the organization’s database, a webmaster that’s independently monitored by Detective Lloyd Scott, Coordinator for LAAORCA. Anytime a member inputs information on the website regarding crimes, every member gets an automatic email alerting them.

Also on the meeting agenda is usually a small training component for members. Examples of these include how to properly prepare arrest reports, how gang activity impacts retail theft, and how retail partners can assist others partners with investigations. Along with the training components at the meetings, another large part of training is the yearly conference. LAAORCA has had three conferences since its establishment, and attendance has grown steadily every year. At its first conference in 2010, 645 people attended. At their most recent conference this year, over 1000 people attended. The ratio of retail LP personnel to law enforcement was 60-40 and in terms of law enforcement representation, they had people present from local, state and federal, as well as people from outside of California. Some even came from as far away as New York.

As far as the partnership of LAAORCA goes, it’s apparent that it’s working. An example of this is in 2011, when Sephora reported that $4 million worth of cargo had been stolen from its distribution center. When the merchandise began making an appearance at a fencing store in downtown LA, the retailer contacted the LAPD. With the partnership Sephora and the LAPD created, through the help of LAAORCA, they were able to recover around $2 million worth of merchandise.

Marc Zavala, a detective with the LAPD, said he doesn’t think these cases would have ended similarly without the partnerships through LAAORCA.

"I know that in this type of stuff people get the run around because they don’t have the right contacts," he said. With LAAORCA, you know who to call in this situation. "You have a contact person."

Richard Escandon, District Loss Prevention Manager at Sephora said his whole loss prevention team attends LAAORCA meetings.

"Meeting at LAAROCA was probably one of the best networking decisions we made," he said. "Without LAAORCA, none of us would be able to partner and share real time information."

While some people may be hesitant to join an ORCA group and give full disclosure, members of LAAORCA think it’s worth it.

"It works and I can attest to it," said Escandon. "It’s helped our company, not just with shrink, but overall it’s a message that if you steal from these retailers participating in LAAORCA, we’re going do what we have to do to have you arrested."