Turning Point for Civil Demand

A Paradigm Shift
Part 1

This is the first of a two part series on a concept being put forth to solve an issue facing retailers which is either happening now or it will be coming to your area soon. Lohra Miller is the CEO of Turning Point Retail. She has crafted much of this showcase and Civil Demand Associates has aligned itself with this process. She is a former prosecutor and district attorney so she brings a vast amount of experience to our industry. The following is based on her experience.

As a prosecutor for over 20 years I began and ended my career with retail theft trials. My first trial, anxious and new, went off without a hitch. The police officer and LPA both showed up whereupon the defendant immediately plead guilty. My last trial, while I was relaxed and confident, was a disaster. The police officer was stuck on a call and could not make it to court. The LPA had moved stores and did not receive a subpoena. An hour later, when I finally tracked my witnesses down, the case had been dismissed, I had been chewed out by the judge for wasting the court's precious time on a "$15 theft," and the defendant walked out court with a smirk on his face. He had just gotten away with his seventh retail theft charge.

Like retailers, police and prosecutors believe retail theft offenders should be held accountable for their actions. This includes not only accepting responsibility for their actions, but reforming their behavior and making restitution to the retailer. Most importantly, we understand that without accountability, the antisocial attitudes and behaviors of offenders will escalate in frequency and severity. As problems facing courts, communities and criminal justice professionals increase in complexity and size, the limitations of the existing system are both more evident and more critical. In fact, in recent years the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that 60% of petty offenders are convicted.

Unfortunately, the voice most often lost in the chaotic criminal process belongs to the victim of the retail theft. The traditional system, which focuses upon punishing offenders, does little to help retailers recover losses due to the offender's actions. In response to this problem, most states passed civil recovery laws to allow retailers the ability to recover damages through a civil law suit. This method, while in theory gives retailers recourse to recover their losses, still faces many of the same challenges as criminal justice: The cost of enforcing a civil demand vastly outweighs the amount collected in an individual case. Without the integrity of enforcement, the culture created among offenders has resulted in decreasing collections nationwide. Just Google "I received a civil demand letter, what should I do?" and you will find page after page of responses telling the person to ignore the letter.

As any parent will tell you, and study after study has proven, in order to change behavior, consequences must be immediate, proportionate to the offense and consistent. Any solution crafted to address this problem must be based upon these three simple criteria. Turning Point Retail (TPR) has developed a unique and promising collaborative approach to offender accountability and behavior modification. TPR's technology quickly identifies appropriate offenders then offers them the opportunity to voluntarily pay restitution and attend a behavior modification program. By quickly resolving a large number of first-time offenders without using scarce criminal justice resources, the system then has the capacity to hold repeat and non compliant offenders accountable.

Contact:

Frank Luciano
818-787-7200
Frank@CivilDemand.net