The Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail (CLEAR) held their 7th Annual ORC Training Conference in Reno last week. This year’s conference boasted an outstanding agenda, exceptional presentations, and active participation from the 200 loss prevention and law enforcement professionals from across the U.S. and Canada that attended the event. Some of the training topics included:
• Return Fraud
• Lessons from a Defense Attorney
• Credit Card Fraud
• Identity Theft and Mobile Phone Fraud
• Anatomy of a Critical Incident
• ORC Trends Panel
• Open Source Investigations
There was also a presentation by the Las Vegas Metro “RAP” Team and an update on legislative action on Organized Retail Crime.
In addition, CLEAR gave out awards for Retail Loss Prevention Investigator of the year as well as the Law Enforcement Investigator of the year. These awards are presented based on submissions from the loss prevention industry and law enforcement community to honor those that have shown outstanding service. The CLEAR Board of Directors then chooses the final recipients following in-depth review and discussion. The choices once again proved to be challenging, with several deserving candidates to choose from.
Those awards went to:
Outstanding Loss Prevention Investigation of the Year
The Toys-R-Us National Investigations Team
Ed Fuentes, Amanda Hobert, Mike Flanagan, Dennis Dixon, BJ Day, Tyson Roberts; Larry Evangelista, Scott Tassinari, Winston Goreen, and Jay Tubaugh
The Toys-R-Us Team was able to identify and track down a group traveling the country using rental vehicles, that were targeting high-end electronics from stores across the country. The Toys-R-Us team coordinated with their counterparts and law enforcement from coast to coast, to locate and apprehend four suspects who had stolen tens of thousands of dollars of merchandise in five days. They were also able to partner with law enforcement to intercept shipments and recover $20,000 in stolen merchandise.
La
w Enforcement Investigator of the Year
Detective Miguel “Mike” Garcia
Miami-Dade Police Department
The award is for his work on the successful investigation of the theft of over 8 million dollars in plastic delivery containers from numerous Florida retailers.
Mark your calendars for next year’s event which will be held October 16-19, 2017 at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, TX.