As retailers work through the back-to-school season and into the holidays, organized retail crime remains a high priority for most loss prevention teams. Significant and noteworthy investigations continue to mount across the retail horizon, and our organized retail crime associations remain an important piece of the ongoing response—and a valuable part of the solution.
The diversity of visitors that enter retail stores and the different ways these crimes are committed requires that teams remain flexible and open-minded to all the different possibilities to help keep stores safe, protected, and productive. And while there are always new and different approaches to organized retail crime, we must also keep our eyes open to the potential for traditional theft problems and long-standing methods of criminal conduct that have evolved over time but can still deeply impact the retail enterprise.
Join us for an action-packed September webinar for the ORCAs in Action Fall Kickoff! Leading off, our guest speakers discuss a multi-million-dollar investigation that involved an intricate group of “travelers” that originated in the Chicago-area market and extended into a case that reached deep into the US heartland. Learn more about how a cultural dimension built around the concept of having a “divine right to steal” is impacting organized retail crime and developed into an investigation involving tens of millions of dollars in retail thefts.
With over 25 years in public safety, Lieutenant Jeremy Thayer has been involved in many diverse areas of law enforcement, with a concentration on criminal investigations. His current assignments include supervising the criminal investigations division, as well as commanding a multi-jurisdictional task force major case team. Jeremy is a board member on the Illinois Homicide Investigators Association, and has membership with the Illinois Tactical Officers Association and the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators.
With almost 17 years in public safety, Detective Sergeant Sean Edmondson with the Arlington Heights Police Department has been involved in a number of diverse criminal investigations including organized retail crime. He is also a field supervisor with the multi-jurisdictional Major Case Assistant Team.
Detective Ryan Pacyga is a nine-year veteran of the Arlington Heights Police Department, serving with the Criminal Investigation Bureau since 2016. Det. Pacyga is tasked with a variety of case assignments, with the primary focus being financial crimes and Romani organized crime groups responsible for retail crimes. He is an active member of both the International Association of Financial Crime Investigators (IAFCI) and the Cook County Regional Organized Crime Task Force (CCROC). Det. Pacyga has received commendations from both the IAFCI and CCROC for his efforts. In 2022, Det. Pacyga became a certified anti-money laundering specialist (ACAMS).
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Jason Straczewski is vice president of government relations and political affairs at the National Retail Federation. In this role, he leads advocacy and political efforts at the state and federal levels, ensuring the retail community is educated on and engaged in advancing NRF’s policy agenda. Jason works to monitor legislative and regulatory issues emerging from all levels of government that will impact America’s retail business community. Jason will be joining us for an update on important ORC legislation as well as the upcoming “Fight Retail Crime Day” event being held in Washington, DC in October.
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Cory Lowe, senior research scientist for LPRC will be leading a discussion on the current 2023 ORC Across the States Survey. With the ultimate goal to generate hard data about organized retail crime and how it affects all of us, Lowe will discuss how the Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC), the LP Foundation, and LP Magazine are once again partnering to survey multi-store loss prevention/asset protection managers and ORC investigators to better understand the causes, consequences, and control of ORC at the state level. Participation in the survey will also directly serve your fellow loss prevention professionals in their time of greatest need, with Sensormatic stepping up to sponsor this survey by generously agreeing to donate $10 to the Loss Prevention Benevolent Fund (LPBF) on behalf of the first 500 survey participants.
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Rich Rossman, the current president of the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail (CLEAR) and sergeant with the Broward Sheriff’s Office, will give us an update on the recent happenings with this outstanding nationwide ORC association and provide us with insights on the upcoming annual conference taking place in Orlando, Florida in October.
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