The Retail Association of Massachusetts (RAM) in partnership with the New England Organized Retail Crime Alliance (NEORCA) held their First Quarter 2021 Loss Prevention virtual meeting on February 3rd, 2021. Following a brief introduction and opening comments with NEORCA’s Jason Adams, the General Council for the Retail Association of Massachusetts, Ryan Kearney, provided an update on NEORCA’s move to the Treuth social media and networking platform. Currently in the Beta testing stage, NEORCA is very pleased with the progress they have seen under the new platform and excited about the opportunities moving forward. The Treuth platform will also allow NEORCA the option to communicate directly with other ORCAs that are part of the network, further opening doors to address and resolve ORC activity across New England and other areas where these criminal networks are operating.
This was followed by a presentation with Wegmans Michele Levcik on “A Look Inside the Security Operations Center (SOC).” Levcik offered some fascinating insights on the operations of the center and the team that leads these efforts, which reach far beyond alarm monitoring and physical security functions. This state-of-the-art operation also holds safety, access control, weather monitoring/management, situational awareness responsibilities, business continuity, customer service, and other technology-based roles critical to the day-to-day operations of the business. In addition to the stores, monitoring and protection of the corporate offices, distribution/warehouse facilities, and other business critical functions are managed as part of this mass communications operation.
The presentation was then followed by an open discussion reviewing several of the successful operations and upcoming projects anticipated over the coming months as part of the RAM/NEORCA agenda. The event was very well attended with healthy discussions and strong participation by all involved.
Organized retail crime associations have helped provide a critical venue for opening doors to improve legislation, enhance investigations, and build cooperative relationships in the battle against organized retail crime across the nation. Through these important partnerships, teams like those with RAM and NEORCA show the results that come from working together, sharing resources, showing high levels of cooperation, and carrying a strong commitment from everyone involved can have on successful outcomes in the battle against organized retail crime. To learn more about NEORCA, please visit https://neorca.org/
To learn more about the ORCA nearest you, go to
Organized Retail Crime Associations: The Complete List.
