What is Organized Retail Crime (ORC)? And How to Prevent it

According to an NRF survey, 76% of senior loss prevention and security executives surveyed were more concerned about ORC shoplifting last year in comparison to 2023.

There’s fast growing fear around Organized Retail Crime (ORC) because unlike casual shoplifting, ORC involves a group of trained individuals targeting a store, often causing greater impacts. 

Whilst there’s high attention to in-store theft, most ORC starts and ends in the parking lot. 

Organized Crime Gangs (OCGs) will often use vehicles to stage their thefts, transport stolen goods, and coordinate a quick getaway following the crime. 

As parking lots provide both the entrance and exit to vehicles, they have become a critical part of fighting against ORC. That’s why they should no longer be considered an extension of your store, but in fact, your first line of defense.

What is Organized Retail Crime (ORC)?

Organized Retail Crime (ORC) also known as Organized Retail Theft (ORT) is the large-scale theft of retail merchandise with the intention of reselling the stolen goods for their own financial gain. 

They tend to sell items via the secondary markets like online platforms, the black market, and flea markets.

These operations will be planned and often involve multiple individuals who will likely have previous experience in crime. 

In large-scale attacks, they’ll likely specify roles such as, ‘boosters’ who will steal items and ‘fencers’ who sell them, making ORCs a significant financial and public safety concern.

Protect Your Retail Parking Lot Today

Understanding the Scale and Impact of ORC on Retailers

Organized Retail Crime is a much greater problem than you may know, costing millions of dollars worth of damage year on year. 

This large-scale theft creates a rippling effect across the economy, impacting retailers, the Government, and the general public significant financial losses.

As well as the direct financial loss, ORC drives up insurance premiums and operational costs, all of which lead to increased product pricing to customers.

And financial loss is not the only concern, crimes like this tend to create severe safety risks to employees and shoppers.

Common sites of confrontation include parking lots as offenders can act aggressively when attempting to evade capture and flee with the stolen goods.

Due to the intensity of ORC, incidents can escalate quickly, placing any employees, customers, and parking lot users at risk nearby. 

These safety risks expand across the full community. Stolen goods tend to land on secondary markets, fueling further crime in this process.

Also, ORC is closely linked to Organized Crime Gangs who often fund more serious crimes through the profits earned from this. Essentially, creating more crime within the community, and creating more risk to residents and visitors.

The scale and impact of ORC on retailers, communities, Law Enforcement, and customers highlights the importance of prevention, especially vulnerable areas like parking lots. 

The Different Methods of ORC

Boosting

Boosting is essentially the act of stealing goods from retail stores without being caught. 

This could be within a singular or multiple trips where the ‘boosters’, who are the perpetrators within a larger ORC ring, work to acquire goods on their behalf. 

From meat and alcohol to perfume and cosmetics, these items are often easy-to-conceal and make a quick getaway with, before being sold online or via flea markets. 

Boosting can appear small, however, if multiple individuals are involved, making multiple trips, the cost of goods stolen can add up quickly. 

For example, two men were recently arrested following the theft of meat worth about $1,200 from a Safeway in the South Bay area. 

This emphasizes that small goods can create large financial loss over long periods of time if unnoticed or suspects continue to evade capture.

Discover The Top 8 Stolen Retail Products

Cargo Theft

Supply chains are complex due to the number of moving parts involved in ensuring the delivery of goods remain on schedule and safe.

These complexities create opportunities for ORC to intercept and steal merchandise from during its journey to its final destination. 

Cargo theft can be carried out in a number of ways. Below outlines four of the most common approaches criminals may use:

• Terminal Robberies - This is where a group ambushes a trucking facility and hijack loaded vehicles there.

• Fictitious Pickups - This is where criminals will pose as a driver through falsified paperwork to acquire a loaded vehicle and drive off. 

• Leakage - This is where groups or individuals will steal small amounts of goods from shipments, so that the businesses do not notice the missing goods from the delivery. 

• Coerced Stops - This is where a loaded truck will be stopped and robbed during its transit. 

Experts have stated that there are estimated losses close to $1 billion or more a year, displaying a record surge in cargo theft across the US.

Smash-and-Grab Theft

A smash-and-grab theft is a specific type of shoplifting or looting where an organized group will smash a form of physical barrier like a window, grab as many goods as possible, and then make a speedy exit.

One of the most brazen forms of ORC, this technique is becoming increasingly popular and their aggressive tactics often leaves employees in fear to intercept.

These attacks pose serious public safety risks, with criminals likely to cause harm to any individuals blocking their ability to steal and make a quick getaway.

They also create much greater financial implications due to the physical damage they cause to stores, as owners are left to cover the expensive repair fees.

Return Fraud

Although stricter returns policies are making return fraud more difficult nowadays, it’s still a form of ORC you need to remain aware of. 

Return fraud is where perpetrators return items in exchange for cash or gift cards. 

For organized groups, they may even stage an exchange in the parking lot, swapping goods or falsifying receipts before re-entering the store to commit return fraud.

Coordinated In-Store Theft and Getaway Vehicles

ORC groups often work collectively to commit large-scale theft. They’ll separate the team out into various roles, with some set to distract employees whilst others focus on grabbing high-value goods.

Following this, they’ll have planned a swift getaway, with vehicles waiting in the parking lot, ready to transport the goods to their next destination before being sold.

How ORC Operates in Parking Lots

Parking lots may seem like innocent spaces, but they’re actually prime locations for Organized Retail Crime.

Providing a vast, open space for criminals to use for staging getaways, swapping goods for returns, transferring stolen goods, and intercepting suppliers.

Often assumed to have a lack of surveillance present, criminals tend to feel a sense of security because they’re more likely to evade capture. 

Vehicles involved in ORC can strategically place themselves at the entrances or exits of the parking lot in order to be able to escape quickly, before the store and any employees can react.

Many parking lots are used to unload goods from the truck into the retail store, and some groups will monitor this and then arrive at the lot at the same time to intercept this. 

Not only does this provide a place to park their vehicles to easily intercept the delivery, but to also make a quick getaway.

As established, parking lots are the starting and end points to ORC in most cases, therefore, it’s paramount that you have sufficient parking lot surveillance in place to prevent this.

The Role of Parking Lot Surveillance in Preventing ORC

Parking lot surveillance is considered the most effective method at deterring and disrupting ORC before it reaches your store, whilst protecting employees, customers, and vehicles in your lot.

Offering both visible deterrence, live monitoring, and proactive prevention that discourages criminal activity and captures high-quality footage of an incident for evidential purposes.

Below provides a brief summary of the key benefits parking lot surveillance provides against ORC:

• Visibly deters crime to help prevent and reduce theft attempts.

• Tracks individuals and vehicles through high-quality cameras and additional integrations like ANPR cameras to monitor suspicious behavior and repeat vehicles.

• Secures deliveries by monitoring loading bays, helping to prevent cargo and supply chain theft. 

• Enhances safety for employees and shoppers by displaying clear monitoring systems and offering proactive prevention against ORC.

• Records high-quality video that can be used to support investigations and Law Enforcement following an incident or near-incident. 

Retail store parking lots of all types are targets for ORC, and without the correct surveillance in place, you’re leaving valuable items completely vulnerable to theft. 

Parking lot surveillance is the recommended method all parking lot owners should take at bare minimum, but there are several strategies you can implement to prevent and overcome ORC.

Parking Lot Strategies to Prevent and Overcome ORC

Taking a proactive approach to parking lot security is central to preventing you from becoming a victim of ORC, helping to stop incidents before they even reach your store.

From mobile surveillance cameras to running employee background checks, there are several strategies that transform your retail store parking lot into a strong first line of defense against ORC. 

Background Checks

60% of inventory losses are caused by employees, and it’s likely that some of these will be a part of an ORC ring, whose sole purpose is to provide intel and support in the theft of goods.

We understand that you need to be able to trust your employees in order to uphold a positive relationship with them as employers, however, you also need to protect your business.

Completing background checks prior to hiring any employee helps you avoid hiring an individual that could pose a risk to your business.

Effective Customer Service

Your employees play a key role in identifying suspicious behavior both in and out of the store, so you should utilize this situational awareness to protect your stores and those within this. 

Improving your customer service process helps encourage this behavior amongst all your employees and normalize it as part of their working day. 

Here are a few ways you can improve your customer service while also protecting your business:

• Have your employees approach and engage customers to offer assistance

• Station an employee at the doors to greet shoppers as this will discourage criminals from attempting to walk out with stolen merchandise

• Train your employees on how to spot warning signs for ORC

The more your employees are aware and can pinpoint suspicious behavior, the more likely you are to catch criminals in the act or deter them altogether.

Restricted Return Policy

A restricted return policy can limit the amount of successful fraudulent returns at your store, making you an undesirable target for ORC crimes like return fraud.

To do this you can specify exclusions, set a returns deadline, add conditions to your returns, utilize statutory rights regarding quality, and implement ‘no refund’ policies on certain goods.

You should ensure that any individuals handling returns follow the policy in place to avoid errors being made that could financially harm your business. 

Surveillance Cameras

As mentioned, proactive surveillance systems help to effectively deter would-be criminals from your store, whilst remaining budget-friendly.

Compared to security guards, mobile surveillance can save a significant amount of money without having to compromise on quality.

Surveillance cameras not only deter criminal activity, but they will also detect any organized retail crime happening in your store or in your parking lot.

For parking lots specifically, Surveillance Trailers like the LotGuard PRO help identify crime before it even reaches your store, taking action in that moment, and gathering evidence in the process. 

Why Choose LotGuard For Your Retail Parking Lot Surveillance

Improving the parking lot surveillance of your retail store plays a vital role in boosting the overall safety of your premises, employees, and parking lot users by creating a strong first line of defense against crime.

Our mobile surveillance solutions are designed to detect, mitigate, and report any criminal activity, enhancing the security profile of any parking lot.

LotGuard's IR (infrared) cameras capture crystal clear images even in total darkness, allowing a remote operator to highlight any hazards and capture evidential footage of any suspicious behavior or crime.

Their PTZ capabilities deliver full site coverage without the need for mains power and internet availability. This allows for flexibility, especially with our Surveillance Trailers as these can be moved by yourself to any vulnerable locations or blind spots. 

We can even customize the camera profile of our unit to meet your retail parking lot's exact requirements. 

This includes IR PTZ cameras, thermal cameras, license plate recognition cameras (LPR), and four-way multisensor cameras, all capable of delivering live and recorded footage through 4G/5G LTE technology.