As Smash-and-Grab Raids Go Viral, the Retail Industry Is Fighting Back

Organized retail crime is running rampant in the run-up to Christmas. As captured on smartphones and closed-circuit video cameras across the U.S. and splashed all over social media, thieves have increasingly taken to smash-and-grab raid tactics. They’re looting stores through their windows and brazenly wheeling out shopping carts loaded with stolen goods.

Industry groups have sounded the alarm, saying the thefts are not being carried out by lone actors, but are the handiwork of organized crime rings that pose a major threat to the retail industry and everyday consumers who want to shop in peace.

“Organized retail crime is not something new, but if you think about the things that are stolen and fenced by such groups, usually it’s cargo theft or theft from warehouses,” Christian Beckner, VP of retail technology and cybersecurity at the National Retail Federation, told PYMNTS in an interview. “This smash-and-grab trend you’ve seen in the past couple of months is the latest iteration of that.”

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The NRF is one of a number of retail industry bodies leading calls for policymakers to do something. It has recently launched a social media campaign calling for more collaboration and partnership between government, law enforcement and the retail industry, and is looking for immediate action to make the holiday season safer for shoppers.

Beckner said the NRF has put a lot of energy into trying to understand how the criminal gangs operate, including how the stolen goods are moved and where and when they’re being resold.

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At the same time, the NRF is calling for lawmakers to implement policy reforms in order to help law enforcement go after the ringleaders responsible for the raids.

Its voice is being heard, with various prosecutors and attorneys’ general offices signaling that they’re about to take a tougher stance on the issue. As Beckner pointed out, California and Illinois have both established organized retail crime task forces to try and tackle the issue before it gets out of hand. Other states, including Arizona, Florida and New Mexico, are trying to emulate that model — but much work remains to be done, Beckner said.

What’s urgently needed is more coordination between the various law enforcement agencies responsible for preventing retail crime. Beckner said there’s not enough collaboration between Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI Postal Inspection Service, local police departments and other stakeholders.

“You have a number of different federal law enforcement agencies that have some responsibility, but there is no single agency that is the clear lead to address this,” he noted.

Elsewhere, CEOs from 21 of the U.S.’s largest retailers have called on Congress to come up with solutions to a problem they say is both costly and dangerous to customers and employees alike. In particular, the CEOs called for lawmakers to implement the Integrity, Notification and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces (INFORM) for Consumers Act. The Inform Act aims to increase transparency in online marketplaces, where it is believed that many of the retail goods stolen by crime gangs end up being resold. The idea is to make it more difficult for criminals to hide behind fake user names when selling such goods online.

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Beckner said the NRF supports a version of the Inform Act, but thinks it does not go far enough. The NRF is calling for additional policy recommendations, as well as more funding for law enforcement in the near term to boost security at shopping malls and districts and to reduce the frequency of the raids.

What Beckner and the NRF really want to see is more action against, and tougher penalties for, those involved in organized retail crime. One of the factors driving smash-and-grab crime is that it’s relatively low risk, yet extremely profitable for criminals, so it’s more appealing than engaging in other illicit activities such as drug trafficking or people smuggling. So the goal is to change the risk equation and increase the likelihood that investigators will build cases that cross jurisdictional lines. At the same time, the NRF wants prosecutors to step up and go after the people who facilitate the raids.

“Do that and it will have a deterrent effect on people stealing,” he said. “You’re never going to eliminate retail crime and it’s not something where you could ever declare victory. So it’s the risk equation we’re trying to change.”