A repression coordinated at the national level of retail crime – which the authorities call the first of its kind – led to hundreds of arrests in 28 states last week.
The Blitz, led by Illinois, the working group on the organized Cook County crime, involved more than 100 jurisdictions and more than 30 retailers, including Home Depot,, Macy,, Target,, Ulta Beauty,, Walgreens,, Kroger And Meijer.
“When you give a specific objective to a crime, it has repercussions,” the Sheriff of Cook Tom Dart on CNBC told COOK. “When they see that he is prosecuted and taken seriously, it dissuades driving. They don't want to get caught.”
Organized retail crime – a type of display flight where groups of thieves work together in targeted operations to transform stolen products into cash – has increased in scale and in recent years. CNBC previously reported on the vast efforts of the application of laws to eliminate retail crime organizations.
Although the overall numbers for retail flight are difficult to quantify, the retailers declared 93% of flight incidents on average in 2023 compared to 2019, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation. Persons interviewed also reported a 90% increase in dollar losses associated over this same period.
Some criticisms highlight a lack of application and crime thresholds to allow criminals to continue to commit a flight. It is something that the state prosecutor of Cook County, Eileen O'Neill Burke, has concentrated since her entry into office in December.
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During his first day of mandate, O'Neill Burke said that prosecutors would pursue retail accusations in accordance with the law of the State, when the value of the goods exceeds $ 300 or when the suspect already has a conviction for display.
Before she took office, retail flight crimes were only billed if the value of stolen goods was $ 1,000 or more or if the suspect had 10 or more convictions.
Since December 1, the office of the County County prosecutor has deposited accusations in 1,450 cases of retail flight, the office said.
The objectives of the coordinated operation, O'Neill Burke told CNBC, is “to have a day when we focus and we focus on [retail theft] And we share intelligence on this subject – on what we have learned on the network, which gives us more tools on how to reduce this network. “”
It is coordination between the police and the lawyers who have been prosecution that have participated in a certain number of retailers involved in participating in the Blitz.
“Collaboration is the key to having a significant impact,” said Ulta Beauty loss prevention at CNBC, Dan Petrousek. “This is why we were proud to participate in the National Orc Blitz alongside the dedicated partners of the application of laws and prosecution.”
Ulta Beauty made teams participate in nine states in last week's operations, providing the order forces on information on retail crime incidents.
“Organized retail crime remains one of the most important challenges in our industry,” said Marty Malony, director of relations with the Walgreens media. “In this most recent operation, we have worked in close collaboration with law enforcement partners in nearly 20 cities and in more than 40 locations to help brake this trend.”
A Home Depot representative told CNBC that the overall flight is declining, the incidents of organized retail crime are still two -year -old year.
Now that the operation has ended, the group brings together the observations of each jurisdiction and sharing data to continue to help repress the flight to retail.
Other participating retailers contacted comments by CNBC, in particular Macy,, Tj maxx And Targetsaid they are committed to associating the police and putting pressure on strong laws to combat retail crime.