When Prince George’s County police established their Organized Retail Crime Unit last year, the first thing its supervisor did was go to the people who knew the most about the crime: the stores themselves.
“That’s the key to our success,” Sgt. Aubrey Thompson said. “They discuss the problems they’re having and we tell them what we’re working on.”
Organized retail theft is booming in the D.C. region, and law enforcement and retail officials say partnerships are key in tracking down the culprits.
Thompson said his unit uses information from the stores and their video surveillance systems to track suspects, find out what they’re stealing and whom they’re working with. Then, undercover officers will step in to arrange a sale — and that’s when police can make arrests and seize stolen property, Thompson said.
For their part, retailers are getting better at reporting crimes faster and analyzing their losses to see whether organized rings might be responsible, said Richard Mellor, vice president of loss prevention for the National Retail Federation.
Retailers are “communicating with police more quickly and with information the police can use,” he said.
But store employees who suspect a thief is in the store shouldn’t intervene, Thompson said. The best thing a worker can do, he said, is to be a good witness.
“Get a tag number and a description,” he said.
– Emily Babay
