Courtney Wolfe

Research from Capital One Shopping highlights how shoplifting, organized retail crime (ORC), and return fraud contribute to billions in losses each year while forcing retailers to rethink traditional loss prevention strategies.

This case demonstrates that accountability after arrest—not simply apprehension—is essential to reducing repeat offenses and improving long-term safety.

This is a well-understood problem in retail environments. Construction nearby, weather, dust, vibration, and ordinary wear and tear can all degrade image quality over time, often gradually enough that no one notices until the moment a clear image is required. By the time the gap is discovered, the investigation proceeds with weaker evidence than it should have, or does not proceed at all.

The annual list ranks the fastest-growing retailers in the United States based on increases in domestic retail sales between 2024 and 2025.

How Nike Insiders Were Charged with Conspiring to Steal Millions of Dollars' Worth of Sneakers

For working AP teams, however, another figure rarely makes it into those conversations: the volume of flagged exceptions that grew faster than the team could work through them. Exception reports often produce more flagged transactions per shift than the available investigators can realistically review. The team prioritizes the highest-dollar items and the events tied to known repeat offenders, which is the right call, but the unreviewed volume accumulates, and over time, much of it ages out of the data retention period before it is ever opened.

Felony theft thresholds directly impact how theft is prosecuted, how repeat offenders are handled, and how loss prevention teams prioritize response strategies.

The Summit will bring together leading experts, innovative technology providers, and retail and public safety practitioners to examine current capabilities, emerging use cases, regulatory considerations, and what is coming next.

We know that your week can get busy, and the time you have to catch up on the news from around the retail loss prevention industry is often stolen away by other things.

Newly released data from the LVT/Harris Poll of 2,089 US Adults—part of the 2026 Public Safety & Privacy Benchmark—examines generational, gender, and geographic differences in safety concerns surrounding large open-air retail parking lots and school or university campuses.