NACS urges Congress to step up response to organised retail crime
Theft and violence are pushing retailers to spend more on security and even close sites altogether.
A leading US convenience-store trade body has urged lawmakers to intensify action against organized retail crime ahead of a House hearing, warning that theft and violence are pushing retailers to spend more on security and, in some areas, to close sites altogether.
In a letter dated 17 December to the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on crime and federal government surveillance, the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) welcomed the session – Protecting Consumers and Businesses: Confronting Organized Retail Crime – and said the sector faces a distinct mix of risks. While major cases often focus on coordinated shoplifting, NACS said convenience stores and fuel forecourts can be hit by sophisticated fuel-theft rings as well as persistent incidents on or near store property.
The group told lawmakers that retailers are diverting “significant resources” into staffing, surveillance and physical deterrents. Those costs, it argued, can make operations in high-crime areas unsustainable. When stores shut, NACS said, communities may lose jobs, tax revenue and local access to essentials such as groceries, medicines and fuel.
NACS also criticized what it described as weak enforcement of laws covering public camping, vandalism and drug use around stores, and pointed to Arizona’s Proposition 312 as an accountability approach. It reiterated support for the Combatting Organized Retail Crime Act, aimed at improving coordination across law enforcement to disrupt theft networks before they escalate.
