Detectives & Officers Combat Organized Retail Crime

🚨Combating Organized Retail Crime (ORC)🚨

Recently, the Washington Organized Retail Crime Association (WAORCA) received a $1 million dollar grant to target organized retail crime (ORC) in our state. As part of the grant Tukwila PD and two other law enforcement agencies in the state were selected to receive portions of the grant to combat ORC.

It is estimated that ORC suspects cause upwards of $3 billion dollars statewide in retail industry merchandise losses each year. Those committing ORC are not committing small shoplifting offenses to be able to go about their daily lives. They are stealing (oftentimes in the thousands of dollars per incident) merchandise for resale such as power tools, high-end clothing, handbags, perfume and numerous other types of merchandise. These crimes are for-profit as the ORC suspects turn around and resell the items via various means.

To combat ORC, the Tukwila PD Special Emphasis Unit (SEU) has begun conducting targeted operations in partnership with our retailers to surveil and apprehend those committing ORC in our city. These stings have resulted in numerous arrests for shoplifting charges along with arrests for active misdemeanor and felony warrants. The tangled web of of those committing these crimes is also being untangled regionally as many suspects hit the same retailers in many different jurisdictions. Via information sharing between agencies and retailers, those suspected of ORC will begin facing felony charges for ORC throughout the state.

In addition to these targeted operations, those who have been riding the COVID era wave of catch, cite and release for shoplifting crimes are quickly finding out that they are now being booked into jail if they are found to be repeat offenders and or those who are shoplifting with ORC intent. This often leads to bewildered looks and oftentimes defiant statements such as “You’re actually going to book me for stealing? City XYZ always just let’s me go!” This is generally the workflow for ORC suspects. Arrest via citation, release them on scene, they skip out on their court date, a warrant is issues and then they repeat said criminal actions which then allows the cycle of criminal behavior to continue with no true accountability or consequences for their actions.

We look forward to working with our WAORCA partners to combat ORC and thank our retail partners for assisting us in our continued efforts to curb ORC in our region.