(The Center Square) – Illinois retailers, consumers and taxpayers are all paying a price for organized retail crime.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul told The Center Square that organized retail crime involves much more than just smash-and-grab incidents.
“It’s rail theft. It’s theft from warehouses, theft from big box stores, the Home Depots, the Walmarts and so forth. It’s not just in urban areas. It’s throughout the state,” Raoul said.
Raoul said his office has worked with local, state and federal law enforcement partners on this issue.
“It’s undeniably a problem. It manifests itself in different ways. I think there was a crew hitting gas-station convenience stores, again the big box stores. Then you have urban and suburban-area places,” Raoul said.
Raoul added that he established the Illinois Organized Retail Crime Task Force in 2021, after a government affairs person from Home Depot tipped him off to the organized crime element of retail theft.
Illinois taxpayers are spending $5 million on the task force in fiscal year 2025.
According to Capital One Shopping, retail thefts cost Illinois an estimated $185 million in tax revenue in 2022.
Capital One Shopping also found that 70.7% of retailers nationwide reported an increase in organized retail crime incidents over five years.
Retail Industry Leaders Association Vice President of Asset Protection Khris Hamlin told The Center Square that organized theft is definitely a growing problem.
“We can talk numbers up and down and all around all day long, but the fact of it is that retailers are seeing an uptick in this activity,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin said the Retail Industry Leaders Association has partnered with the National District Attorneys Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police to address the issue.
“When you bring all these collaborative parties together, that’s when you start the effort of slowing down the activity. Most importantly, how do you end or slow down recidivism,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin explained that it’s fairly impossible to put a number on the cost of organized retail theft.
“The one thing I can say is when you look at these events across the nation, you look at the loss-prevention professional that lost his life in Philadelphia after an organized group of individuals came in and stole. You look at retail employees that lose their lives when individuals come in and knock them over in the effort of fleeing or eluding apprehension. Those are the events that are real to us,” Hamlin said.