A single case on a man who we will call “Mr. Smith” has led the U.S. to investigate new ways to protect retailers and other agencies against organized crime.

At first glance, Mr. Smith seemed like a petty shoplifter. But appearances can be deceiving…

Interrogation of two ecommerce platforms revealed that Mr. Smith was not what he at first appeared to be; a small-time crook. In fact, he had a well established, expansive and carefully planned shoplifting operation…

Mr. Smith liked to steal books. But not just any books. No, Mr. Smith had a predilection for high value textbooks… books that he could resell at a high price – but not on the black market. Instead he had a textbook mail order business!

An investigative profile produced convictions of retail theft in Arizona, a car theft in Tennessee, a solid address and a likely solution to chronic losses.

A conversation with Mr. Smith produced a detailed description of criminal behavior impacting Barnes & Noble stores from Seattle to San Diego, Maine to Miami and all major cities in between.

As it turns out Mr. Smith had stolen in excess of $500,000 worth of textbooks over the previous five years! Routinely he would cross state lines with his bounty. And he used the U.S. Postal Service to ship his online sales.

The case was ultimately accepted by the U.S. Attorney in Atlanta and the United States Secret Service. However, this “textbook theft,” which demonstrated behavior common to professional shoplifters and Organized Retail Crime (ORC) teams, started a thought process.

How could multiple retailers and agencies, in multiple jurisdictions, share information in a way that would allow them to effectively “join the dots” and uncover the ORC gangs? That is EXACTLY what the Retail Organized Crime Coalition (ROCC) is being launched to do.

“The Retail Organized Crime Coalition is the avenue connecting loss prevention investigators and federal law enforcement at the headquarter level. ROCC was forged to combat chronic retail organized crime through case referrals, education and the distribution of timely intelligence.”

ROCC will be discussed in detail by a panel of its members at the inaugural U.S. launch of Retail Fraud – New York on Sept. 24 2015.