Why it matters

Organized retail crime has evolved into a coordinated, data-driven business, forcing retailers to elevate loss prevention from a back-office security function to a strategic, cross-functional priority tied directly to profit protection.

What’s changing

• Retailers are moving from reactive responses to predictive ORC models.
• Disparate systems are being unified across POS, video, loyalty, and location data.
• Early, non-confrontational customer engagement is proving to be a powerful deterrent.
• AI is translating complex data into clear risks and recommended actions.

How it works

Hawkins outlines a four-layer analytics model:

• Descriptive: What’s happening across stores, products, and regions.
• Diagnostic: Why losses are occurring, including methods and networks.
• Predictive: What’s likely to happen next based on patterns and risk scoring.
• Prescriptive: What actions store teams and leaders should take.

Bottom line

Loss prevention is no longer about catching shoplifters; it is about using data, analytics, and AI to protect margins, employees, and customers at scale.

Retail's Most Wanted is presented by LVT and the Attorney General Alliance.

Why it matters:

Gift card fraud is one of the easiest ways organized retail crime quietly drains money from shoppers and retailers—and it’s often connected to much larger criminal operations.

The big picture:

On Retail’s Most Wanted, Scott Glenn, VP of Asset Protection at The Home Depot, explains how ORC has evolved from visible theft into coordinated, cross-border crime that’s hard to detect and harder to prosecute.

Key points:

• Gift cards are a prime target: Anonymous, fast, and easy to launder, they’re often drained before victims know a crime occurred.
• This isn’t petty theft: ORC is “shoplifting for greed,” used to fund broader criminal activity.
• Education + coordination work: Training shoppers and associates, stronger state task forces, and federal action are starting to make a difference.

What’s next:

Criminals will keep adapting—but growing collaboration between retailers, law enforcement, and lawmakers is finally narrowing their advantage.

Retail's Most Wanted is presented by LVT and the Attorney General Alliance.

Organized retail crime continues to pressure retailers nationwide, and the role of private security is changing fast. In the latest episode of Retail’s Most Wanted, WGS Group CEO Marcus Skeen breaks down what’s shifting on the ground and why deterrence still matters.

Why it matters

Even with tougher penalties in some states, ORC remains a daily operational issue. Shrink, safety concerns, and store disruptions continue to ripple across the industry.

What Skeen is seeing

Threat levels may have dipped slightly, but complexity hasn’t.

He notes that many security providers drifted into passive roles—observing and recording incidents rather than actively deterring them.

The shift back to deterrence

Skeen argues the industry needs a reset.

That includes better training, clearer expectations, and tools that support professionalism, like body-worn cameras monitored in real time and supervisors who can respond quickly when situations escalate.

What retailers often underestimate

Visible, confident security presence influences more than theft.

It affects how employees feel at work, whether shoppers choose to stay in the store, and how likely repeat offenders are to target the same location again.

The bigger picture

Retailers frequently hesitate to leverage stronger security measures due to liability concerns.

Skeen’s view: risk grows when expectations aren’t clear, and training isn’t consistent.

Retail's Most Wanted is presented by LVT and the Attorney General Alliance.