Senate hearing spotlights rise in organized retail and cargo theft, backs federal coordination bill

A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on organized retail and cargo theft opened with Chairman Chuck Grassley describing a dramatic increase in organized, high-speed retail robberies and supply-chain attacks and urging Congress to act. "Some of the worst criminal organizations, including cartels, terrorists, and human traffickers use this type of crime," Grassley said.

The hearing focused on the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act (referred to in testimony as CORCA or the combating organized retail crime act), a bipartisan bill that would create a national coordination center inside the Department of Homeland Security to collect intelligence, support multi-jurisdiction investigations and strengthen criminal penalties for organized retail and supply-chain theft. Ranking Member Dick Durbin and other senators pressed witnesses on enforcement, data gaps and whether DHS is the appropriate lead agency.

The witnesses included David J. Glawe, president and chief executive officer of the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB); Donna Lam, chief strategy officer of IMC Logistics; Scott McBride, chief global asset protection officer for American Eagle Outfitters; and Summer Stephan, district attorney of San Diego County and president of the National District Attorneys Association. Each described increasingly sophisticated criminal networks…