National Network Against Crime

While retail crime is usually dealt with on a company-by-company basis, combining forces to maintain more control can be an effective tactic. That’s what led the National Retail Federation (NRF), Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and the FBI to develop a national database, LERPnet, that catalogs organized retail crime.

“LERPnet is a proactive and analytical tool that allows retailers to collaborate with each other as well as law enforcement officials; we can better protect our stores, our brands, our employees and most importantly, our customers,” said Tim O’Connor, Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) vice president of asset protection, in a statement. So far retailers such as Circuit City, GameStop, Sears and Office Depot have signed on.

The service launched in April after two years of development. It works like this: If a retailer is hit by an organized group of shoplifters, in addition to providing information of the theft to local law enforcement, a LERPnet subscriber could report the incident to the database, complete with the police report and details such as surveillance photos of the crooks, serial numbers of products and vehicle identification.