Web site lets Chesapeake stores share retail crime info

CHESAPEAKE

Dozens of Greenbrier retailers now have the unusual ability to swap information online about potential shoplifters, scams and other suspected crimes as shoppers crowd stores this holiday season.

The Chesapeake Police Department launched the secure Web site Thanksgiving week. Merchants so far have posted descriptions of suspects, but there haven't been any arrests, Officer Dave Balsamo said.

Retail crime cost Greenbrier merchants $3 million to $4 million last year, Balsamo said. They've experienced losses from shoplifting, employee theft, return and credit card fraud, counterfeiting, bad checks, and e-fencing - selling stolen goods on the Internet.

Some of those crimes were never reported to police, Balsamo said. It was rarely - if ever - shared among merchants at the time.

Stores, fearing negative publicity, have a tendency to keep losses quiet, he said.

"You don't hear about retail crime," Balsamo said. Businesses want to appear consumer-friendly, and hauling a customer away in handcuffs doesn't look that way, he said.

"Nobody wants to be the coffee shop with the most robberies or the department store that loses the most merchandise, " said Joseph LaRocca, vice president of loss prevention for the National Retail Federation.

Retailers nationwide lost $34.8 billion in merchandise to thefts in 2007, LaRocca said, citing a National Retail Security Survey. Those losses are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, he said.

Some merchants simply cannot afford to continue to act passively about losses with customers cutting back, tight credit and declining revenues.

"A lot of people that prey on businesses are not going to hit just one," Balsamo said. "They are going to hit a lot of them."

Retailers have posted to the Web site nearly every day since it launched, Balsamo said. He declined to say just how many have signed on to the program.

Information shared online doesn't give merchants grounds to detain suspects, Balsamo said. It's more of a warning to be on the lookout. For example, a store manager may input a description of someone passing counterfeit money or writing bad checks. "With margins as slim as they are, anything that can be done is a tremendous asset for retailers," said Susan Milhoan, president and CEO of Retail Alliance, a trade group serving southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina that helped develop the Web site.

Milhoan said she is not aware of any other similar programs in the area. Others exist across the country, said LaRocca of the National Retail Federation. "They've proven very, very effective."

Police will eventually turn the Web site over to retailers and expand it throughout the city, Balsamo said.