In September, ICSC members met with multiple congressional offices to urge lawmakers to once again stand with retailers, property owners and communities by cosponsoring S. 1404/H.R. 2853, the “Combating Organized Retail Crime Act.”
During these meetings, legislators who supported the legislation last session heard directly from their constituent ICSC members, including ICSC PAC Chair Arturo Sneider and ICSC Trustees Terrence Maiden and Adam Ifshin, about the urgent need to pass the bill.
Meetings were held with the offices of Senators Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), as well as Representatives Nanette Barragan (D-CA-44), Ami Bera (D-CA- 6), Ken Calvert (R-CA- 43) and Jake Ellzey (R-TX-6).
Congressman Glenn Ivey (D-MD-4) meets with ICSC Trustee Adam Ifshin (DLC).
ICSC Trustee Terrence Maiden (Russell Glen Company) at the office of Congressman Jake Ellzey (R-TX-6).
“These conversations underscored how organized retail crime continues to harm small businesses, threaten employee safety and erode consumer confidence,” Abby Jagoda, ICSC senior vice president, Public Policy, said. “Our members emphasized that bipartisan action on this issue is critical to protect jobs, strengthen communities and ensure safer, more resilient retail marketplaces nationwide.”
Following the meetings, Rep. Bera signed on as a supporter of the “Combating Organized Crime Act,” which currently has 163 cosponsors in the House of Representatives and 31 in the Senate.
Click here to ask your Members of Congress to support this legislation.
In the states
Meanwhile, state legislatures have been steadily taking action to curb the spread of ORC. This year alone, 17 bills have been signed into law across 13 states targeting retail theft networks and equipping law enforcement with more tools to prosecute offenders.
Most of the 2025’s state legislative activity has been focused on increasing penalties for ORC offenses. Lawmakers in Arkansas (AR SB 300), Montana (MT SB 19), North Dakota (ND SB 2257) and Utah (UT HB 38) enacted bills that increase penalties for repeat offenders, while lawmakers in New Jersey (NJ SB 3587 and AB 4755) and Texas (TX SB 1300 and TX HB 3167) increased penalties for violent acts of theft.
Theft aggregation laws have been instrumental in allowing prosecutors to charge offenders based on the total value of stolen goods across multiple jurisdictions. Maryland lawmakers enacted legislation (MD HB 179 and MD SB 11) allowing prosecutors to charge the same person with multiple thefts committed in different counties within a 90-day window.
Some states have gone beyond the usual 60- or 90-day window for theft aggregation, allowing prosecutors to target more sophisticated ORC operations that spread crimes over a longer time period. A bill enacted in Arkansas (AR SB 300) allows theft aggregation up to 120 days, while New Jersey’s comprehensive ORC legislation (NJ SB 3587 and AB 4755) gives prosecutors one year for aggregated thefts.
And finally, state lawmakers and attorneys general have created statewide ORC Task Forces in the last few years to coordinate information sharing on retail crime activity among businesses and law enforcement. In multiple cases across the country, ORC Task Forces have led to the arrests of leaders of criminal operations. This year, Florida lawmakers included additional funding (FL SB 2500) to prolong the work of its task force, the Florida Organized Retail Crime Exchange (FORCE). And in Oklahoma, lawmakers overrode the Governor’s veto of OK HB 1592 to keep its ORC Task Force operating for another two years.
For more information contact gpp@icsc.com.
2025 State ORC Legisation
