MLG speaks at Organized Retail Crime Conference

BERNALILLO — The New Mexico Organized Retail Crime Associationhosted the 2024 Second Annual Organized Retail Crime Conference in the Vista Grande Ballroom Friday.

The conference featured many experts and speakers, including New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

“I appreciate the private sector and the public sector partnership here. It’s critical, and quite frankly, this association is now being replicated around the country because it’s a model that works,” Lujan Grisham said.

“In the last 24 months,” she said, “I have not been at a single retailer where theft was not occurring while I was in line shopping.”

The governor said her New Mexico State Police security detail has stopped crimes she witnessed in line.

“We have to do more about preventing it,” Lujan Grisham said in her address at the Santa Ana Star Casino Hotel. “I believe it’s all related to drug trafficking, retail theft, human trafficking, illegal guns and the distribution of those that are connected to the same set of individuals.”

In attendance were more than 250 law enforcement representatives from 30 agencies as well as 25 retail companies with many of their representatives.

“We have got any number of incredible experts here from the entire criminal justice system but also on the private sector side. Thank you for standing up for New Mexico. Thank you for standing up for accountability. Thank you for standing up for businesses, particularly small business,” Lujan Grisham said.

She said House Bill 234, which was passed in 2023, is being put to use. The law gives prosecutors the ability to aggregate the retail market value of multiple shoplifting cases and charge a suspect with a more serious, second-degree felony if the total value of merchandise is more than $20,000.

Thirteen leaders from law enforcement and the business community received NMORCA Leadership Awards at the conference.

Other speakers included Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, Senior Vice President of State and Local Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Tom Wickham, Vice President of Asset Protection at the Retail Industry Leaders Association Khris Hamlin, retired Detective Sean Smith, individuals from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, Bureau Chief of the Northern U.S. Jason Daughrity, and more.

“The ability to get all of the players that are dealing with this problem in the room at the same time, what that does is facilitate excellent communication, awareness of what each other’s roles are, and discovering the ability on how to better work together,” Daughrity said. “This problem, as I was saying during the presentation, can’t be solved from that singular lens ... you need partnerships.”

“Even if you don’t feel you have very good evidence, if you know they stole from you, report that,” Bregman said.

The conference gave retailers and law enforcement resources, tools and a chance to collaborate in the fight against organized retail crime in New Mexico.

At the conference, the NMORCA Best Practices Playbook for Law Enforcement and Retailers was given to each attendant. The playbook was developed by NMORCA, retailers and law enforcement from around the state and illustrates how significant collaboration between law enforcement and the business community is.

The New Mexico Organized Retail Crime Association (NMORCA) is a program of the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce. The NMORCA has a partnership with retail companies and law enforcement across the state. The goal of the NMORCA is to make New Mexico a safer place to do business.

Learn more about NMORCA at nmchamber.org/nmorca.

— Allison Carpenter of the Albuquerque Journal contributed to this report.