Report reveals rising organized retail theft in Texas

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- On the brink of the holiday shopping season, a newly released study by the state wants to tackle the growing problem of goods stolen from retail stores. Specifically, organized crime rings that target certain stores and areas of the state. The current problem? There's no system in place to track those kinds of thefts. At least not yet.

"Are we going to completely eliminate it tomorrow? No. Are we going to significantly reduce it? Yes," State Comptroller Glenn Hegar said.

Picture it like the scenes on television and social media: Crooks entering stores and grabbing products and taking off, sometimes even fighting with employees over it. Now, the state of Texas wants to put a stop to it.

The state estimates it loses more than $421 million a year from organized retail theft. That number could actually be a lot higher because there's no system in place right now to track things like that.

"Product protection is important, but if I have to lock those things up and [customers] can't touch and feel, it's not a great shopping experience," Joe Kennedy said. He's Vice President of Loss Prevention for Academy Sports + Outdoors.

And that's why companies, like Academy, have teamed up with state leaders to help curb organized crime. Hegar is sharing the findings from a recently created task force.

"Very organized criminal units that are taking advantage of lax systems and lax rules here, not just in Texas, but across the country," Hegar explained.

The task force found the state needs to set-up a statewide reporting system to be able to share and report crime information. That will help law enforcement track criminals, especially if they are operating in several cities.

"Better coordination of all units, and that's why I think is the next step. We're going to continue to engage in this issue," Hegar said.

"With the continued growth and the revenue we're losing as retailers, the state is losing their tax base they would have garnered from the appropriate sales of those items," Kennedy explained.

Some of the other proposed changes include adding store walk-through programs to identify problem areas. It could also potentially change state laws that currently make stores wait 10 days before reporting certain types of thefts.