NEWARK, Calif.--California lawmakers, law enforcement officials and retail LP executives at the end of October gathered here for the Northern California Organized Retail Crime Conference to discuss the effects area retailers are experiencing from ORC.

The conference, sponsored by Universal Surveillance Systems, was keynoted by state Senator Leland Yee, who during a hearing before the state Senate's Select Committee on Sustainable Development and Economic Progress in August vowed to introduce legislation addressing ORC, which is said to deprive $242 million in tax dollars from California each year. Adel Sayegh, president and CEO of USS Corp., said there was little support when Yee first introduced legislation and "it didn't have legs to begin with." Now that the industry has taken it upon itself to educate lawmakers and state officials about ORC, industry professional anticipate more support from lawmakers and law enforcement. During October's conference, Yee said he was committed to reintroducing legislation to increase penalties for those convicted of crimes related to ORC.

Sayegh said the event was "a huge success for us as well as the industry." USS organized this event and others like it for retailers, law enforcement and government agencies to come together to support each other and work toward developing legislation.

"When we started this we realized in talking to a lot of our retail partners that ORC was getting much more sophisticated," Sayegh said. "It was pretty evident the state of California, for one, didn't have bills in place to combat the problem and through talking with national associations such as the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association, we've come to realize they haven't had the resources and man hours to put into this type of education for the community."

Even as retailers have become more educated on ORC and trying to prevent it, boosters have become smarter. Sayegh said they are "getting pretty creative" by retrofitting designer shopping bags from Gucci, Dooney & Bourke and Coach, for example, into aluminum lined bags. They are also dressing better so they "no longer look like thugs," Sayegh said. "We've even seen them come in with baggy pants, cargo pants, lined with aluminum foil."

A number of retailers are currently testing a new detection tool developed by USS that will detect the aluminum bags often used by boosters. "That has been very successful and we've received good feedback from the retailers who are currently testing the technology," he said.

Sayegh said "I'm personally, as the president of USS, committed to educating the community" and to back this up, the company has plans to roll out a series of national road shows focused on ORC in cities including Atlanta, Boston, New York and Chicago. The first one is scheduled for March 2009 in Dallas.