The packed Auror booth and breakout session made one thing clear: the retailers and law enforcement agencies pulling ahead on retail crime are the ones who stopped trying to solve it alone. The AP/LP community knows it takes a network to defeat one.
Key takeaways:
- Booth conversations confirmed rising demand for dual-layer Risk Detection, with retailers exploring Vehicle Recognition and Subject Recognition together, not as separate tools.
- Retail and law enforcement panelists agreed that connected intelligence beats volume every time when it comes to which cases get worked.
- Auror Subject Recognition was honored by the Loss Prevention Research Council, a recognition decided by the votes of the retail community itself.
The power of the network, on full display on the show floor
At Booth #1505, the question retailers kept circling back to was timing: how early can a team see a threat, and how much time does that buy them to respond safely.
That question shaped Auror's Every Minute Counts Risk Detection demo showing the same five minutes of a store incident twice: once with no Risk Detection, once with Vehicle Recognition and Subject Recognition working together.
The interest reflects something Auror is seeing broadly: retailers are no longer asking whether to invest in recognition technology, but how to layer it into what they already have for one connected defense. In North America, repeat offenders are 2.5X more likely to be involved in an event with a weapon than non-repeat offenders, according to Auror data. The added layer of defense in stores helps teams prepare and respond appropriately to known, high-risk threats.
Session insights: quality over volume, every time
The panel "Uncovering the full extent of retail crime" brought together Auror co-founder and CEO Phil Thomson, Ulta Beauty Director of ORC Rory Stallard, New York State Police senior investigator Mark Buglione, and session moderator Rachel Hall of Axon. The room's biggest takeaway: investigators are stretched thin, and what determines whether a case gets worked is intelligence quality, not report volume. Mark said it best:
"Our greatest success has come from collaboration and breaking down those silos, because organized retail crime is not just a local problem. It's a much larger issue: fences, secondary markets, and crossover with other crime types."
Rory made the case against competitive hesitation:
"If your team is in a silo and not sharing intelligence with another retailer, you are definitely missing out. I've been doing this for about 30 years, and I rely on so many people in this room."
Phil tied it back to the core thesis: no single retailer sees a coordinated offender alone, but the network can.
An LPRC award that belongs to the whole network
Auror Subject Recognition won the New Conceptual Solutions category at this year's LPRC Product Protection Summit Awards, presented during NRF Protect 2026. What makes it notable is how LPRC awards work: retailers vote.
"We built Subject Recognition on the belief that facial recognition for retail settings can be designed and used responsibly," said James Corbett, Auror's CTO and co-founder. "We're grateful for the retailers who voted."
The award isn't really about a single feature. It's a signal that the network itself, evaluating responsible innovation together, is what makes it possible.
The through line
Every conversation at NRF Protect 2026, whether at the booth, in the session room, or on the awards stage, pointed to the same idea: retailers and law enforcement who connect into a shared intelligence picture see more, act faster, and stop more harm than any team working alone.
Explore Auror Risk Detection to see how Vehicle Recognition and Subject Recognition work together and reach out to the Auror team to talk through your own connected intelligence picture.
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