10% of offenders are responsible for 70% of retail crimes, yet most of that activity goes unconnected across stores, retailers, and law enforcement agencies. The result? Repeat offenders keep operating with near impunity, cases stall before reaching prosecution, and the teams doing the work rarely see the outcomes their efforts deserve.
At the Auror Connect VIP Summit 2026, a panel of loss prevention and law enforcement leaders came together to explore how shared intelligence is starting to change that dynamic, and what that means for retailers and agencies ready to act.
Key takeaways from this episode:
- Connecting incident data across retailers and jurisdictions enables law enforcement to build stronger, multi-charge cases against the most prolific offenders.
- Low-value incidents that seem insignificant in isolation can unlock major investigations when viewed as part of a pattern.
- Retailers who proactively engage with local law enforcement and share data through platforms like the Retail Crime Hub see faster, more consistent enforcement outcomes.
Why isolated cases keep failing
The core problem isn't a shortage of evidence or even intelligence, it's a shortage of visibility.
Jason Fisher, Innovation Manager at Redmond PD, put it plainly:
"Our criminals don't live in our city. They live in other cities, they come to ours, take all of our stuff, and then they go somewhere else. We need to be able to put those pictures together, come up with multiple charges, because they don't just do it once in one location."
When cases are handled store-by-store or jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction, prosecutors often see a single $50 theft. When those same incidents are connected across locations and time, they see a prolific offender responsible for hundreds of crimes. That shift in perspective changes what charges can be filed, how judges respond, and whether a plea agreement is even on the table.
What happens when the pieces come together
Brian Wilson, Deputy Chief of Operations at Anchorage PD, shared early results from his department's use of the Retail Crime Hub, launched less than three months before the summit:
"We've had 194 cases that we've investigated. 160 are already through the prosecutorial process. They've already pled, they're being prosecuted, or have a court date. We have 181 total arrests and warrants. The loss investigated was $142,000, and prosecutors have already addressed $114,000 of that."
The department also used the platform to solve crimes beyond retail, including identifying a hit-and-run suspect through a retail theft committed just prior to the incident. The intelligence that retailers had already gathered became the key to connecting two separate crimes and holding the right person accountable for both.
Shared intelligence at scale: from Chicago to four other states
Raul Aguilar, who formerly led national operations for the Department of Homeland Security, described how a Chicago-based investigation evolved when federal, state, and retail data were combined:
"It wouldn't have happened if it had not been for the retailers to bring it to the Feds. The Feds then having the ability to say, 'We're not going to just take over, we're going to partner up with you.'"
The outcome: a four-state takedown involving multiple box trucks of merchandise, seized assets, and a criminal network dismantled through the willingness of retailers and agencies to share what they knew. The lesson, Aguilar noted, is consistent: hoarded information is exactly what criminals want. Disconnected data is what keeps offenders invisible while information securely shared across a coalition changes outcomes.
The Retail Crime Hub, built through the Auror and Axon partnership, is designed to make that kind of collaboration the default rather than the exception, reducing friction, maintaining audit trails, and giving law enforcement the full picture they need to act.
Watch the full panel discussion to hear how retailers and law enforcement are putting this into practice, and what it could mean for your organization.
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