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2018 New England Loss Prevention Expo Recap

On Thursday, September 13th the retail associations from across New England, led by the Retailers Association of Massachusetts Loss Prevention Committee, hosted its 12th annual conference at the DCU Center in Worcester MA.  This year’s event brought together about 200 loss prevention, law enforcement and vendor professionals to discuss trends in analytics, organized retail crime, emerging fraud trends and local regulatory changes.

Speakers included Bob Moracca, Vice President of Loss Prevention for the National Retail Federation, who kicked off the event with a “state of the union,” giving great perspective on our industry, where it stands and where it’s headed; Detective Mark Solomon from Greenwich CT Police Department, who appeared for his second time at our conference giving an update on skimming and fraud trends;  Shanon LaCorte, Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Organized Crime Task Force, New York State Office of the Attorney General, gave an overview of the regional ORC case, Operation Sticky Fingers, and the investigative steps taken to close that significant case; Kellie Woefel from Profitect gave an excellent presentation on prescriptive analytics and the power that technology has to drive better business decisions and execution; the Department of Transitional Assistance: Corey Belanger, State Law Enforcement Bureau Outreach Manager, and Anne O’Sullivan, Asst. Commissioner for Compliance, gave an update on regulations regarding prohibited use of EBT in retail establishments; and our keynote speaker was Todd McGhee, Co-Founder of Protecting the Homeland Innovations, LLC. His presentation on Active Shooter Awareness served as a stark reminder of the real-life situations we can potentially encounter in our personal and professional lives.

This year we were also able to acknowledge two individuals that have made significant contributions to the New England LP community over the years:

Kevin Plante of Party City was awarded the Distinguished Service Award.  After serving thirteen years as Chairman, Plante stepped down from RAM Loss Prevention Committee after last year’s conference.  Under Kevin’s guidance and direction the committee has grown from a few individuals to an expansive network of loss prevention professionals that constantly engage, communicate and support each other.  As chair, Plante oversaw the growth of our annual conference from one focused solely on ORC to a more comprehensive Loss Prevention Expo, the passage of ORC legislation in MA, and the creation of the New England ORC Alliance (NEORCA), an information sharing platform for loss prevention and law enforcement which has grown to a network of over 1000 individuals.  Kevin’s accolades and contributions extend far beyond these key accomplishments.

Also recognized with an award for Loss Prevention Person of the Year was Ken Spurling of Sephora.  Ken has been an integral part in developing and driving adoption within NEORCA.  He has played a big role in developing a partnership between NEORCA and the New England State Police Information Network (NESPIN), a partnership which has led to training of several hundred law enforcement officers to better educate them on Organized Retail Crime.  Ken is very active in various LP retailer meetings and is a great peer to all LP field.

RAM thanks our sponsors at NRF, Wegman’s, BJ’s Wholesale Club and Rite Aid, as well as all the presenters, solution providers and members of the RAM LP Board for their support in making this event happen: Brendan Fitzgerald (BJ’s Wholesale Club), Jason Adams (Apple), Kevin Foote (Staples), Matt Taylor (Walgreens), Alisha Le (Wegman’s)  and Greg LaPre (Security Consulting). 

We look forward to another great event in 2019!