Published
December 01, 2025
Across the country, surges in retail crime and cargo theft are putting the nation’s businesses and consumers at risk. While higher-profile crimes and finger-pointing grab the headlines, businesses continue to struggle with rising business-focused crimes, and employees, businesses, and consumers are playing the price. Crimes against businesses impact local communities, workers, and the businesses they rely on. Tackling this issue requires support from policymakers, law enforcement, prosecutors, and businesses.
The Chamber recommends a three-pronged approach to combat rising business-focused crime in communities across the country. Learn more below.
Retail Crime’s Effect on Business
Retail crimes, like organized shoplifting rings and “smash-and-grabs”, have been persistent problems for America’s businesses.
Crime numbers often fluctuate from year-to-year but the long-term trends are clear with larcenies involving shoplifting having doubled since the 1970’s according to statistics from the nonprofit Council for Criminal Justice.
The effect of retail crime is widespread with innocent customers, employees, and business owners bearing financial and societal costs. Retail crime creates higher prices for consumers, results in stores having to close their doors, and communities left without vital goods and services.
Cargo Theft Rising
Cargo theft is another rising concern for the business community. Cargo theft is increasing rapidly with a significant shift toward sophisticated fraud and deception tactics.
Cargo theft results in higher costs throughout the supply chain, ultimately impacting businesses, shippers, retailers, and consumers.
The latest numbers from CargoNet show a 13% increase in theft incidents in the second quarter of 2025 over 2024 following record-high numbers of cargo theft incidents in 2023 and 2024 with Texas, Illinois, and California being the top three states for cargo theft with 53% of incidents occurring in those three states.
The Big Picture
Crimes against small businesses are not just a matter of national statistics but it affects all businesses at the local level.
Hrag Kalabjian, a member of the U.S. Chamber’s Small Business Council, has told the Chamber how crime problems plague his family-run coffee shop in California.
Costs associated with dealing with retail and cargo theft are impacting small business owners, employees, and the surrounding business community.
“The costs associated with keeping people from breaking in and destroying our property add up, especially when business is still recovering from the economic downturn of the pandemic,” says Kalabjian.
Dig Deeper
What Can Be Done
The U.S. Chamber has summoned policymakers and the business community to join the Chamber in our three-part call to action for combatting crimes against businesses.
1. Coordination of response
Improved coordination between different levels of government can be served by Congress passing the Combatting Organized Retail Crime Act (H.R. 2853/S. 1404). This bipartisan bicameral bill establishes a coordination center within the Homeland Security Investigations division of the Department of Homeland Security to increase collaboration in the multi-jurisdictional fight against retail crime.
In this Congress, the bill has also been expanded to address the problem of cargo theft. At the local level, coordination of small businesses to combat crime can occur under the umbrella of a local chamber of commerce like successful efforts of the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce’s Organized Retail Crime Association or the Ohio Chamber’s Crime Task Force.
2. Aggregation of offenses
One of the greatest challenges for small businesses is the increasing sophistication of criminal operations. These highly organized gangs exploit the laws of a given jurisdiction to maximize their thefts and minimize their chances for arrest and prosecution. Thieves accomplish this by repeatedly stealing just below the felony threshold during each theft, with multiple thefts often committed across jurisdictional lines and often against the same stores again and again.
Small businesses are continually frustrated by two words: “repeat offenders.” The Chamber has worked with state policymakers and prosecutors like San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan and the National District Attorney’s Association to change laws to create a separate offense for the repeated stealing of certain amounts within specific time periods.
3. Increased prosecution
Crucial to any anti-crime response is the local prosecutor. District Attorneys and County Attorneys are the gatekeepers of the criminal justice system, deciding whether arrested parties will be prosecuted. Lax prosecution of crimes against businesses sends the wrong message to small business owners and communities, and only emboldens criminals.
The U.S. Chamber supports legislation reducing the case backlog for state and local courts, thereby freeing up prosecutors’ ability to address current crimes.
Crimes spanning multiple jurisdictions pose a logistical and manpower problem for prosecutors, but progress is underway. State legislatures should follow the lead of Pennsylvania, where a law supported by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce created a new office of Deputy Attorney General for Organized Retail Crime Theft last year. In just over one year, that office has opened over 65 investigations, made more than 40 arrests, and the recovered nearly $2 million in stolen goods.
Bottom Line
Businesses, employees, and consumers pay the price of rising retail crime and cargo theft. To curb it, local, state, and federal officials must pass effective laws and policies to combat crime and ensure communities are safe.
About the author
Tom Wickham
Tom Wickham, former Parliamentarian of the U.S. House of Representatives, serves as Vice President and Managing Director of Government Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Wickham helps oversee a team of D.C. and regional U.S. Chamber lobbyists and serves as the Chamber’s policy lead on anti-crime efforts.
