Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, law enforcement officials, representatives from leading Michigan retailers, and members of the FORCE Team welcomed White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden last week to a roundtable highlighting the FORCE team’s achievements in combatting organized retail crime.
The roundtable featured a discussion on the partnership between the first-in-the-nation unit and retail businesses.
“Since the FORCE Team began operations last year, they immediately started producing results,” Nessel said. “Crime rings have been stopped in their tracks, defendants have been arrested and charged from the bottom to the top of their organization, and strong criminal cases have been built from the storefront to the courtroom, and we are only getting started. I’m honored to share our story and our tremendous efforts in reducing organized retail crime with Director Tanden and the White House.”
"The Michigan State Police is a proud partner of the FORCE team." said Col. James F. Grady II, director of the Michigan State Police. "Local and Federal police partnerships as well as relationships with private sector entities are critical in preventing and solving crime in Michigan."
The FORCE Team and the Organized Retail Crime Unit were established in January 2023 by the Attorney General to target criminal organizations that steal products from retailers to repackage and sell for a profit.
Since its inception, the FORCE team has charged more than 80 defendants in 42 cases, and halted crime rings responsible for tens-of-millions of dollars in losses to our retailers in Michigan, recovering over $10 million dollars worth of merchandise, and millions more in cash and cryptocurrency seized from these criminal enterprises.
Two assistant attorneys general serve the FORCE Team full time, working with special agents within the Department of Attorney General and Michigan State Police detectives to investigate and prosecute these crimes.
The unit also partners with the FBI’s Detroit Fraud and Financial Crimes Task Force and the Postal Inspection Service. This is a first-in-the-nation unit, unique in the 50 states as being the first such unit with embedded, dedicated staff from the Department of Attorney General.
The roundtable featured representatives from the Troy Police Department, Canton Police Department, Michigan State Police, the Retailers Association, Walmart, and the Detroit Auto Dealers Association.
The FORCE Team is dedicated to working collaboratively with retailers and local law enforcement agencies to combat organized retail crime. FORCE is an acronym that stands for Focused Organized Retail Crime Enforcement. Recent corporate partners on investigations have included Sam’s Club/Walmart, Meijer, Target, Home Depot, TJ Maxx, Rite-Aid, Lululemon, Ulta Beauty, Amazon, and Lowe’s.
Local law enforcement agencies or retailers with evidence of organized retail fraud are encouraged to email the FORCE Team.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden tour evidence warehouse at FORCE Team headquarters.
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