Shoplifters beware. The FBI has teamed up with retail trade groups to create a new database to share information about happy-handed carnie types that loot billions in goods from retailers each year. The database, which bears the inventive title of Law Enfrocement Retail Partnership Network (LERPnet), will focus mainly on organized crime rings that engage in retail theft. Such banditry costs the retail industry an estimated $30 billion annually, according to the FBI.
Retailers have typically worked with local law enforcement to catch thieves. But sharing information across jurisdictional lines has always been a problem and pitiless hordes of shoplifters have pilfered with abandon. No more. LERPnet is here. The database, which was born out of legislation signed by President Bush in January 2006, will launch next Monday. Can you handle it? Well, punk, can you?
