AAR praises bill that would crack down on organized retail thefts

The Association of American Railroads yesterday endorsed the proposed Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2025, which would tackle evolving trends in organized retail theft.

Introduced by U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), the legislation would establish a coordinated multi-agency response and create new tools to tackle evolving trends in organized retail theft. The bill calls for a coordinated federal response to the mounting wave of sophisticated attacks against the nation’s supply chain and retailers, AAR officials said in a press release.

Specifically, the legislation would create an Organized Retail and Supply Chain Coordination Center to bring together federal law enforcement agencies with state and local partners as well as railroad police to counter and dismantle domestic and transnational organized theft operations, according to AAR.

“Organized criminal operations continue to evolve and escalate their targeted attacks against our nation’s supply chain and retailers,” said Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ian Jefferies. “This alarming trend affects every industry — including the nation’s largest railroads, which experienced a 40% spike in cargo theft last year."

For railroads, both the frequency and tactics of cargo theft attempts have evolved rapidly and escalated. Such thefts cost the rail industry more than $100 billion last year, according to AAR.

A summary of the bill is available here.