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VietnameseGriffin: ‘It is not purely large-scale shoplifting; it is often violent crime, and we all pay for it at the cash register’
NEW ORLEANS – Attorney General Tim Griffin today issued the following statement announcing his office is joining the Organized Retail Crime Alliance (ORCA), a multi-state effort with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), law enforcement, prosecutors and private sector partners from Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama (LAMA) to combat organized retail crime conducted by domestic and transnational criminal organizations:
“Organized retail crime is costing businesses billions of dollars in losses every year, and that affects all Arkansas businesses whether they are a local neighborhood store or the biggest retailer in the world. It is not purely large-scale shoplifting; it is often violent crime, and we all pay for it at the cash register.
“I am proud Arkansas is joining with federal, state, local and private sector partners to combat organized retail criminals.”
According to the 2021 joint report released by the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and the Buy Safe America Coalition, in 2019, nearly $70 billion in goods were stolen from retailers.
To view a video of Griffin’s appearance at the announcement, click here.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having
previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.
Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 26 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.
He is currently serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana. His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Liberty (née Bragg), North Carolina, and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin attends Immanuel Baptist Church and lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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