OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
S.B. 223 Bill Analysis
135th General Assembly
Click here for S.B. 223’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Introduced
Primary Sponsors: Sens. Lang and Rulli
Effective date:
Nicholas A. Keller, Attorney
SUMMARY
Fight Organized Retail Crime and Empower Law Enforcement
(FORCE) Act
 Names the act the Fight Organized Retail Crime and Empower Law Enforcement (FORCE)
Act.
Organized Retail Theft Task Force
 Establishes the Organized Retail Theft Task Force within the Organized Crime
Investigations Commission, to investigate retail theft activity and any complaint received
involving retail theft.
 Allows the Organized Crime Investigations Commission to establish an organized crime
task force to investigate organized retail theft in addition to the Organized Retail Theft
Task Force.
 Requires the Organized Crime Investigations Commission to appoint a director and
specified members of the Organized Retail Theft Task Force.
 Requires that the president or chief executive officer of the Ohio Council of Retail
Merchants must be a member of the Organized Retail Theft Task Force.
 Increases the fee for a sales tax vendor license from $25 to $50, and directs that
additional money to be used by the Organized Crime Investigations Commission
exclusively to support the operations of the Organized Retail Theft Task Force, minus 5%
which may be used for certain expenses of the Organized Retail Theft Advisory Council.
Organized Retail Theft Advisory Council
 Creates the Organized Retail Theft Advisory Council within the office of the Attorney
General, to consist of the Attorney General or Attorney General’s designee, an
employee of the Attorney General’s office, the president or chief executive officer of the
May 2, 2024
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Ohio Council of Retail Merchants, a representative of the Buckeye State Sheriffs’
Association, and four loss prevention representatives.
 Requires the Organized Retail Theft Advisory Council to advise the Organized Crime
Investigations Commission on organized retail theft and recommend actions for the
Commission to detect, deter, prevent, and prosecute organized retail theft.
 Requires the Organized Retail Theft Advisory Council to operate a secure retail theft
web portal that complies with applicable data privacy laws, to share real time crime
information and intelligence on organized retail theft between retail businesses and law
enforcement agencies.
Criminal mischief
 Increases the penalty for criminal mischief to a third degree felony if the property
involved is a retail pump or meter of an electric charging station.
Theft of mail
 Creates the crime of theft of mail, which is generally a fifth degree felony, but can
escalate as high as a first degree felony depending on the value of the mail stolen and
other specified circumstances.
Organized theft of retail property
 Creates the crime of organized theft of retail property, which prohibits a person from
doing any of the following:
 Knowingly committing theft of retail property with a retail value of $1,000 or more
from a retail establishment for purposes of selling, delivering, or transferring that
property to a retail property fence or for purposes of selling, delivering, transferring,
exchanging, or returning the retail property for value;
 Receiving, purchasing, or possessing retail property with a retail value of $1,000 or
more if the person is employed by, or associated with an enterprise and the person
knows, believes, or has reasonable cause to believe that the property has been
obtained by theft;
 Knowingly acting as an agent of an enterprise to steal retail property with a retail
value of $1,000 or more from a retail establishment as part of an organized plan to
commit theft;
 Knowingly recruiting, coordinating, organizing, supervising, directing, managing, or
financing an enterprise to commit any of the acts described in the three preceding
dot points.
 Specifies that organized theft of retail property is generally a third degree felony, but
can escalate as high as a first degree felony depending on the value of the retail
property stolen and other specified circumstances.
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 Provides that when determining whether the retail value of retail property equals or
exceeds $1,000, the value of all retail property stolen from the retail establishment or
retail establishments by the same person or persons within any 12-month period will be
aggregated.
 Provides that a prosecution for a violation of organized theft of retail property does not
preclude a prosecution for theft or receiving stolen property.
 Provides that if an offender is convicted of or pleads guilty to organized theft of retail
property and is also convicted of or pleads guilty to a violation of theft or receiving
stolen property based on the same conduct, the two or more offenses will be
considered as allied offenses of similar import.
Counterfeiting
 Expands the offense of counterfeiting to also prohibit the following:
 Directly or indirectly using a scanning device to access, read, obtain, memorize, or
store, temporarily or permanently, information encoded on an access device
without the permission of the authorized user, the financial institution issuing the
authorized user’s access device, or a merchant.
 Directly or indirectly using an encoding machine to place information encoded on an
access device onto a different access device without permission from the authorized
user of the access device, the financial institution issuing the authorized user’s
access device, or a merchant.
Corrupt activity
 Amends the definition of “organized retail theft” for purposes of the Corrupt Activities
Law, to mean conduct constituting the offense of organized theft of retail property or
conduct that constitutes a violation of any law of any state other than Ohio that is
substantially similar to the offense of organized theft of retail property.
 Provides that if a pattern of corrupt activity involves one or more incidents of organized
retail theft, the retail establishment or group of establishments whose property was
allegedly stolen may contact the prosecuting attorney and request that the charge be
aggregated with other known thefts of retail property.
 Provides that if a prosecuting attorney declines a request from a retail establishment or
retail establishments to aggregate multiple thefts of retail property, the prosecuting
attorney must promptly inform the establishment or establishments and provide a basis
for the refusal.
Appropriation
Appropriates $1,500,000 in FY 2024 to the Organized Crime Commission Fund to support
the operations of the Organized Retail Theft Task Force.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Fight Organized Retail Crime and Empower Law Enforcement (FORCE) Act ................................. 4
Organized Retail Theft Task Force .................................................................................................. 4
Secure retail theft web portal ..................................................................................................... 6
Theft of mail .................................................................................................................................... 6
Definitions – organized theft of retail property .......................................................................... 8
Definitions – counterfeiting ........................................................................................................ 9
Appropriation ................................................................................................................................ 11
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Fight Organized Retail Crime and Empower Law Enforcement
(FORCE) Act
The bill names the act the Fight Organized Retail Crime and Empower Law Enforcement
(FORCE) Act.1
Organized Retail Theft Task Force
The bill establishes the Organized Retail Theft Task Force within the Organized Crime
Investigations Commission, to investigate organized retail theft activity. The Task Force may
investigate based on any complaint filed or information the Task Force receives that gives
reason to believe organized retail theft has occurred and continues to occur in one or more
counties. The Task Force director and members of the Organized Retail Theft Task Force must
be appointed in the same manner as an organized crime task force established under existing
law, and the president or chief executive officer of the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants is
required to be a member.2 The bill also allows the Organized Crime Investigations Commission
to establish an organized crime task force to investigate organized retail theft in addition to the
Organized Retail Theft Task Force.3
Continuing law requires that, unless a statutory exception applies, any person engaged
in making retail sales subject to sales tax is required to have a vendor’s license. Application for a
vendor’s license must be made to the county auditor of each county in which the applicant
desires to engage in business, and each applicant must pay a license fee of $25 to the county
treasury for each fixed place of business in the county that will be the situs of retail sales. The
bill increases this fee from $25 to $50, and specifies that the county auditor must transmit $25
of each license fee to the Treasurer of State for deposit into the state treasury to the credit of
1 Section 6.
2 R.C. 177.02(B)(2) and (C).
3 R.C. 177.02(B)(1).
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the Organized Crime Commission Fund. The bill directs that this money is to be used by the
Organized Crime Investigations Commission exclusively to support the operations of the
Organized Retail Theft Task Force, except that 5% of the money may be used for the
administrative expenses of the Organized Crime Investigations Commission in support of the
Organized Retail Theft Advisory Council (described in “Organized Retail Theft Advisory
Council,” below).4
Organized Retail Theft Advisory Council
The bill creates the Organized Retail Theft Advisory Council within the office of the
Attorney General, to consist of the Attorney General or the Attorney General’s designee, an
employee of the Attorney General’s office appointed by the Attorney General, the president or
chief executive officer of the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants, a representative of the Buckeye
State Sheriffs’ Association, two loss prevention representatives from retail businesses with
more than 250 employees, and two loss prevention representatives from retail businesses with
less than 250 employees. The Attorney General must appoint the loss prevention
representatives to the Advisory Council after consulting with statewide trade and professional
organizations that represent the interests of retail businesses and loss prevention, and the
organizations are allowed to nominate persons to be considered for appointment as Advisory
Council members.5
The Advisory Council must advise the Organized Crime Investigations Commission on
organized retail theft and recommend actions for the Commission to detect, deter, prevent,
and prosecute organized retail theft, and must meet at least quarterly with the Attorney
General or the Attorney General’s designee. The employee of the Attorney General’s office
appointed to the Advisory Council must serve as liaison to the Organized Retail Theft Task
Force. Members of the Advisory Council will not be compensated, but will be reimbursed for
actual and necessary expenses incurred in performing their official duties. The Organized Crime
Investigations Commission may provide the Advisory Council with technical and clerical
employees as necessary to accomplish its responsibilities mentioned under the bill.6
In addition to the duties described above, the bill allows the Advisory Council to engage
in the following activities:7
1. Compiling and disseminating to retail businesses and law enforcement agencies
innovative methods of detecting, deterring, preventing, and prosecuting organized retail
theft;
2. Conducting training conferences to educate retail businesses and law enforcement
agencies regarding current and emerging crime trends;
4 R.C. 177.02(D)(4), 177.011(D), and 5739.17.
5 R.C. 109.831(A) and (B).
6 R.C. 109.831(C) and (F).
7 R.C. 109.831(E).
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3. Consulting with national, state, and local law enforcement agencies and retail
associations concerning organized retail theft;
4. Educating the public on the problems associated with organized retail theft.
Secure retail theft web portal
The bill requires the Advisory Council to operate a secure retail theft web portal that
complies with applicable data privacy laws, to share real time crime information and
intelligence on organized retail theft between retail businesses and law enforcement agencies
to enhance the identification of offenders and the targeting of criminal enterprises. The
Advisory Council may utilize, or coordinate operations with, commercially operated retail theft
information sharing services.8
Criminal mischief
The offense of criminal mischief, in part, prohibits a person, without privilege to do so,
from knowingly moving, defacing, damaging, destroying, or otherwise improperly tampering
with the property of another. The penalty is generally a third degree misdemeanor. The bill
increases the penalty for criminal mischief to a third degree felony if the property is a retail
pump or meter of an electric vehicle charging station.9
Theft of mail
The bill creates the crime of theft of mail. Existing law prohibits a person, with purpose
to deprive the owner of property, from knowingly obtaining or exerting control over the
property without consent from the owner, beyond the scope of express or implied consent of
the owner or person authorized to give consent, by deception, by threat, or by intimidation.
The existing penalties for theft range from a first degree misdemeanor to a first degree felony,
depending on the circumstances. Under the bill, if the property stolen is mail, the person
commits the crime of theft of mail, a fifth degree felony. If the value of the mail is greater than
$7,500 or, in the case of a victim who is an elderly person, disabled adult, active duty service
member, or spouse of an active duty service member, greater than $1,000, the bill specifies
that the penalties for theft of mail escalate as under existing law from a fourth degree felony to
a first degree felony, based on the value of the stolen mail.
For purposes of this prohibition, “mail” is defined as any letter, card, parcel, or other
material, along with its contents, that is received, accepted for delivery, delivered, or left for
collection by a postal service, including the United States Postal Service, a common carrier, or a
private delivery service.10
8 R.C. 109.831(D).
9 R.C. 2909.07(C)(2).
10 R.C. 2913.02(A) and (B)(12).
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Organized theft of retail property
The bill creates the crime of organized theft of retail property. The bill prohibits the
following:11
1. A person from knowingly commi