CORCA heads to Senate amid cargo theft debate

What CORCA would do

CORCA does not create a new federal cargo theft crime. Instead, the legislation creates an Organized Retail and Supply Chain Crime Coordination Center within Homeland Security Investigations. The center would coordinate investigations involving organized retail crime and organized supply chain crime while bringing together federal, state and local law enforcement agencies with private industry. The bill also directs the center to identify organized theft trends, improve information sharing and provide training and technical assistance to agencies investigating organized theft.

The legislation also requires Homeland Security to publish annual reports describing organized retail and supply chain crime throughout the United States. Those reports would identify crime trends, summarize the center’s activities and recommend ways to strengthen enforcement efforts. The bill also directs Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to evaluate existing grant programs and recommend additional resources for agencies investigating organized retail crime and cargo theft. Unless Congress extends the authority, the coordination center would expire after seven years.

Why Congress says the bill is needed

Congress included a series of findings explaining why lawmakers believe additional federal coordination is necessary. According to the bill, organized theft groups continue to target retailers and the nation’s supply chain while using increasingly sophisticated methods to steal and divert freight. Lawmakers also concluded those crimes disrupt supply chains, affect the national economy and increase costs for businesses and consumers.

The bill cites National Retail Federation data showing larceny incidents increased 93% between 2019 and 2023 while the average dollar loss per incident increased 90%. Congress also cited data showing more than 84% of retailers reported violence and aggression connected to organized theft had become a greater concern since 2022. The findings also reference CargoNet data showing cargo theft incidents increased 27% in 2024 while the average theft exceeded $202,000. According to the legislation, organized theft groups increasingly use technology to impersonate legitimate businesses, divert shipments and move stolen freight through organized criminal networks.

Congress also concluded organized theft reaches far beyond the companies directly targeted. The findings state those crimes increase the cost of goods, reduce tax revenue and ultimately raise prices for consumers. Lawmakers also wrote that organized theft groups frequently operate across state and international borders, making investigations more difficult for individual agencies working independently. Those findings became the foundation for CORCA’s proposal to improve coordination between agencies investigating organized retail crime and supply chain theft.

Why critics oppose the bill

Despite broad bipartisan support in the House, CORCA has faced criticism from organizations that question both the scope of the legislation and the evidence supporting it. Recent criticism argues documented cargo theft remains a small percentage of the freight moved across North America each year. Critics also question whether Congress should expand Homeland Security Investigations’ authority without stronger evidence that organized cargo theft has reached the level supporters describe.

Critics also point to an American Transportation Research Institute survey showing 82% of trucking companies and 53% of logistics firms report all cargo thefts to law enforcement. They argue those findings raise questions about whether cargo theft is significantly underreported and whether documented cargo theft represents only a fraction of the overall problem.

Some organizations have also raised concerns about the legislation’s information-sharing provisions. They argue Congress should carefully balance efforts to combat organized crime with privacy protections before expanding cooperation between government agencies and private industry. Critics also question whether existing federal and state resources could accomplish many of the bill’s goals without creating another coordination center.

Cornell has investigated cargo theft for more than 30 years and helped draft the cargo theft language added to CORCA. He said the legislation originally focused on organized retail crime before lawmakers expanded it to include organized supply chain crime. According to Cornell, he worked with his former employer’s government affairs team before presenting the proposed language to Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office, which agreed to include it in the legislation.

Cornell says the current data tells only part of the story

Cornell said the American Transportation Research Institute survey measures whether companies report thefts to law enforcement, but it does not address how those crimes are ultimately classified once police take the report. He said the larger issue is that the United States does not have a standardized cargo theft category within the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting system. Without that reporting category, he said cargo theft often becomes part of broader property crime statistics.

“The majority of people report cargo theft to the police, and because there is no UCR, Uniform Criminal Reporting, for cargo theft, it gets diluted into other property crimes around the country,” Cornell said.

He said two agencies investigating nearly identical cargo thefts may classify those crimes differently. One department may report the incident as auto theft because a commercial vehicle was stolen. Another agency may classify the same crime as burglary or another property offense. Cornell said strategic theft methods such as fictitious pickups, carrier identity theft and business email compromise may also fall into different reporting categories depending on how investigators classify the offense. He said those inconsistencies make it difficult to develop an accurate national picture of cargo theft.

“So the cargo theft numbers get diluted into the general criminal reporting system that the federal government tracks, and so we don’t see cargo theft,” Cornell said.

Cornell said CargoNet provides one of the best sources of cargo theft intelligence available today, but he cautioned against treating its annual reports as a complete count of every cargo theft occurring across the country. He said the reports establish trends and help investigators understand how organized theft groups operate. He does not believe they represent every cargo theft that occurs in the United States.

“The CargoNet reports are a sample size,” Cornell said. “They’re an effective sample size, and they give us enough to establish the trends. But you can’t take the numbers as the actual numbers.”

Based on more than 30 years investigating cargo theft, Cornell estimates CargoNet captures roughly one in every 10 full truckload cargo thefts and approximately one in every 15 cargo thefts when pilferage incidents are included. He described those figures as his professional estimate based on decades of investigative experience rather than a government statistic.

Cornell said the discussion should extend beyond cargo theft statistics alone. He pointed to the growing number of cargo theft task forces across the country and support for CORCA from transportation organizations, law enforcement agencies and private industry. He said that level of support reflects what investigators and transportation professionals continue to experience in the field.

Cornell said he has watched the industry’s perspective change dramatically over the past several years. When he began speaking at transportation conferences, only a handful of people in large audiences said they had experienced cargo theft. Today, he said, that response has changed.

“Five, six, seven years ago, I would ask the crowd when I would start my speech, ‘How many of you have been affected by cargo theft or experienced a cargo theft?’ Maybe 10 to 20 people in a room of 400 would raise their hand,” Cornell said. “When I do that now, the majority of the room raises their hand.”

Cornell also questioned why transportation organizations, private companies and law enforcement agencies across the country would support CORCA if organized cargo theft were not a growing problem. He said the industry’s response reflects what transportation professionals experience every day, not simply what appears in published reports.

“If cargo theft isn’t really a problem, why is every major industry organization talking about it as one of the primary issues their members are asking for help on?” Cornell said.

What’s next

CORCA now awaits consideration in the Senate. If the Senate approves the legislation, the bill will move to the president for consideration.

Supporters believe the legislation would improve coordination between agencies investigating organized cargo theft and organized retail crime. Critics continue to question whether lawmakers have enough data to justify expanding the federal response. As the debate continues, both sides agree on one point. Organized cargo theft affects the transportation industry. They simply disagree on whether current reporting accurately measures its true scope.

Click here for more articles on cargo theft and freight fraud by Phillip Brink.

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