Ghanbari named Ohio's Retail Crime Fighter of the Year
COLUMBUS, Ohio — State Representative Haraz N. Ghanbari (R-Perrysburg) was honored by the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants with its innagural Retail Crime Fighter of the Year Award for his leadership in passing the FORCE Act and strengthening Ohio’s response to organized retail crime.
The award was presented Thursday during the Ohio Retail Crime Summit: Coordinating Ohio’s Response to Organized Retail Crime at The Fawcett Center. The summit brought together state and local law enforcement officials, prosecutors, retailers and policymakers to discuss emerging threats and coordinate strategies for combating organized theft and fraud across Ohio.
“Organized retail crime is not a victimless offense,” Ghanbari said. “It threatens the safety of employees and customers, drives up costs for consumers and undermines businesses in communities across Ohio. Protecting our neighborhoods requires strong partnerships between law enforcement, retailers and policymakers.”
Ghanbari joined representatives from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and Walgreens for a panel discussion examining the FORCE Act and its implementation. Other summit sessions focused on statutory updates, real-world organized retail crime cases, intelligence sharing, emerging technology and the development of specialized investigative units.
“The passage of the FORCE Act would not have been possible without your leadership,” said Alex T. Boehnke, vice president of legislative and corporate affairs for the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants. “You recognized that organized retail crime is not simply a business issue, but a threat to employees, customers and communities across Ohio. You listened to retailers, law enforcement and prosecutors, brought those voices together, and successfully guided this landmark legislation through the General Assembly.”
Signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2025, the bipartisan Fight Organized Retail Crime and Empower Law Enforcement, or FORCE, Act gives authorities additional tools to identify, investigate and prosecute coordinated retail theft networks operating across multiple jurisdictions.
The law establishes an organized retail crime task force under the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission, strengthens coordination between the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and local law enforcement agencies and supports a statewide, real-time information-sharing platform connecting investigators and retailers.
It also allows prosecutors to aggregate multiple theft offenses to better identify patterns of organized criminal activity instead of treating each incident as an isolated shoplifting case. Dedicated funding supports organized retail crime investigations throughout the state.
The legislation grew from recommendations offered by retailers, prosecutors and law enforcement officials seeking a more coordinated statewide response to increasingly sophisticated criminal organizations.
During the summit, Ghanbari emphasized that organized retail crime extends far beyond isolated incidents of shoplifting. The operations frequently involve coordinated criminal enterprises that cross jurisdictional lines and use stolen merchandise to fund broader illegal activity.
The FORCE Act builds upon Ghanbari’s earlier work on Ohio’s INFORM Act during the 134th General Assembly. That legislation sought to increase transparency in online marketplaces by requiring the verification of high-volume third-party sellers, making it more difficult for criminal networks to anonymously resell stolen merchandise through e-commerce platforms.
Ohio’s action preceded and reinforced broader national efforts to strengthen accountability within online marketplaces.
The Ohio Council of Retail Merchants presented the Retail Crime Fighter of the Year Award in recognition of Ghanbari’s persistence in bringing retailers, law enforcement officials and prosecutors together to advance the FORCE Act and improve Ohio’s ability to dismantle organized retail crime networks.
Ghanbari represents Ohio’s 75th House District, which encompasses nearly all of Wood County.