Another Set of Eyes – Stopping Employee Theft

Not every store had a good CCTV camera system in place when I started working in Loss Prevention many years ago. One store in particular had what I call the “Frankenstein System”. Our new service vendor would not work on it because of how patched together it was from so many different systems.

To their extreme misfortune, this store firmly believed that an eyewitness account was far superior to anything, including a good CCTV camera system. They believed that no one can contest an eyewitness account because there is no evidence to the contrary.

They were absolutely right for some situations. Unfortunately that leaves room for error in other situations as I quickly discovered upon concluding one of my earliest memories of an employee theft investigation.

My store was beginning to recognize what they had been missing – literally – $54,000 admitted dollars later. They were missing not only live instances of theft without a usable CCTV system; they also had absolutely no way to review and determine the scope of where a proper employee theft investigation would take them in the discovery and verification of internal theft.

They had been relying on eye witness accounts for employee theft apprehension. What they failed to realize was – the employer can potentially seek restitution if an employee theft investigation produces previous instances of theft.  Unfortunately in this instance, the only way to produce that information is with a comprehensive CCTV system that not only allows you to see the live action, but also a recordable set up as well.

I recommend a digital system. A digital system provides larger storage capacity, longer retention, clearer recordings, and no one has to remember to change out each day’s VHS tape.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that help eliminate employee theft and internal theft problems as well as facilitate employee theft investigation.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation, or internal theft please contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia.