Alpha 2 Alarm — Page 22

Phones and the Theft of Time

March 9, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

In the past when managers discussed employee theft they mostly talked about the tangibles. They talked about their problems with staff stealing product, supplies and money – the physical things which can be touched and seen.

They would also discuss the problem of employees “standing around” and not doing their work. However, this conversation was separate from the one about theft, it was about productivity. But, with the arrival of smart phones the issue of productivity can’t be separated from the one of theft. The theft of time, via lack of productivity, is increasing at a rapid rate.

It’s seldom looked at that way because time is an intangible, it lacks physical substance. Its boundaries are blurrier – an employee who would never think of stealing a shirt from the store has no qualms about using company time to buy, on her phone, a shirt from her favorite website.

The idea of who “owns” an employee’s time is an old argument. There have been countless lawsuits and court decisions made over the years, trying to define it. In the last few years there have been several landmark ones in the tech field. On paper it can seem cut and dried, in practice it’s not.

Especially now, when managers are encountering issues they’ve never had to deal with before. The debate of where, how and when people on the job should have access to their phones is a new one, one with strong opinions and feelings on both sides. Companies are struggling with it and most have yet to agree on, develop and enforce clear guidelines.

At this time the issue is simple. A company pays an employee for a block of time, and during that time they have the right to expect (within the labor laws) the worker to give his attention to the duties of the job, not his phone. The business can enact and enforce policies that support this right.

Soon however, it’s going to become much more complicated. Most of us know someone who’s too attached to their phone – a person who is losing or has lost the ability function without it. Individuals who may need professional help to address their obsession (there’s a fierce argument in the medical community as to whether it’s an addiction or not).

In the next few years companies will have to link their phone/workplace access policies with their ADA and Mental Health policies. Therefore, it’s vital that companies develop and enforce basic phone/workplace access policies and procedures now, because it’s only going to get more complicated. Don’t let employees steal your company’s time; after all you paid for it.

Nicole Abbott is a professional writer who’s had over 150 articles published. She’s a business consultant and former psycho-therapist with over 20 years of experience in mental health, business and addiction. She’s a coach, lecturer, trainer and facilitator. She has conducted over 200 workshops, trainings, presentations, seminars and college classes.

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Workplace Violence

March 3, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Whether you are a small business owner or a company with hundreds of employees, the reality is simple. Good employees are an asset to your company. Some small business owners rely very much on a couple of employees in their business, and the daily tasks seem impossible to fulfill without those key employees. Monetary compensation, health insurance, and retirement accounts for those employees seem to be in accordance to the tasks they perform. But, have you thought whether the security in your business is appropriate? Have you checked to see whether help is there if needed? Ensuring employees safety in the workplace should be a top priority for you, and your business. To read more about this topic follow the links below.

Workplace Violence: The Tragedies Continue

How to protect yourself during an active shooter incident.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 7% of all workplace fatalities are the result of intentional homicide. While active shooter scenarios in the workplace are relatively rare, they result in fatal injuries more often than fires and explosions, getting caught in equipment or machinery, and exposure to hazardous substances combined. The latest statistics for full year 2014 indicate there were 403 workplace violence homicides, with 307 or 76% classified as intentional shootings. Nearly 17% of the victims were women, 83% were men. It’s true that armed robberies make up about half of all work-related homicides, but attacks by coworkers, students and relatives make up the rest.

Some incidents of extreme workplace violence are spectacular and receive wide media attention. The recent mass killings at a San Bernardino, California, office party and the August 2015 on-camera shooting of two journalists by one of their former colleagues come to mind. And it happened again just last week. Three people were killed and another 14 injured on February 25 in Hesston, Kansas. The gunman was a disgruntled employee.
Although it is hard to believe and probably the result of how incidents are categorized, the event widely described as one of the first workplace violence shootings in the United States occurred in 1989, when a disgruntled worker brought an AK-47 into the Standard-Gravure printing plant in Louisville, Kentucky and killed eight employees, then himself.

A Look at Workplace Violence in the United States

Fifteen people at a Kansas factory were shot, three of them killed, by a co-worker whom police say had also shot two other people as he drove toward the facility. The shooting at Excel Industries in Hesston, Kansas, was at least the fourth workplace shooting in the United States in the past 12 months alone. Some questions and answers about workplace shootings:

WHAT OTHER WORKPLACE SHOOTINGS HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS?

— Aug. 26, 2015: Alison Parker and Adam Ward of Roanoke, Virginia, TV station WDBJ were fatally shot by former employee Vester Lee Flanagan II during a live broadcast. The person they were interviewing was wounded. Flanagan fatally shot himself after a police chase.

— Feb. 23, 2015: An employee of armed security company Shields Business Solutions in Moorestown, New Jersey, opened fire on a co-worker inside the business before fatally shooting himself outside amid what police described as an “ongoing domestic situation.” Moorestown Police Lt. Lee Lieber said Edgar Figueroa killed himself after shooting Melvin Nieves four times.

— Feb. 12, 2015: Truck driver Jeffrey DeZeeuw got into an argument over a delivery with a supervisor at a Sioux Steel Co. location known as ProTec, in Lennox, South Dakota. DeZeeuw later returned, fatally shot the supervisor and wounded worker Kathy Steever. He also injured another employee, Brian Roesler, who confronted DeZeeuw and is credited with likely preventing more injuries or deaths. DeZeeuw then killed himself.

OSHA National Conference Addresses Workplace Violence

LAS VEGAS, NV – OSHA Deputy Assistant Secretary Jordan Barab provided the keynote address at a national conference of Veterans Administration hospital workers in Las Vegas last week.

The conference, held by the American Federation of Government Employees, brought together representatives and partners of the host organizations to update and educate them on key and emerging occupational safety and health issues.

Barab highlighted OSHA’s ongoing work with VA hospitals and other healthcare facilities to combat workplace violence, including the release last year of Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Healthcare and Social Service Workers *.

He also discussed the agency’s efforts to ensure that OSHA inspectors have the resources, training and tools necessary to conduct inspections in response to workplace violence.

Barab told the delegates that “care of our nation’s veterans is a national priority, but we also have to look out for the health and safety those who care for them. He added: “workplace violence remains a difficult and dangerous problem, particularly for those in healthcare settings.”

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Online Scams and How To Protect Yourself

February 25, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

According to the United States Census Bureau’s annual population projections, the United States will have a 2015 estimated population of 320 million people. Keeping that figure in mind, the statistics for credit card holders in the United States is 1,895,834,000. And the average amount of credit cards a holder has is 3.7. With those figures in mind it is no wonder the security threat an American faces regarding identity theft, credit card theft and other related issues concerning security is great. If you use a credit card or shop online, make sure that you always check your charges and alert the credit card company of any discrepancies you may see with your credit card bill. For more news about this topic, follow the links below.

LP101: Establishing a Safety Culture is Critical to Safety in the Workplace

Leadership Must Establish and Maintain an Environment that Adopts Safety as a Core Value

An effective safety culture is widely accepted as being the essential component in the development and implementation any program supporting safety in the workplace. The safety culture reflects the attitudes, perceptions, values and beliefs that all employees within the organization share in regards to safety, and serves as a guide as to how safety is managed in the workplace.

Preventing accidents is about ensuring that everyone, regardless of their position in the organization, follows safe practices and safety procedures. A safety culture which actively engages everyone through personal responsibility instills the qualities that motivate employees to strive to achieve safety excellence. Rather than simply posting policies and procedures, safety is incorporated into our strategic plans and everyday mission.

An effective safety culture is an informed safety culture, and is the product of the values, perceptions, competencies, attitudes, and patterns of behavior that clarify the commitment and proficiency of the company’s safety management program. That vision calls for an absolute belief that every employee can help create and maintain a workplace free of illness and injury; demonstrated by an active commitment to safety in the workplace throughout the entire organization. When building this culture, management must establish and maintain an environment that adopts safety as a core value of the company, following fundamental safety principles:

How the ‘Ten Commandments’ of Cyber Security Can Enhance Safety

Hacker attacks such as the one on Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center show how easily digital platforms can be turned against organizations, but taking 10 steps can augment security, write RANE founder David Lawrence and his co-authors in this opinion piece.

Imagine you are admitted to a hospital for treatment of a serious but treatable illness, and then your records are stolen. The medical staff is now at a complete loss about your care. While the doctors are scrambling to figure out what to do, they soon realize that all the hospital’s records are missing and that someone is demanding that the hospital pay a ransom in exchange for their release. Now imagine further that the hospital has no alternative but to pay the demand (in Bitcoins) in order to ensure the safety of its patients.

One has to look no further than the recent attack on Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and other headlines to realize how quickly and easily our digital platforms can be used against us. While the Internet has delivered on its promise of global access and efficiency, it also accelerates and scales the darker forms of human activity — theft, fraud, extortion, blackmail, espionage (state and corporate), terrorism, insider trading, property destruction and criminal mischief. Soon, the Internet of Things (IoT) will even more seamlessly connect our devices to everything we need — as well as everything we need to fear.

Online Scams: How Can You Protect Yourself and Your Family?

Dear Carrie: My mother is quite independent and does a lot of her financial business online. I hear about fraudsters preying on seniors all the time and worry about her falling for a scam. How can I protect her?

Dear Reader: It seems there’s no limit to the imaginative scams that today’s fraudsters can come up with. Just when we’ve all become aware of the email from a “friend” purporting to have been robbed in some far-flung place and needing money, there’s the new scam threatening arrest if you don’t pay back taxes or the tech support scam or—you name it. Seniors are a prime target because they’re perceived as more likely to have assets—and perhaps less likely to be skeptical.

But financial fraud isn’t age specific; we’re all targets. When you consider that the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 269,422 complaints representing more than $800,000,000 in losses in 2014 alone (and it’s estimated that only 15 percent of victims report crimes), you start to understand the enormity of the problem.

So, while it’s great that you want to protect your mother, when it comes to the potential for being scammed, we all need to take heed. My advice would be to sit down with her— and the rest of your family — to discuss best practices for fraud protection both on and off the Internet.

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Safety First When Stopping a Shoplifter

February 17, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Safety should be the primary concern in any shoplifting detention at any retail store. Unless the employees are trained individuals and know the laws concerning detention of a shoplifter, employees should be very wary of the repercussions associated with stopping a shoplifter. Racial profiling is commonly used by retail stores to spot a shoplifter, and although it is extremely wrong and some stores have gotten sued because of it, the truth is you cannot spot a shoplifter by the way they look. According to the Seattle Police Department though, there are certain actions that are prevalent with a shoplifter: Nervousness, aimlessly walking around the store for long period of times, handling the merchandise, dropping the merchandise on the floor, etc., are some of these behaviors they display. Stress safety first with your employees at all times when stopping a shoplifter.

For more about this and other stories, follow the links below.

Taking steps to prevent shoplifting

In early July, $3,000 in designer dresses, slacks and jackets were stolen from ADORE Designer Retail Boutique in Cary, one of Nancy Alinovi’s two consignment shops in the Triangle. She still feels sick about it.

“It’s just this feeling in your chest,” she said. “It’s not a victimless crime.”

Alinovi said it will be two months before everything returns to normal at the family-owned boutiques, which cut prices in order to stay afloat after the theft. Her experience shows the toll shoplifting takes on small businesses, where margins are small and business is personal.

There were 582 calls to the Raleigh Police Department regarding shoplifting in the past year, said Jim Sughrue, department spokesman. They run the gamut from family-run gas stations to department stores, he said.

According to a National Retail Federation’s security survey, shoplifting accounted for 38 percent of the $44 billion in retail inventory loss due to crime in 2014.

Theft rings use returns to fund operations

TILTON — Next time you let a sales receipt blow away in a store parking lot, you might unwittingly be helping an organized retail crime ring fund its drug operations.
Those rings, often from other states, collect those discarded receipts, go into that store, gather items on the receipt and then take them to the return counter to get handed cash, according to Tilton police detective Nathan Buffington.
“I can tell you of the (organized retail crime) cases that we’ve dealt with, I don’t think we’ve had any that in some way, shape or form that haven’t come back to narcotics, whether it be again to fund narcotic operations, to help profit, to expand,” Buffington said after speaking at a symposium on the subject at Tilton School on Friday.
These rings use a variety of techniques to steal billions from stores annually.

Return fraud alone cost stores $10.85 billion in 2014, according to the National Retail Federation.

The rings “have a list of the stores that carry those items” they’re targeting, according to Nancy Kyle, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Retail Association. The rings often travel north along the East Coast, she said.

Cumbria police collar children as young as four for crimes

Primary school children across south and west Cumbria – aged between five and nine – have also committed crimes but are too young to be prosecuted.

Assaults, criminal damage, burglary, theft and shoplifting are among the shocking offences carried out by children, figures have revealed.

Cumbria police said that it was vital they spoke to these young people when they are at their most “susceptible” and they “do not realise the consequences of their actions”.

Police say interaction with the children can help make them understand that they are heading down a path which “could lead them to have a criminal record which could have an impact on their life, all for something they did when they were a child”.

A Freedom of Information request revealed that there were 60 crimes committed by under-10s in south Cumbria and six in Copeland.

The age of the youngsters mean police were unable to bring charges as the age of criminal responsibility in England is 10, meaning under-10s have to be released without charge.

The most common crime committed was assault, with 37 offences. This was followed by criminal damage with 12 incidents and six counts of theft.

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How to Deal with Retail Burnout

February 16, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Burnout is an on-going, serious issue in the retail industry. The industry is so immense and pervasive that all of us, even if we’ve never working in retail, have knowledge of and experience with the problem.

Personally, some of you may be currently struggling with it or have in the past. If you haven’t personally experienced it you probably know friends and family who have. Finally, we’ve all had unpleasant interactions (many, many times) with burnt out sales clerks, managers or customer service reps.

Last month we looked at why “Retail Burnout Matters” preventshopliftingloss.net/retail-burnout-matters/. This month we’re going to look at how an individual can deal with it at a professional level.

There are many causes and symptoms of burnout. One of the most universal symptoms is a feeling of being stuck. The first place to start if you’re feeling trapped is with a plan of how to get free. People who feel caught often do damage to others and themselves when they try to get unstuck without a well thought out plan.

The first thing you can do is plan how to stay where you are. You may want to stay with the same company in the same store, but need to learn (traditional/online classes, TED talks, books, short term therapy, etc) some stress management techniques to improve your outlook. Many times if you change your attitude and coping skills it’s enough to make the situation better.

Or you may need to plan the next step. Boredom, complacency and restlessness, when not addressed, are often the causes of stress. What kind of change do you need (i.e. sell jewelry rather than candles, increased/decreased level of responsibility, go to a different store with the same company, go to a different company, work in a small boutique or a big box)?

Finally, you may need to plan to leave the field. Retail may no longer, or never has been, your career of choice. If so, then it’s time to figure out how, when and where to from here. For many people establishing some sort of forward momentum, no matter how small, is enough to lessen the trapped feeling.

Having a plan and actively, consciously working that plan is key to alleviating burnout, but it’s not easy. However, the alternative is to stay miserable, and as choices go choosing to stay unhappy is a poor one. As Yoda said, “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

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Security and Loss Prevention

February 9, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

The cost of cyber security for retailers seems to double year after year. The cost of a data breach in this country in 2014 cost the retailer an average of 3.5 million, and that was a 15% increase from the previous year. Not only do retailers have to worry about data breaches in their business, but shoplifting, employee theft, administrative errors and vendor fraud are major problems they have to deal with year after year. The losses for retailers in 2014 amounted to $44 billion, it is no wonder then, that year after year retail executives say they plan to increase their loss prevention budgets for their business.

Counterfeit Goods and Trademark Enforcement

By aggressively protecting our brand through enforcement of trademark rights, loss prevention professionals can combat the spread of counterfeiting and retail fraud.

In the early part of November 2002, we received a call from an informant indicating she had information on counterfeit Tiffany & Co. merchandise sold at “home parties” in a suburb of a major city in Ohio. The caller claimed that one woman organized the parties and made a large amount of money in this counterfeit goods business. She also said that the local police had been notified and, if Tiffany was interested, were willing to support an investigation.

Our senior legal and security executives reviewed the caller’s information and the decision was made to go forward with the investigation. Within days we set up a meeting in Ohio with the detective in charge, the informant, and an undercover female police officer. At the meeting it was decided to attend an upcoming party where counterfeit Tiffany & Co. merchandise would be sold.

Shoplifting suspect dies hours after confrontation with Walmart employees

LAKELAND, Fla. —Lakeland police said a 64-year-old man accused of trying to leave Walmart with $380 worth of DVDs without paying for them has died.

Officers were sent to the store off U.S. 98 to investigate early Sunday morning. While en route, dispatchers told officers the suspect was not breathing and CPR was being administered. The first responding officer began life-saving measures, inclusing using a defibrillator and taking over CPR until medics arrived.

The man, later identified as Kenneth E. Wisham, of Lakeland, was taken to Lakeland Regional Health in critical condition.

According to the investigation, Wisham was trying to leave the store with a shopping cart full of DVDs when he was confronted by employees. Officials said Wisham ran off, and during the chase, he fell to the ground and was detained by employees. That’s when employees realized he wasn’t breathing and called 911.

Wisham was pronounced dead at the hospital Sunday afternoon.

The cause of death has not yet been determined by the medical examiner.

Observation skills, quick thinking help prevent shoplifting

About 27 million shoplifters live in the United States today, with offenders spanning generations.

According to the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP), that means 1 in 11 people have shoplifted. There is no “typical” offender.

“It could be anybody,” said Nathan Hershley, the security supervisor at East Hills Shopping Center. “I’ve personally dealt with (shoplifters) from 14 years old, clear up into their 50s.”

Shoplifters target all types of stores, according to NASP — from drug stores to supermarkets, convenience stores and even thrift shops.

Store employees and customers who shop there play an important role in helping catch anyone suspected of stealing. Staying alert for suspicious behavior and catching the suspect(s) on photo or video can help authorities make an arrest.

“It’s all about the information we get, so get as detailed of a description as possible,” Hershley said. “That allows us to find the suspects, and communicate with the police department better.”

Local police said helping catch shoplifters helps not only the store, but the whole community.

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YOU CANNOT STOP SHOPLIFTERS!

February 8, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

I don’t care about solving social problems. I don’t care about saving the world (okay maybe I really do). But I cannot fix many of these things myself. I cannot make shoplifters change their evil trade for real work. But I can make shoplifters go somewhere else and leave my customers alone.

I have been doing this all throughout my career starting as a Store Investigator through District and Regional Loss Prevention Manager positions. This culminated with being the successful Director of LP for several large Retailers including one international company. Add to that all these years with my own company. I know how to stop shoplifters and what to look for.

If you want to attack shoplifting and fix it once and for all you need to understand who the shoplifter is and how they shoplift. There is not enough space in this article to teach you all that needs to be said. However, there are several important points you must understand to fight off the shoplifters.

First, you must understand that you are not going to “stop” shoplifters from doing what they do. They are going to steal regardless of what you do. What you can do is send them elsewhere. Down the street to someone else who is not prepared. Don’t be THAT guy!

To do this you need to do two things: know your enemy and have the equipment (Checkpoint & Alpha) in place to make your store a hostile environment for them but a delight for your good customers. I am not going to talk about Checkpoint and Alpha here. You know how to reach us for that.

I want to discuss knowing your enemy, the shoplifter. There are three types of shoplifters:

Impulsive shoplifters who steal because the opportunity exists.
Amateurs who steal consistently. They usually keep the merchandise.
Professional thieves who steal to resell the merchandise.

Shoplifters can look like anyone! In fact, if you think you know what they look like, you are fooling yourself. Because you have a stereotype in your mind, then you are missing most of them. Shoplifters will most likely try to blend in and look like your normal customer traffic. That is their stealth: hide in plain sight.

When do they tend to steal? The simplest and best answer is any time you or your staff is not paying attention. I can give you a list but not all of it will apply to your individual store. So do this. Observe your operations, I mean take a hard look. Ask yourself, “When would I steal, if I were a low life scum of the earth shoplifter?” Even better, since you are probably too close to the forest to see the trees, ask someone you trust to look at this. Not a Police Officer, employee….. someone that will give you a real, sometimes hard to swallow answer. Then make adjustments to what and how you operate.

How do they conceal and steal your merchandise? Well, the list is almost endless and you should ask me to conduct my live webinar for you and your staff (my commercial). By the way my webinars are free of charge and can be as frequent as necessary for our customers.

Now that the commercial is over, some of the most common ways they conceal is with pockets and purses. Simple is usually the answer. You also want to watch for shopping bags and baby strollers (also known as shoplifting buggies).

There are other issues you need to understand such as distraction, refunding, tag or package switching and more. But for that I guess you will just need to become a customer or if you already are a customer, simply pick up the phone, call us and schedule the free training.

Have a SUPER February!

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS BENEFITS TO A LOSS PREVENTION PROGRAM

February 8, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Over the past five years or so, social media platforms have exploded. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram are essentially a one stop shop for all your news, entertainment and whatever your Aunt Dolly is doing today… Like most Americans, I visit these websites frequently throughout the day (although, I am weaning myself off this addiction slowly, but surely). Businesses have also been quick to jump on the bandwagon and have found that direct to consumer marketing, especially the free kind of marketing, can really help a small business soar. With so many people, places and things interconnected, you can see how the Loss Prevention Industry uses these platforms to not only aid in investigations, but to help track down fencing operations, retail ORC groups and even dishonest employees.

About a month or so ago, I was scrolling through a Facebook “online garage sale group” in my area. A few scrolls down, I noticed a guy was selling a store merchandise credit from one of my stores. I looked up the name in our internal system for any hits and sure enough, it was an employee at one of my stores. A little investigating showed that he had conducted a return of a high end baseball bat, but according to our sales records, the store he worked in had not sold that particular sku. Furthermore, inventory data showed that store to be missing one unit. A little more leg work, and I was able to determine that the employee had altered the price on a high end bat, purchasing it for only a few dollars. He returned the bat for full value at another store and posted the credit on Facebook to sell. From our research, he had done this about a dozen or so times with various merchandise. I was able to make a pretty substantial case from a lead generated from social media.

Take things a little further. Most of you reading this are small business owners. Chances are, you don’t have some large Loss Prevention department; heck, your LP department might be the 16 cameras you have set up in your store. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that; in fact, without the hassle of a large company’s legal department, you have more freedom with those CCTV images of a thief than I do. Most police departments and sheriff’s offices around the country have also been accepting of a social media presence. From the community outreach and the ability to hear concerns directly from citizens, it’s a great way for law enforcement to take a big step into the future. This also gives those agencies the ability to share BOLOs with an enormous amount of people.

Not two weeks ago, a local sheriff’s office shared some CCTV images from a clothing boutique store that showed a female shoplifter, who made away with several hundred dollars in clothing. The boutique had a very good camera system and shared those images from their Facebook page to the Sheriff’s Office page, who in turn shared it with their followers. Literally, within 30 minutes, the comment section was full of tips, eventually leading to the shoplifter’s identity. Heck, some people even began tagging this woman in her own wanted poster. Classic. Without this platform, this crime may have gone unsolved, and that business would have taken a hit out of their own pockets.

While social media can boost sales and drive traffic into your store, it can only be a great tool to reduce shrink. The ability to quickly search through your employee’s friends, or search in wanted ads for particular items and the ability to share CCTV images quickly and with great success, makes social media almost a necessity of today’s small business’s plan to combat shrink and increase profitability.

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IDENTIFYING COMMONALITIES AMONGST SHOPLIFTERS

February 8, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Ever notice how so many different shoplifters, from various backgrounds and demographics all share similar characteristics in the manner in which they steal, the product that they steal and the methods used to conduct their acts? Well, I did and it really got me thinking. Why was this so? Is there some large underground shoplifting network where this information is swapped amongst the thieving brethren? Kind of.

A while back, I did a piece on how shoplifters were brainstorming ideas on the blog site, Tumbler. A few searches here and you can find the easiest way to steal from just about any big name retailer, what product was the easiest to steal, and how to steal without being caught. Check it out if you have some time. That led into some research of my own. Shoplifters, especially the frequent flyers, we’re obviously communicating with one another, but I was curious as to where, and how. If you’ve been in the LP industry for a few years now, you agree that there are certain driving factors behind a rise in shoplifting. My two theories (and I have only my intuition to back this up) on the rise are the heroin epidemic that is sweeping through the country and the (almost) decriminalization of shoplifting in some states.

Heroin is a terrible drug. Most law enforcement sources attribute the rise in heroin use to the crack down on prescription opioids. When law enforcement began devoting resources to dry up “Doctor shopping”, it created a vacuum. Heroin filled that void. This highly addictive drug will get a user addicted on the first shot. It’s only a matter of time before the user will lose their job, house, vehicle and resorts to stealing on a full time basis to support their habit. What do all heroin addicts have in common, aside from the obvious? A dealer.

Every day, those addicts must find their dealer to score another hit. At some point, they run into the same faces day in and day out. No one has a job. No one has an honest income. I’ve interviewed several dozen shoplifters over the past few weeks; mostly those suffering from a heroin addiction. They all tell me the same things. When they go out and score their drug, they run into other addicts and they share what stores are the easiest targets, what merchandise most easily stolen, where to take the stolen goods to and even some pretty sophisticated return fraud schemes. Enter the decriminalization of shoplifting.

There’s a reason these people gravitate towards shoplifting and not armed robbery, or another form of criminal activity. It’s easy. There’s high reward and little risk. It also doesn’t help that legislatures across the country seem to be working against law enforcement agencies when new laws are adopted that lessen the penalties for shoplifting, or raise the threshold for felony cases. Several states have recently raised the dollar threshold for felony theft. Why? Too many people were being charged with felonies. Is that really the way to tackle the problem? What if we did away with punishment for murder because too many people are doing it?

I don’t see the rising shoplifting trend to start going down anytime soon. Not until we address some of the root causes of the behavior and start giving out more serious consequences to those who choose to shoplift. Until that day comes, we have to remain ever vigilant to the threat we are faced with each day. It is our jobs to be proactive and to constantly outsmart the criminal element before they have a chance to make off with our profits.

STAYING SAFE DURING AN APPREHENSION

February 8, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

What is the most important factor to consider when you make a shoplifting apprehension?

Safety. There is no single factor that is stressed more heavily within my department than personal safety when making a shoplifting detention. Not only do I implore my teams to be vigilant of possible weapons, but to also make sound business decisions before making a detention that could jeopardize their safety, the safety of the employees of the store and the safety of our customers. In the blink of an eye, what seems like another routine apprehension can quickly turn violent.

Play by the rules.

Our industry, over the past decades, has come a long way from the days of chasing down shoplifters by any means necessary. We’ve evolved from brute strength and a show of force, to a more pro-active and analytical approach to shrink, especially the way we approach shoplifting incidents. Enter the 5 steps for an apprehension. Selection, display intent, conceal, maintain visual, exit store. Every LP department, for the most part, has adopted this. In addition to no touch policies, this greatly reduces the chances for an apprehension to become physical in nature.

Cooler heads will always prevail

Hiring someone that cannot control their own temper is a dreaded mistake. Even I am not immune to making this type of mistake. Granted, we ask our agents (and ourselves) to be there to stop someone from stealing from us. Shoplifters come from different backgrounds, and often we are facing career criminals, or those with drug addictions that are not in a stable mindset. More often than not, the shoplifter will immediately escalate a detention from the moment they are approached. How many times have you stopped someone and they immediately began yelling at the top of the lungs every swear words known to man? I experienced this three times this past week for me. This is where a calm, collective LP professional is most needed. What if you started yelling and screaming back? Chances are, things will get ugly. My advice is simple. Act like an airline pilot. It doesn’t matter if the wings are on fire and you’re hurtling towards the earth at 500 mph. That pilot will still speak in the same tone and pace. It’s to keep the masses calm. This technique works great with rowdy shoplifters too.

What if I’m faced with a weapon?

This has happened to me personally on 3 occasions. Once, a heroin addict pulled a knife on me. The second time, a firearm fell from the pants of a shoplifter and the third, my personal favorite, is when I was pepper sprayed by a shoplifter. Even though it was hard to do so (especially my sprayer), I immediately disengaged the apprehension and allowed them to make quick egress of the store. Yeah, I was pretty upset for a day or so that they got away, but the end result is that no one got hurt. That’s the key; there is nothing in your store that is worth sacrificing the safety of anyone for.

There really isn’t another job in the retail industry where personal safety can be compromised in the blink of an eye. I bet that guys in the IT department never have to worry about being pushed to the ground by a maniac as they try to run out of the store with $2,000 worth of cologne. LP is a unique business. We thrive on what others shy away from. While you’re out this week busting thief after thief, please remember your safety, and the safety of those around should take absolute priority above all else. There is nothing in your store that is worth the risk of injury. Be safe and happy hunting.

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