The How-to on Employee Theft Investigations

An unfortunate reality for businesses is the need to conduct an  employee theft investigation.  Your business NEEDS these investigations to be profitable.  While we can conduct background investigations when hiring employees, there will always be the potential for an employee to steal from his or her employer.  For a business owner, not much is more frustrating than when an employee commits theft.

An  employee theft investigation is a necessary part of retail loss prevention.  There are a variety of factors that are taken into consideration when conducting an investigation involving employees.  Your organization should have a policy in place to follow when conducting investigations.  This allows for consistency within the process.

Once a loss has been identified, a suspect or person of interest needs to be identified.  Often another employee may learn of a theft and name a suspect when reporting the theft to management.  Losses are also discovered during routine review of business reports (i.e. cash register shortages) and the losses must be analyzed to identify which employee(s) had the opportunity to create the loss.

Evidence must also be collected during an investigation.  Evidence can include register receipts, CCTV footage, and other reports and documents.  It is important to maintain the documentation in an organized manner so that it is accessible during the investigation and possible prosecution.  If witnesses are interviewed, notes from the interviewer should be added to the case file, along with a written statement from the witness.

Once your investigation is complete, review the collected information and determine if there is enough evidence to interview your suspect.  There should be enough evidence collected from your employee theft investigation that the matter can be turned over to the police regardless of what the employee says in an interview.

For more information contact us about employee theft investigation  or call 1.770.426.0547

By Teresa Greenwood

Teresa Greenwood is a former law enforcement officer currently working in retail loss prevention/asset protection for a major retailer.