Asset Protection | Profit Enhancement | Retail Performance
Insights Controlling Self-Scan Checkout Losses Getting Back to Business Leveraging Situational Crime Prevention Retail Council of Canada
Fighting the Good Fight Home Depot’s AP Leaders Grapple with Ever-Evolving Challenges
Summer 2022 | V21.3 losspreventionmedia.com
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Contents
Features
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Fighting the Good Fight Home Depot’s AP Leaders Grapple with Ever‑Evolving Challenges By Jim Lee, LPC and Terry Sullivan, LPC
32
Controlling Self‑Scan Checkout Losses A Global Survey of Retailers
By Professor Adrian Beck
46
Getting Back to Business Recovery Doesn’t Happen Just Because a Crisis Ends By Garett Seivold
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56
Leveraging Situational Crime Prevention to Combat Retail Crime and Loss By Read Hayes, PhD
68
Retail Council of Canada By Jack Trlica
Departments 6 Editor’s Letter
Stronger Together By Jack Trlica
8 Editorial Board 9 Vendor Advisory Board 10 Retail Sponsors 28 Interviewing
Do You Remember? By David Thompson, CFI, and Shane G. Sturman, CFI, CPP
30
LPM Excellence
LPM Magpie Awards Featuring Karen Edwards, JD, University of South Carolina, and Kevin O’Brien, The Integritus Group
42 Certification
54 Retail Community
Incident Reporting: One Key Element of Shrink Reduction By Stefanie Hoover, CFI
66
Axis Communications Checkpoint Systems CIS Security Systems Impact Security Hanwha Techwan America
Ask the Expert
Four Tips for Choosing Storefront Security Glazing Interview with Brad Campbell, Riot Glass
67 Ask the Expert
The State of Loss Prevention Interview with Ned McCauley, Sensormatic
74
78 Solutions Showcase
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity Trends and Strategies By Tom Meehan, CFI
88 94
New Product Showcase LPM Digital
Popular Articles on the LPM Digital Channels By Courtney Wolfe
98 People on the Move 104 Advertisers 104 Subscriptions 106 Parting Words
Resiliency Standing Front and Center By Jacque Brittain, LPC
Spotlighting Loss Prevention Certified Professionals LPM
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Vladitto / ShutterStock.com
EDITOR'S LETTER
Jack Trlica Editor-in-Chief
wenty years ago when we launched Loss Prevention Magazine, our mission was to build a media platform to provide high-quality editorial and educational content to keep loss prevention professionals informed, help them advance their careers, and elevate the image of LP within the retail industry. With much help along the way from retail executives and great solution provider partners, we believe we accomplished that goal and built a strong communication brand.
Earlier this year, the magazine and the foundation came together into one organization. Like two strands of metal wound together create an even stronger cable, combining these two brands will result in an organization that will continue to advance the goal of educating and elevating the loss prevention and asset protection community. About five years into our journey, the magazine also helped promote the idea of professional certification for loss prevention professionals that eventually resulted in the founding of the Loss Prevention Foundation (LPF) and the LPQ and LPC certifications. In
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Executive Editors James Lee, LPC JimL@LPportal.com
Managing Editor Digital Courtney Wolfe CourtneyW@LPportal.com
the past fifteen years, the foundation has also built a strong organization and educational brand within the industry. Earlier this year, the magazine and the foundation came together into one organization. Like two strands of metal wound together create an even stronger cable, combining these two brands will result in an organization that will continue to advance the goal of educating and elevating the loss prevention and asset protection community. As described by Terry Sullivan, LPC, president of the LPF, “By acquiring the magazine, the foundation unites two of our industry's strongest brands to advance the education of our industry through certification and educational courses and now through the extensive media platform of the magazine. The combined team envisions greater synergies in how we support and advance our profession. We will continue to operate the two business units separately but will leverage the reach and strength of both brands to further the knowledge and progression of our community.” While we are early into this new venture, we are excited to see what the future holds, not just for the new organization but for the growth and advancement of the retail LP industry that we all hold so dear. We hope that all of you—our readers, our supporters, and our partners—will join with us to move the industry forward tomorrow, next year, and the many years to come.
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Editor-in-Chief Jack Trlica JackT@LPportal.com
Merek Bigelow MerekB@LPportal.com
Stronger Together T
Powered by The Loss Prevention Foundation
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Editorial Director Jacque Brittain, LPC JacB@LPportal.com Retail Technology Editor Tom Meehan, CFI TomM@LPportal.com Senior Writer Garett Seivold GarettS@LPportal.com Contributing Writers Read Hayes, PhD, CPP Walter Palmer, CFI, CFE Ben Skidmore Shane G. Sturman, CFI, CPP David Thompson, CFI Director Of Digital Operations John Selevitch JohnS@LPportal.com Special Projects Justin Kemp, LPQ Kevin McMenimen, LPC Karen Rondeau Design & Production SPARK Publications info@SPARKpublications.com Creative Director Larry Preslar Advertising Strategist Ben Skidmore 972-587-9064 office, 214-597-8168 mobile BenS@LPportal.com Subscription Services New Or Change Of Address LPMsubscription.com or circulation@LPportal.com Postmaster Send change of address forms to Loss Prevention Magazine 128 Fast Lane, Suite 202 Mooresville, NC 28117 Loss Prevention aka LP Magazine aka LPM (USPS 000-710) is published bimonthly by Loss Prevention Magazine, 128 Fast Lane, Suite 202, Mooresville, NC 28117. Print subscriptions are available free to qualified loss prevention and retail professionals in the U.S. and Canada at LPMsubscription.com. The publisher reserves the right to determine qualification standards. For questions about subscriptions, contact circulation@LPportal.com or call 214-662-9548.. Periodicals postage paid at Mooresville, NC, and additional mailing offices.
© 2022 Loss Prevention Foundation Loss Prevention, LP Magazine, LP Magazine Europe, LPM, and LossPreventionMedia.com are service marks owned by the publishers and their use is restricted. All editorial content is copyrighted. No article may be reproduced by any means without expressed, written permission from the publisher. Reprints or PDF versions of articles are available by contacting the publisher. Statements of fact or opinion are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the publishers. Advertising in the publication does not imply endorsement by the publishers. The editor reserves the right to accept or reject any article or advertisement.
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Ray Cloud Senior Vice President, Loss Prevention, Ross Stores
Scott Draher, LPC Vice President, Loss Prevention, Safety, and Operations, Lowe’s
Scott Glenn, EDJ, LPC Vice President, Asset Protection, The Home Depot
Barry Grant Chief Operating Officer, Photos Unlimited
Robert Holm Director, Global Safety & Security McDonald’s
Seth Hughes Director, Asset Protection, Risk & Safety, Internal Audit REI Co-op
Frank Johns, LPC Chairman, The Loss Prevention Foundation
Mike Lamb, LPC Consultant
Michael Limauro, LPC Executive Leader, Asset Protection, Whole Foods Market
David Lund, LPC Vice President, Loss Prevention, DICK’S Sporting Goods
John Matas, CFE, CFCI Director, Global Fraud, Risk, and Compliance Operations Etsy
Randy Meadows Senior Vice President, Loss Prevention, Kohl’s
Melissa Mitchell, CFI, LPC Director, Loss Prevention, MAPCO Express
Dan Moren Senior Manager, Starbucks
Richard Peck, LPC Senior Vice President, Loss Prevention The TJX Companies
Hank Siemers, CFI Vice President, Global Retail Security, Tiffany & Co.
Pamela Velose Vice President, Asset Protection, Belk
Joe Schrauder Vice President, Asset Protection, Walmart Stores
Tina Sellers, LPC Vice President, Asset Protection, Rite Aid
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VENDOR ADVISORY BOARD
Rhett Asher Rex Gillette
VP, Retail Sales
Stephen B. Longo
VP, Strategic Initiatives
Ken Kuehler
General Manager
David Studdert
Bobby Haskins
Michael Conley, LPQ
Tom Meehan, CFI
Jeff Franson
Cita Doyle, LPQ
Terry Sullivan, LPC
VP, Community Relations & Partnerships
VP, Retail Partnerships
Stuart Rosenthal VP, Global Sales
Chief Strategy Officer
Scott Thomas
National Director for Signature Brands
VP, Sales & Marketing
Tony D'Onofrio
Kris Vece, LPQ
Managing Partner
CEO, Global Retail Business Unit
VP, Client Relations
Keith Aubele, CPP, LPP
Mark Berger
Ned McCauley
Chief Security Officer
Tony Sheppard, CFI, LPC Sr. Director, LP Solutions
Director, Sales
President
Scott Pethuyne, LPC
Sr. Analytics Solution Consultant
LPM
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Marketing Specialist, Retail
Chief Executive Officer
President
Scott Beerer VP Business Development
Robb Northrup
Director, Marketing Communications
LPM's Vendor Advisory Board is composed of the magazine's strongest solution provider supporters. These executives provide their counsel on how the magazine can better advance and serve the loss prevention and asset protection industry. To learn more about the VAB, contact Ben Skidmore at BenS@LPportal.com.
Spring 2022
RETAIL SPONSORS
Join these great companies as an LPM corporate sponsor. Email Editor@LPportal.com for more information.
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Spring 2022
FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT Home Depot’s AP Leaders Grapple with Ever-Evolving Challenges By Jim Lee, LPC and Terry Sullivan, LPC EDITOR’S NOTE: Scott Glenn, JD, LPC, is vice president of asset protection at Home Depot. He has over twenty-five years retail loss prevention experience with Sears Holdings, Kohl’s, TJ Maxx, and Target. Glenn is a member of the Loss Prevention Foundation executive committee and LP Magazine editorial board. JIM: Scott, how long have you been at Home Depot in your role as head of asset protection? SCOTT: Believe it or not, it’s been a little over three and a half years, two of which have unfortunately been through the pandemic. JIM: Talk about some of your previous experiences that prepared you to take
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on such a monumental leadership role at Home Depot. SCOTT: I’ve had a similar journey as many of my peers with maybe a few different twists. Like many in college, I thought I’d work for one of the law enforcement agencies, and I did for a short time with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. I had been catching shoplifters while I was in college at Target and knew people there. When I decided the government wasn’t my long-term plan, I made the switch back to Target. I spent about almost five years there and then met my wife who was an ASM. You don’t want two people working in the same environment, so I had the chance to move over to Kohl’s department stores. We were 250 stores when I joined the company and
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FEATURE Fighting the Good Fight a thousand when I left ten years later. During that time, I decided to go to law school as it was something I always had an interest in. I did that nights and weekends and received my JD. A few years later, a very interesting opportunity came around and I moved over to Sears Holdings to take on a role with a bigger company. I ended up spending another ten years in various levels of leadership, leaving as the chief security officer. I was blessed that Home Depot came calling at the right time for me, and I was privileged to move into this role for such a great company. JIM: Leadership is a key term there. One of the privileges of working in loss prevention and asset protection is the opportunity to work with and learn from exceptional leaders. Who are some leaders that you respect and model yourself after?
The industry has gone through fits and starts and ditch to ditch over the years. On the good side, the business has matured. The value of asset protection—from being predominantly a security function to now a holistic approach to total loss, margin management, profitability—while still in its infancy, is moving in the right direction. SCOTT: While I have had the opportunity to work for and with so many great leaders, there are two people stand out in my career, I have talked about these two previously and will again. The first one is Genny Shields, who hired and promoted me at Kohl’s. Basically she taught me the ABCs of people management in retail. Everybody thinks they’re a good leader until they get a few smacks in the eye for going off course. Genny was that
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one that gave me those smacks early in my career and showed me how to lead people the right way and to really understand what motivates folks to be their best. The second person who was instrumental in my career was Jim Hayworth. Jim was formerly chief operating officer at Walmart US. He came over to Sears as the head of stores and COO. The thing that Jim taught me was how to navigate leadership, the executive team, the boardroom, and the political side of the business. He took me under his wing and invested time with me. After board meetings, we would go to lunch, and he would point out little things that I may have said or done that resonated or could have done better. I know that is where I learned how to be effective with senior leaders. JIM: The world of asset protection has changed quite a bit since your early career. Is that a positive or a negative? SCOTT: It’s probably both. The industry has gone through fits and starts and ditch to ditch over the years. On the good side, the business has matured. The value of asset protection—from being predominantly a security function to now a holistic approach to total loss, margin management, profitability—while still in its infancy, is moving in the right direction. When I talk to our leadership team, we talk about shrink, of course. But, we talk just as much about margin protection, brand protection, people protection, and safety. I really feel like it’s maturing in the right direction. On the negative side, we can sometimes forget that there are bad people in the world who do bad things in our stores, whether that’s the way they treat our associates, the harm that they cause, or stealing product from us. I think sometimes we lose sight that we still must deal with that. That said, we’re being pulled back into the malicious side in terms of organized retail crime
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(ORC) and its toll on the industry. In the end, it’s a cycle, and we are figuring out how to get more effective in dealing with that over the last couple of years. JIM: What are the key issues that asset protection is fighting these days? SCOTT: ORC is not going away. To be honest, I wasn’t a big believer in ORC before I came to Home Depot. I thought it was maybe a bit overblown. But in today’s environment, I’m a believer. We are a big victim and are going after it aggressively. The online aspect is out of control. It’s a net positive as it relates to driving the customer growth side of the business, but it also provides anonymous ways for people to resell product that was either taken from our stores, diverted through our supply chain, or counterfeited as one of our private brands. Online provides a whole different level of challenge for the AP world. Then again, protecting people and the brand never goes away. It continues to be more and more important. Customer sentiment these days is very particular. It moves rapidly. If you’re not trusted by the public, you can lose business quickly. Some of that is about how you treat and protect people in your stores. Those things are critically important to a brand’s reputation. JIM: What is being done at Home Depot or throughout retail to reduce the impact of ORC? SCOTT: Right now, we’re in education mode. From a public and government relations standpoint, my partners have been fantastic, and we have been pounding the pavement. I have met with dozens of governors, attorneys general, and DAs as well as members of Congress trying to help them understand that ORC is not a victimless crime. They need to understand that we are in the midst of a perfect storm—COVID, drug
availability, and decriminalization have created an ORC boom and is not something that can be overlooked. There is a pass-along cost to the consumer, and it does eat into tax revenues. We’re going to continue pushing until we get the right level of legislation and education out there. JIM: ORC has a huge impact on shrink, and a retailer’s ability to fight ORC is often reflected in their shrink results. What are you doing to fight shrink? SCOTT: Our approach is twofold. Obviously, we’ll continue to do what we can to make the bad guys uncomfortable in our stores, make them think twice about coming into our facilities. We have big buildings with a lot of ins and outs and valuable products, so we’re going to be a target. There’s no question about that. We’re also leaning into the operational side of shrink. We’ve grown sales by over $40 billion in the last two years. When you do that, things don’t always go the way you expect them to. We have to make sure that we close all the avenues of loss, that our disciplines are in place, and our people are trained. To support that growth, we’ve hired 150,000 people over the last two years. They’re new and don’t always understand how we do things. We’re doubling down on the training, making sure that they understand our operating processes and how we do things from an accuracy perspective on the front end. On-hand and pricing accuracy are critically important to our shrink performance. We’re reinvesting time into training our associates, our field teams, as well as the stores to get back to the basics on operational shrink. JIM: If you look at LP twenty years ago, a lot of people said employee theft was the major problem. Do you think that’s flipped today to external theft and operational issues?
SCOTT: I think that the contributors ebb and flow with the times. I believe that the employees who don’t steal from this company, don’t because of the great culture here. They are owners of the company and are invested in the company. So for us at Home Depot, while we certainly have associates that steal from us, I don’t know if the internal theft piece is as big of a contributor as other retailers. Now that said, we can’t and don’t ignore internal theft, and I’ve talked to our leadership team about that. We must do a better job with the right tools and the right systems to weed it out and make sure we are not taken advantage of. At the end of the day, the contributors are what they are. They are the same as everyone else is dealing with; it’s just the contribution amount that varies. JIM: We’re going to interview some of your key reports for this article. What are you doing as a leadership team to make AP more effective at Home Depot? SCOTT: Listen, here I’m the rookie. There’s a lot of tenure in this company. Most of my direct reports have ten, fifteen, in some cases twenty-plus years of tenure with this organization. They know how this company works inside and out. They have helped me adapt to the culture and what gets things done within the company. But it also can understandably at times give us a bit of tunnel vision. My last three predecessors were long-term Home Depot associates. I like to think that one of the things that I’ve helped bring to the organization is an industry perspective. How can we take some new ideas? How do we approach the business a little bit differently but within the guardrails of the company’s culture, and the way we’ve been successful as an organization? My team is fantastic in terms of the way they approach the business from a customer and associate-centric perspective. We’re
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moving in the right direction, but big companies don’t move as fast as smaller ones. Plus, we’ve been dealing with a pandemic. So, there are things that we’re challenged on and will continue to push forward, but I feel that we are going to like the results at the end of 2022. I’m quite comfortable with our team and progress. JIM: You’ve been one of the outspoken supporters of diversity and inclusion in asset protection. What are you doing to support that philosophy here? SCOTT: I’m just practical, I know in my heart that you have to represent the population at large to address the problems we face in retail. As a result, I have always been a supporter of the places that provide us with diversity; whether that is diversity of background, culture, race, or gender. I’m a supporter of the International Organization of Black Security Executives (IOBSE) because I love what they do, and I’ve gotten great talent from that group, many times over. We’ve also been supporters of historically Black colleges and universities and have established relationships with them to be a talent incubator. We have been actively working to bring more female talent into not only Home Depot AP, but the industry at large. I also like to go find talent in different parts of the business. That’s where, let’s face it, our AP industry has not been a great talent generator. You must go find that talent and bring those skills into your department. I think, historically, we’ve been okay at it but got a little sidetracked during the pandemic. We’re doubling down on it now and have initiatives within the organization, broader than just asset protection, that are going to help bridge that gap to bring diverse talent into the AP organization. JIM: You were an active board member with the Loss Prevention Foundation. How has the foundation
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We’ve grown sales by over $40 billion in the last two years. When you do that, things don’t always go the way you expect them to. We have to make sure that we close all the avenues of loss, that our disciplines are in place, and our people are trained.
FEATURE Fighting the Good Fight
enhanced the world of asset protection and your own career? SCOTT: Our industry, in the past, has been monolithic. The foundation’s approach is developing broader leaders from a people, skillset, and technical perspective. The foundation has really helped us to standardize that and make it credible, similar to other professional organizations out there. That, in turn, helped us widen the lens in the industry, bring in more talent, and put us in places where we haven’t necessarily been before. Academia is a place where we’re getting a lot of traction. We’re bringing a whole new generation of students into an industry that maybe wouldn’t have been exposed to it in the past. I believe that’s one of the biggest benefits of the foundation.
The online aspect is out of control. It’s a net positive as it relates to driving the customer growth side of the business, but it also provides anonymous ways for people to resell product that was either taken from our stores, diverted through our supply chain, or counterfeited as one of our private brands. Online provides a whole different level of challenge for the AP world. JIM: Tell us what you see in the future for asset protection or retail in general. SCOTT: The future of retail is whatever the customer wants, direct to the consumer. Stores will always be important but less than they’ve been. They will be the short-term fulfillment option. We think about providing customers product the way they want it, when they want
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it —whether that’s same day, next day. It might be somebody who is building an entire office building and needs to have product delivered on a very specific timeline—that is what we are working toward with our supply chain buildouts. I think that the supply chain is going to take on a bigger and bigger piece of retail, and if you are a leader of AP, you better figure out that part of the business. Whether you own it or don’t own it, you need to understand it because it is that blending of the online experience with the direct fulfillment expectations of customers that is the future. Again, I’m not trying to say that stores won’t be important. Shoppers will still want to go out and browse the aisles, but that’s not going to be the primary way that people get product in the next five years. We saw it during the pandemic—you didn’t have to go into stores to get what you wanted. People who were traditionally a bit timid about shopping online became comfortable over the last couple of years in the online shopping process. If we hadn’t started a $5-plus‑billion supply chain investment five years ago, we would be behind the eight ball, like a lot of companies, but we were actually really well prepared. I think that is the future of where retail and where the AP leadership teams need to function. TERRY: How are you attracting talent to your AP team today? Why do people want to come work for Home Depot? SCOTT: First and foremost, it’s really hard to get people to work these days. You’re seeing this shift in the world. I don’t want to say people have given up on careers, but there’s a lot less availability of talent out there. We are a $150 billion company. There are other big companies out there, but I think what makes this place special is that the values we
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have as an organization are real. Every company you go into has a culture of its own values, but I’ve never seen it more embedded within the DNA of an organization than here. I think that’s what gets people here, and when we say, “take care of the customer,” “entrepreneurial spirit,” “customer service,” or “do the right thing,” we mean it. There’s no ambiguity around that. I think that honesty and transparency of the organizations’ values, culture, and the way we take care of people— that’s how we win. That’s how we bring talent into this organization. It takes a leap of faith because we have to get you in the door before you can see it in action. But you know it’s real when you’re in the elevator with the CEO or any senior leader, and they are talking to you like a friend you’ve known for years. These are very real people here, and the leadership team is down to earth and humble. TERRY: Safety’s a growing concern for both associates and customers. What’s changed? SCOTT: Honestly, I think the world has gone a bit mad in the last several years. I don’t know if it’s social media or if it’s the generation. I may sound a little bit old here, but I don’t know when or how people became so emboldened to the levels that they are today. There used to be a bit of shame around coming into a store and stealing. There used to be an avoidance of confrontations over ridiculous, inconsequential things. But you see it every day now. People have come into our stores and almost come to blows over a refund or a price or the fact that they weren’t serviced quickly or the way they were looked at by another customer. The world has changed its approach, and I don’t have my finger on exactly what it is. But I can see the outcomes of it have made people aggressive, bold, and confrontational. Unfortunately, that puts our associates in harm’s way.
Sometimes it puts our customers in harm’s way. We’re having to mitigate a lot of that day in and day out. TERRY: Home Depot is ahead of the curve on activation at the point of sale. Talk about that. SCOTT: The concept of benefit denial has been around for a long time. We are in stores now with products that are chipped. The intelligence is built into the product—unless it has an interaction with a transaction at the register, it’s a brick; it doesn’t work. We do believe that this has a long-term application. It will take some time for adoption, for our vendors to really see the full value of something like this. We believe that if we can’t control the outside environment and what happens to us, we can control the inside environment and what we allow to happen within our four walls. Activation, serialization—things that allow us to have better visibility of our product—will help us with inventory management through the supply chain and within the store, making sure that product is available. On the theft side, it’ll give us visibility to when we are missing product, when product is removed from our stores, and how we can help recover our product. When you go into a large ORC warehouse operation that’s been disrupted, sometimes we sit there with our retail partners and go, “Which one’s yours, and which one’s mine?” This process can have a preventive benefit and also provide visibility. TERRY: Do you find customers understand what benefit denial is at the point of sale? SCOTT: We’re building the process so that it doesn’t matter. There’s an extra step today that the customer must do because you’ve got a traditional UPC. Then we put an individual serialized number on it that forces them to do an incremental scan. But in
the future, the customer will not have to do anything different. So, if the customer is in self-checkout, all they’re doing is scanning the barcode, which activates the process behind it. Once payment is received and validated, then the product becomes live. The customer sees that the product is active and ready to use. If it’s an assisted transaction with our associate, even better because the customer doesn’t have to do anything. TERRY: Let’s talk about your team. What does your AP organization look like? SCOTT: The way we’re structured is pretty traditional with several verticals within the organization. I’ll start with the field, which is led by John Chiasson, a twentyplus-year veteran of Home Depot. He’s been in many different parts of the business. John helps keep our field team focused on core AP responsibilities, training, development, growth—all the different functions for the thousands of associates out in the field. Next, we have Sarah Hix and her team. Her group is a bit of the hub for the rest of the organization. She has operations, learning and development, analytics—all the different things that touch every part of the organization within her responsibility. Mike Combs runs our national investigations team, whether that’s internal investigations or supporting the field on more complex external investigations. ORC and all the different aspects of that fall into his world. Mike also runs our overnight center of excellence that helps us manage law enforcement liaisons and prepares packages for prosecution. They also own alarm management and the video alarm verification processes. More recently they have taken on a new responsibility for what we call “remote accuracy observations”—looking at video
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to make sure that point-of-sale accuracy observations or behaviors are done properly. This one is interesting since point of sale is the last interaction people have with us before they leave the store, so getting that part of it right is something that Mike and his team have taken on. The last piece is our supply chain organization, probably the largest-growing piece of our organization. As we’re building out those capabilities that I talked about earlier—same day, next day delivery, responsiveness to our consumers and our pro customers—there’s a lot of movement in that space. We are moving fast in the supply chain to keep up with that growth velocity. JIM: Let’s talk about the supply chain function. What are your major supply chain initiatives? SCOTT: Our growth in supply chain has been a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar investment. Our publicly stated goal is to be able to service 90-plus percent of our customers with same-day or next-day capabilities. As a result, you have a massively growing, fast-moving operation. The first initiative had to be investment in talent. Home Depot has always been an organization that prides itself on growth and promotion from within so that is where we started. But based on the speed we are growing, it required us to balance that with external talent additions. Next up is accuracy, making sure that everything that we touch is what and where we expect it to be—whether that is direct to consumer or what we send to our stores. We are pretty good at this point, but the challenge is to maintain accuracy levels in a period of expansion and in an environment where we are adding thirty to forty buildings per year. Lastly, and probably most importantly, is safety execution in supply chain. There is just nothing
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Our growth in supply chain has been a multi‑year, multi-billion‑dollar investment. Our publicly stated goal is to be able to service 90-plus percent of our customers with same-day or next‑day capabilities. As a result, you have a massively growing, fast-moving operation.
FEATURE Fighting the Good Fight
more important than making sure that every one of our associates, vendors, and third-party providers go home in the same condition they came to work. We have massive multi-million-square-foot facilities, some of which quite literally have trains running through the building. Plus, there is significant material handling and automated equipment running 24/7. This certainly creates a high-risk environment, and it is our jobs to make it safe. JIM: My experience has been that people in supply chain and logistics will often say they have shrink under control in their facilities, that it’s the stores causing a shrink problem. How would you react to that here at Home Depot?
would be naive to think that we don’t contribute to shrink. Lack of accuracy will always contribute to shrink whether its inbound from the vendors, human errors at loading, or the back and forth that happens with customer orders. Our conversion to automated facilities certainly has created some transitional pressure as we learn how to do that better. Like many others, we do blind receiving at stores, so that’s a minor disadvantage. The stores must accept whatever the paperwork says is shipped to the building. The only way to fix that is to completely detail what is received. You could do it through technology, but we’re not there yet. TERRY: Is there any exception like price point to the good faith receiving at store level? SCOTT: We do have some random auditing for our non-certified vendors. But we do a lot of vendor direct-to-store deliveries that are generally received blind. Of course, we have agreements and allowances in place with our certified vendor community, so we get generally whole on the gross margin side. They have showed us over time that their accuracy is great; therefore, we think the current process makes sense for us. JIM: What are the broader supply chain issues today from a positive and negative standpoint versus where supply chain was a few years ago?
Sarah Hix
SCOTT: I would agree in concept. Our shrink numbers are really good in our facilities and that makes sense because we are self‑controlled environments. We don’t have the complexity of customers freely waking in and out of our facilities at scale, but we
Spring 2022
SCOTT: I would start with talent. There used to be resistance to store to DC cross-pollination. But today, we see what some call “the Amazon effect” coming into play and that dynamic is changing. I would argue that supply chain is becoming more attractive. While warehouses are still warehouses, they are starting to become high‑tech, shiny objects.
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During COVID, we had a great need to pull store associates into our facilities to keep product flowing. Many decided to stay. They have seen that the direct‑to‑customer world is blending roles. Its creating a huge demand, and we are seeing some of these barriers start to break down. We aren’t there yet, but its easing. Next would is data and access to data. We have a lot of work to do to move from a “pull environment” to a nimble, outlier-based “push environment.” Data here, particularly on the supply chain side, has been decentralized. I remember when I first got here asking what I thought was a simple question, I couldn’t get a quick answer because the data wasn’t stitched properly. We’ve had to find the data, build the platforms, and decide how to return the proper answer. We’ve made some investments and are making progress, but data is still an opportunity in general. The evolution of supply chain AP is one that basically says, “I don’t really care if you call it a store, a distribution center, or a warehouse. It’s a cog within the holistic supply chain.” We now have stronger expertise in the broader supply chain, it’s no longer just logistics. And the people who are sitting in AP roles in supply chain are true subject-matter experts of logistics, whether it’s in distribution or transportation. TERRY: What does your supply chain AP team look like? SCOTT: As I said, we are growing and expanding rapidly. We have an ongoing analysis of what we need in the next couple of years and beyond. Today, and certainly in the near term, we will have a traditional corporate team with a field structure. Corporately, the team oversees infrastructure, technology and innovation, and a group who handles transportation, security, and compliance. That’s a relatively new role and something that we
have learned quickly that we were underinvested in. We also have a reverse logistics organization that handles the whole environment from moving product back from stores to working with our vendors to obtain credits to managing our liquidation process Our field leaders are multichannel senior managers who are geographically situated and responsible for $70-plus billion worth of goods flowing and oversight for about 220 facilities. If you layer in the yards, that’s another 100 or so buildings. So that’s 320-plus assets. They are responsible for total retail loss—be it people, places, things, and data under our care and custody. They manage a team of managers, supervisors, and auditors, which is about 600-plus associates. TERRY: Home Depot was on the cutting edge of building fulfillment centers many years ago. Do you have teams in every fulfillment center? SCOTT: Yes and no. We certainly have our traditional large direct fulfillment centers where there’s pick, pack, and ship functionality. These are our big boxes. But we also are building out our feeder market distribution and operation centers that handle all the appliances and large bulky product direct-to-home delivery. They are smaller, nimbler facilities that do not have day-to-day AP presence. Those are overseen by supervisors that report to the senior manager group. JIM: Moving on to the team, let’s start with Sarah. What is your title and how long have you been with Home Depot? SARAH: I am senior director of asset protection, and I’ll have my twenty‑year anniversary with Home Depot in August. JIM: And why is that?
SARAH: I get asked that question a lot. It is an amazing company to work for. I went to school locally, graduated on a Saturday, and started on a Sunday in the stores, never once dreaming that I was going to work at Home Depot for a living, but it very quickly changed from a job to a career. The way they develop associates, the opportunity for growth and advancement in the organization, the variety of things that you can do—there’s never the same day twice. That is a big piece of it, but it’s more the culture, the values of the company, the way we take care of our people. I have lots of family members in the organization that have been here double-digit years as well. It’s just a great place to be. JIM: How did you end up going from store operations to asset protection? SARAH: Almost eight years ago, I got a phone call that said, “Hey, you’ve been working in operations for the last decade building people‑process technology. We’d like you to come upstairs and help us unwind the net through the systems and the people and the process to see where the opportunity for shrink and loss is.” I didn’t have a background in AP or any of this, but they said, “Come and take a look at it through a different set of eyes and tell us where we have opportunity.” So about eight years ago, I came upstairs, and I’ve been here since then. JIM: What are the key areas of your responsibility? SARAH: I support five different pieces of the organization, starting with the programs and communications team. What’s our procedure look like? How do we train, our licensing, our curriculum, not only for our AP associates but also our field associates to make sure that they understand what loss prevention is, what shrink is, what we’re up against? That team also
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helps support all our systems and the databases that we use. I have a team that supports store operations—anything that they’re doing, implementing new technology or a new process or department changes, roles, and routines. We make sure we have
Protecting people and the brand never goes away. It continues to be more and more important. Customer sentiment these days is very particular. It moves rapidly. If you’re not trusted by the public, you can lose business quickly. Some of that is about how you treat and protect people in your stores. Those things are critically important to a brand’s reputation. a seat at the table to talk about what risks exist, not to say we can’t do something but to ask how we mitigate them. We work together to say, “If you do something, you’re opening yourselves up for exposure, and here’s where we need to look.” It also helps us on the software and technology side as we’re rolling things out that might have defects in the first round. How do we make sure we’re looking for defects to make sure everything goes smoothly? We’re retail accounting, so there are a lot of opportunities. If things don’t go the right way, then there are areas of exposure. That team also supports the physical inventory process in the store side. A different team owns the third-party relationship of the actual counting, but we own all the prep leading up to the day of, and then the post inventory reconciliation as well. We have a team that does all things physical security, technology, and innovation for the stores—our guard resources, burglar alarms, the camera systems, the cameras themselves. All of that comes up
Spring 2022
FEATURE Fighting the Good Fight specific ways are your teams battling those issues?
Mike Combs
through my organization. A lot of the innovation tests that we’re running right now for the perimeter security and different things like that are on that team as well. The fourth team is our merchandising protection team, kind of your traditional LP. How do we protect the product in the stores but also do some new and innovative things with activation and different pieces like that? So we’re constantly working with our merchant organization to make sure that we can sell what they want to sell, where they want to sell it, and that it’s on the shelves. And then the fifth is our analytics team. We work closely with our finance partners and our bigger organizational analytics team to go through all the data.
SARAH: ORC falls more under Mike’s, John’s, and Scott’s camps, but certainly we support them as we do a lot of the lobbying and conversations around legislation that needs to change. From a shrink perspective, we get as much exposure as possible with the executive leadership team to talk about what we’re doing, how we’re going to work on it. We pull the other teams together. Scott does a phenomenal job with his peers and each of the other organizations to where they have a vested interest in what we’re doing. We always say it’s a team sport. I can do my part, but if everybody else isn’t doing their part, then it’s going to be harder to tackle. This organization does a really nice job of bringing everybody to the table. And then from the safety standpoint, that’s our message every day. Product is replaceable. Shrink is absorbable. We can grow, so we can do whatever we need to do. But at the end of the day, we’re ensuring that we’re keeping our associates and our customers safe. I think everybody gets that. They understand it. And that’s what we’re charged with above everything else. JIM: How has the pandemic and remote working changed what you and your people do?
SARAH: We didn’t skip a beat. We continued with our weekly touch‑bases. With the drive-bys, instead of it being in the office door, it was the quick, “Hey, can I call you on Teams?” We still had all our team meetings and recognition and development and all those pieces. That’s not to say that we JIM: If I asked most people what the weren’t talking about coming back into the office. It’s awesome three most critical issues for asset protection are in terms of exposures, to be able to shake somebody’s hand. It’s awesome to be able to they would likely say ORC, shrink, swing by and draw on somebody’s and safety for associates. Because you’re nodding your head, I suspect whiteboard to say, “Here’s what I’m trying to convey.” you believe that as well. What
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But we didn’t skip a beat, and a lot of that was through necessity at the beginning. We created an app to count customers in and out of the stores. And we set the parameters on where to come in and where to go out and what stores looked like and how we were going to protect them. We went through times of civil unrest at the beginning, and all of that centered around our team, so we didn’t have a choice. But we adapted very quickly. JIM: Let’s shift to investigations. That’s your world, Mike. We’ve introduced you to our readers on several occasions, particularly when you were on the supply chain side. How long have you been in this role, and what functions do you currently have in investigations? MIKE: I’ve been in this role for four years and spent a little over ten in our supply chain. We have a central investigations team of thirty-five or so for internals. Another function is the ORC investigations team that sits out in the field. And then the third function is a 24/7 law enforcement support, investigative-support function. We call it the National Investigation Center. JIM: You, along with others, had a big part in developing that, correct? MIKE: Absolutely. And when Scott got here, we expanded it to do a little bit more, support some operational things like alarm calls overnight and things like that. SCOTT: And that’s honestly just something from the pandemic. It was a necessity because we didn’t want managers to have to go into the buildings overnight. Most alarms overnight are false alarms. Mike and his team have done a phenomenal job of intercepting false alarms and validating whether they need dispatch or to send somebody out there before. We’ve all been in retail a long time. There’s nothing worse than getting that alarm call in the
middle of the night and going in, and then nothing happens.
to power tools. They’ll steal it and sell it.
JIM: Would you say that the world of ORC occupies most of your team’s time?
JIM: Your team obviously conducts the investigation when something happens, but how much are you involved in the upfront ORC prevention, whether through technology that you put in place or relationships you have with law enforcement and prosecutors?
The future of retail is whatever the customer wants, direct to the consumer. Stores will always be important but less than they’ve been. They will be the short-term fulfillment option. We think about providing customers product the way they want it, when they want it —whether that’s same day, next day.
MIKE: We’re connected across the board, and then we’re connected with Sarah’s team to work with the store operations team to make sure they’re learning from our investigations. Some of the things we’ve locked up, some of the processes in the stores are all based on the information that we share. We do what’s called an after-action review on every big ORC case. What have we learned? What went
wrong? How do we prevent this in the future? That has been helpful for us across the board. That was something that Scott introduced when he got here. From a prosecution and criminal justice side, we’re connected tightly across North America. It helps that at least half our team was recruited from that environment. Half of them are AP associates
MIKE: I would say probably 70 percent, and the pandemic made it worse. You think that people would go to their houses and be safe, but no, they came out of the woodwork. Also, there’s the fact that everybody’s willing to shop online. The world of e-commerce works great, so the criminals have all started unloading their product online, which has allowed them to do it quickly. The thing that’s blown me away is they will literally steal anything and get rid of anything. It’s not just the stuff that we’re used to seeing out there online. It’s anything from two-by-fours
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FEATURE Fighting the Good Fight
moving up the ranks. The other half are ex-law enforcement, ex-FBI, or ex-prosecutors. We have a great connection with that industry, and we spend a lot of our time maintaining and marketing those relationships. A big part of mine and Scott’s time is awareness and education to the legislative and criminal justice world on what the problem is, why it’s a big deal, and how it’s changed in the last five years. I still think there’s a big perception from police and prosecutors that this is a sixteen‑year-old kid coming in to steal a candy bar. At Home Depot, we don’t see those types of cases. Our issue is professional, sometimes multi-national organizations who exist to steal to support even larger crimes. All of this is fueled by money, power, drugs, guns, and online proliferation. JIM: How do you view Home Depot’s efforts with tackling the ORC issue, and how do you view the overall efforts by the retail industry?
The world has changed its approach, and I don’t have my finger on exactly what it is. But I can see the outcomes of it have made people aggressive, bold, and confrontational. Unfortunately, that puts our associates in harm’s way. Sometimes it puts our customers in harm’s way. We’re having to mitigate a lot of that day in and day out. MIKE: I’m very happy to be working here because they’ve given us the tools and manpower that we need. And again, we’ve expanded. If anything, Scott is asking me, “Where do you want to go next, Mike?” I’m holding back because I want to measure and see how we’re doing. We’ve just expanded into some second-tier markets to see how
Spring 2022
much success we can have there. I’m very happy with the success there and the support we get from the company. I think we’ve been a little slow in retail overall, as well as society, to adapt to how fast it’s changed in the last five years. When we talk about ORC, the fact is that the accountability behind theft in retail has just gone away, and people have started making a living doing it. It’s not just making a hundred thousand dollars. Our cases are in the millions of dollars. People are making a lot of money off stealing and reselling. SCOTT: I would issue a little bit of a friendly challenge to the rest of the industry. Don’t sit back and let it happen to you. Go on the offensive and be proactive and loud with the power of your organization. But some companies are not as engaged on the front end with law enforcement, with governors, and with legislators. Our government relations team comes to me at times and says they wish that some of the other retailers could be more aggressive in backing the things we’re trying to get done. Home Depot can be the squeaky wheel, but if it’s just Home Depot, nothing’s going to change. I don’t mean to imply that it’s just us engaged, but I would argue that only three to five of the Fortune 100 retailers are truly active in this space. TERRY: Years ago, refund fraud was a major issue, especially in the home improvement space. What have you done to mitigate that? Is that still a major focus? MIKE: It’s part of the story, but it’s not the same problem we had five or six years ago. Sarah is the expert on that. As we move toward nontransferability of store credits, that really helped us in that game with gift cards and store credits. For the most part, what we see is people stealing and reselling the product. You see a lot of credit card fraud.
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That’s not really what my team focuses on in ORC. We typically just work with the banks on those. SCOTT: From a refund perspective, we’ve done some things to make it less of an issue. Today, it’s mostly around arbitrage that we tend to see. Scenarios where someone overbuys product they don’t need, gets discounts, then tries to return product back and get a refund at full price. The rationalize that “I didn’t steal it; I just paid less for it.” That’s one of the things we’re really going after because it’s big margin dollars we’re giving away. We see that at a larger scale today than the typical steal a product and return it without a receipt. JIM: The media has given smash and grabs a lot of attention over the last several months. I, for one, think it’s a real positive that we’re getting media exposure, so people understand the nature of theft in the retail environment. MIKE: I agree with you a hundred percent. But the fact is that ORC is happening every day, and that’s just one method of ORC. The ones where they’re running out fire doors with product, or they’re just walking out with a shopping cart full of product, maybe they have a gun or mace, and then they resell within a couple of hours—those are the cases we’re going after. That’s what’s impacting Home Depot. JIM: Are there things that Home Depot takes the leadership on and can help others in retail give that exposure for the media to tell the whole story of ORC? MIKE: I think just our willingness to share our story, and now we’re starting to share videos more. We’re also part of the RILA IBM info-sharing project on ORC. We’re one of the stakeholders in that session over the last year, trying to get us all to share information, because we found pretty quickly in that project that the
people who are stealing here are stealing at the other retailers too. SCOTT: I give our executive leadership team a lot of credit for being early on the messaging on this. Craig Menear, our prior CEO, is now in the chairman role. He came out at major investment conferences with our investors and said, “We have a problem with this, and we’re going to address it.” I think that surprised a lot of people. But then you saw others, Best Buy’s CEO Corie Barry came behind him as well as others to start to talk about it. It was not the dark secret anymore. It is something people are talking about more openly but still not as many as should be at this point. JIM: Again, the media has given some attention to the lack of
prosecution for the retail thieves, particularly with $1,000 or $1,500 felony thresholds. Is that a significant issue when it comes to ORC or shoplifting in general? MIKE: I think it’s an issue on both sides because the ORC criminals are stealing multiple times per day, per week. Every time they get caught, they’re being let out. So, it’s the aggregation of all those events. It’s almost like the different cities and jurisdictions don’t have visibility to the fact that this person just got caught with felony theft three days earlier in another part of the state. It’s part prosecution and part just letting them go instead of stopping for a second and asking, “How big is this criminal I have in front of me?”
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JIM: Have the changes in prosecution made this more difficult? SCOTT: I think it has, Jim. I don’t think it’s the biggest nugget, but it has certainly emboldened a portion of the bad actors to be more aggressive. The online marketplaces are really a big enabler though, they’ve allowed people to make a killing and be invisible. TERRY: Are there any cities or counties that you’re aware of that have backed felony thresholds down? MIKE: We haven’t spent a ton of energy at Home Depot worrying about that specific issue, felony thresholds detract from the argument these days. What
Spring 2022
Craig Menear, our prior CEO, is now in the chairman role. He came out at major investment conferences with our investors and said, “We have a problem with this, and we’re going to address it.”
FEATURE Fighting the Good Fight
we’ve been doing is spending time educating attorneys general, building task forces, and adding resources so that we can investigate the big cases. We’ve seen no pushback on that. SCOTT: I believe that the felony threshold conversation is a bit of a poison pill with most of the attorneys general. Our angle has been about aggregation. That’s the piece where we can be multijurisdictional and have reach. That’s why we’ve been focused on
thresholds, most of them kind of tune out, it’s politics. MIKE: The other lesson I’ve learned, sadly, in the last three years is just because you’ve improved the law in a certain state, let’s say around ORC and aggregation, the police community and then the prosecution community may not even be educated yet. Even though it got passed through the legislature, we literally have had to start attending police chiefs and district attorneys conferences just to remind them, “Hey, this is the law. This is how you work a case. Here’s an example of a case.” And then we start seeing traction. TERRY: From a technology standpoint, Mike, are you currently doing or testing anything that you see as making an impact or preventing losses from ORC?
John Chiasson
the state-level AGs and local DAs. It’s a whole different conversation at the federal level. We’ve had some nice success in Washington state, New Mexico, Utah, California, Texas, Illinois, New York, and to a certain degree, Florida, in getting them to get behind the task forces and supporting legislation that goes through the aggregation piece of it. If you ever start a conversation about felony
Spring 2022
MIKE: I think sharing case information among retailers is a big one with the RILA project. We aren’t using facial recognition, but that may be a future benefit for ORC. One day when that’s all regulated in a way that everybody feels comfortable around the country, I think that’ll be a big benefit. We also have a superb case management and intelligence system. We’re just starting to leverage all the attributes there to tie in the intelligence in our own system. We still make over a hundred thousand shoplift apprehensions per year. The question is how do I use all that information to make sure that I know who the ORC criminals are and that I’m working the right cases first? SCOTT: We’ve tested a lot of the different technologies out there. Some work, some don’t, and some are not ready for prime time. And then some just have enough concerns around them that you don’t want to go there right now. To Mike’s point with facial recognition,
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a lot of law enforcement folks are still using it, and they can continue to use it. I don’t know that it’s ready for us yet. Hopefully, we can get past some of the legal, privacy, and accuracy barriers down the road to be able to leverage. JIM: Let’s turn to John now. How long have you been with Home Depot, and what roles have you held? JOHN: I have been with Home Depot for twenty-one years. I am currently the senior director of field asset protection, a role I have held for the past three years. I began my journey at Home Depot as a divisional AP director and then transitioned to store operations where I held various roles, including senior director of operations for the Southern division, regional director of operations, district manager, and store manager. My experience in AP helped me as an operator as I was able to utilize the “influence without authority” leadership skills we learn in AP while I was a store manager and district manager. Spending over sixteen years in operations helped me become a better AP leader. Having spent that time in the stores gave me a new perspective of what it takes to manage a sound AP program. JIM: What roles and responsibilities come with the senior director of field asset protection title? JOHN: My team is responsible for establishing our core strategy that impacts how our field store asset protection specialists and our multiunit AP managers spend their time impacting theft, fraud, operational shrink, and safety. This includes developing targeted strategies to impact high-theft categories while balancing time ensuring basic operational processes are followed to prevent continued on page 26
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FEATURE Fighting the Good Fight Continued from page 24
shrink. We spend a considerable amount of time working on AP development to provide our teams with the knowledge and leadership skills needed to lead successful stores and districts. Our three-pronged approach of having the right people in the right place, hardening the target, and mitigating total retail loss allows us to effectively deliver results to the bottom line. JIM: What was your experience in the industry prior to Home Depot? JOHN: I spent over ten years with Walmart stores and held various roles, including store loss prevention associate, district LP manager, and regional LP manager. During that time, Walmart was continuing rapid expansion on the West Coast and beginning the expansion of the supercenter concept. I was fortunate to be able to learn the ins and outs of asset protection from some great AP leaders during my time with Walmart.
The felony threshold conversation is a bit of a poison pill with most of the attorneys general. Our angle has been about aggregation. That’s the piece where we can be multijurisdictional and have reach. That’s why we’ve been focused on the state-level AGs and local DAs. JIM: What are the top issues your field organization is facing today? JOHN: One of the biggest issues we face is developing strategies to maintain a frictionless shopping environment that keeps product on the shelf for paying customers while reducing the opportunity for theft. By implementing the right
Spring 2022
strategies, our AP team can focus on the professional shoplifter versus the opportunists while the paying customer can easily complete their transaction. We also need to continue to strengthen our relationships with local law enforcement. Police departments are operating at full capacity, and response times have increased significantly over the past several years. We want our law enforcement partners to know us by name and know that when a call comes in from our AP team, we have an iron-clad case. We do not want them to have to complete our investigation. We did our due diligence and put together a solid case, and they can feel confident in the charges. Lastly, we need to be mindful of the safety of our AP and store associates. Criminals have become more brazen in recent years, and they are quick to make a threat. Teaching our AP associates how to quickly identify a situation and deescalate the risk will protect our AP team, our associates, and customers. TERRY: What is your organization doing to keep employees and customers safe? JOHN: As I said, the safety of our associates and customers is always top of mind at Home Depot. A safe shopping environment starts in the parking lot, and we have made several enhancements to provide a customer-friendly environment. We also have created some great associate awareness campaigns that educate our associates on what to do, and not do, in situations that are escalating. Our store AP team has regular contact with store associates to discuss how to deal with suspected shoplifting, robbery attempts, and general safety precautions. The more associates we can educate, the less the chances of someone being injured. TERRY: How have your field team adapted to ORC?
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JOHN: While ORC has been around for decades, the use of technology has made them more efficient at what they do. We also have become more efficient as an AP organization to address the trend. By reviewing data provided by store associates, known thefts, and BOLOs, our team can be more efficient while they are in a store. We have the intelligence data to know if a store is more active in the morning, afternoon, or evening, and we can adapt schedules to impact those times. We have also improved our method of communication with our ORC team to be able to provide two-way, real-time information about known subjects. This has enabled us to gain valuable intel and resolve cases in a more efficient manner. In addition, our AP leadership and government relations team has been very effective in educating local, state, and federal officials on the impact of ORC. Our local AP teams get the chance to meet with our government relations team and public officials to walk stores and discuss the efforts we are putting in place to combat ORC. It is a great time to ask for their support of legislation that positively impacts ORC. TERRY: How do you see asset protection changing in the future? JOHN: AP will continue to evolve with the ever-changing technology that hits the market to make our jobs easier. We have the resources to direct us to the merchandising categories that are being impacted by theft. We know the days, times, and in many cases the subject we are looking for. Utilizing that information to build solid theft cases on repeat offenders will change how our AP teams manage their time. JIM: This has been a real privilege, Scott, to visit with you and your team. Thank you for your time and best of luck to the entire Home Depot organization.
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8 01-221-9 4 0 8 w w w. LV T. c o m
INTERVIEWING
David Thompson, CFI
Shane G. Sturman, CFI, CPP
Wetzkaz Graphics / shutterstock.com
Thompson is the president and partner of Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates, providing investigative interview and interrogation training to a global audience. He has served as a subject-matter expert in developing curriculum and providing consultation to investigators, attorneys, and the academic community. He can be reached at dthompson@w-z.com. Sturman is the CEO and senior partner of Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates and has led this international training organization for over a decade. Sturman has provided training for WZ for a variety of clients over the last twenty years. He is also a member of ASIS International’s Retail Loss Prevention Council. He can be reached at 800-222-7789 or at ssturman@w-z.com. © 2022 Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates, Inc.
Do You Remember? C
ould you tell me what you ate for dinner last weekend? What did you wear yesterday? Can you remember who was at that meeting three months ago? Our memories are fallible, but interviewers all too often request that subjects recall intricate details of an event and, when they don’t, make a determination on their lack of honesty. Of course, remembering what you had for dinner last weekend may not be as monumental of an event as witnessing a crime take place. For example, it may be easier to recall where you were on September 11, 2001, than what you did on a random Tuesday in April. A variety of lessons can be learned here, both in the techniques used to probe a person’s memory as well as the assessment of their credibility.
Flashbulb Memories Of course, remembering what you had for dinner last weekend may not be as monumental of an event as witnessing a crime take place.
In 1977, scholars Roger Brown and James Kulik identified the phenomenon of increased memory recall of a traumatic event, such as September 11, with the term “flashbulb memories.” One of the original known studies around this concept was conducted around the year 1900. Researchers asked participants about their recollection of the assassination of President Lincoln, which had occurred about three decades earlier. Similar to our experience of September 11,
Spring 2022
many participants were able to retrieve memories of where they were, what they were doing, and how they learned of the event. The labeling of this theory as “flashbulb memory” was based off the comparison of taking a photograph and the suggestion that our brains are able to take snapshots of these momentous occasions in our lives.
In 1977, scholars Roger Brown and James Kulik identified the phenomenon of increased memory recall of a traumatic event, such as September 11, with the term “flashbulb memories.” Further research has helped to clarify this concept and also has facilitated how interviewers may assess the credibility of the retrieved information. A major point of concern is that although we may have flashbulb memories of specific events, it doesn’t guarantee that our recall of that event is any more accurate than other memories we may have. Further longitudinal studies have been conducted to determine how our memory accuracy and
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retention is impacted over time, as it relates to these flashbulb moments. Talarico and Rubin published a study in 2003 called “Confidence, Not Consistency, Characterizes Flashbulb Memories” (in Psychological Science 14, no. 5) that explained how the phenomenon of flashbulb memories are based in our confidence in the memory versus the actual accuracy of our recall of the event. In their study, they found that both “everyday memory” and “flashbulb memories” both decline over time, but our confidence in the accuracy of the flashbulb moment remains high. Applying this knowledge to an interview is important in both our tactics and assessment of information gained. First, it is important to acknowledge that if a “flashbulb” moment did not occur, there may be a lack of confidence in the retrieval attempt by the subject. If the interviewee did experience a momentous event, however, there may be a memory hook in which they are stronger in their recall confidence. For instance, if tasked with interviewing a witness who observed a fight between two employees, the interviewee may appear to vividly recall that event as a flashbulb moment. However, as an interviewer, we must be cautious in mistaking their confidence with our assessment of its credibility and its perceived accuracy. Conversely,
if interviewing a witness about a relatively mundane event (what they were doing during the shift last week), they may not be as confident in their recall and therefore may not provide as many details as the interviewer expects. This lack of perceived cooperation may result in an interviewer doubting the credibility of the subject’s story, but their reluctance to share may be based on their fear of getting the details wrong.
The Impact of Trauma To add an extra layer of complication in the retrieval of an event, it is well known that exposure to trauma has a significant impact on our memories. In the loss prevention industry, an interviewee’s exposure to trauma may be less obvious than in the law enforcement arena. But employees can experience traumatic events in the workspace, including discriminatory behavior, workplace violence, bullying, or escalated conflicts with customers. Although these events may seem to fit the description of the flashbulb moment, the incorporation of trauma makes memory recall even more difficult to diagnose. The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine (NICABM) provides insight into the impact of trauma on different types of memory
In effort to help a person tell their story, allow for silence and minimize interruptions. Constant disruptions to a person’s memory when they are recreating the context of the event will only minimize the retrieval attempt.
To add an extra layer of complication in the retrieval of an event, it is well known that exposure to trauma has a significant impact on our memories. In the loss prevention industry, an interviewee’s exposure to trauma may be less obvious than in the law enforcement arena. recall, including emotional and episodic memory. “Emotional memory” simply refers to the memory of the emotions that we may have experienced or felt during a specific event. In an interview with an employee, this could be referring to emotions such as shame, embarrassment, fear, anger, or shock. Interviewers should be aware that asking an employee to retrieve information about a specific incident has the possibility of triggering those emotions again. A primary concern with this issue is the safety and compassion for our employees and others in the workspace. Partnering with human resources and having an employee assistance program are avenues in which we can support our teams during this process. Secondly, the triggered emotions may appear out of context for the interviewer. Observing a subject become emotional (especially if not consistent with our expectations) may misguide an interviewer’s perception of their credibility. Each person will respond to a traumatic event differently. We must not classify the credibility of their statements based purely on the emotional response. “Episodic memory” refers to the ability of a person to remember the factual information of an event, answering the investigative
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questions of who, what, where, and when. Again, the exposure to trauma can have a major impact on a person’s ability to retrieve this information confidently and accurately. NICABM describes how trauma may alter our interviewee’s recall of the event by impacting the way they organize and sequence the fragments of the incident. Often, a person recalling a traumatic experience may not do so in a linear fashion, causing the story to appear disjointed and contradictory.
So What Do I Do? First, stop making assumptions on the credibility of a person based on their ability to recall an event. We now understand that many variables can impact our memories, and we’ve only touched on a few. Take into consideration that witnesses may talk to each other before an interview, they may have been exposed to other versions of a story, or they may simply have a fear of giving you information. In effort to help a person tell their story, allow for silence and minimize interruptions. Constant disruptions to a person’s memory when they are recreating the context of the event will only minimize the retrieval attempt. Interviewers must also avoid leading questions or suggestive statements that risk the possibility of contaminating a person’s memory. Their recall of an event may be based off the interviewer’s expectations rather than their own memory. Next time a subject tells you they don’t remember, consider that it may be a true statement. Even more importantly, just because a person can provide you vivid details about the event with confidence, we must still investigate their accuracy. It’s a good idea to save this edition for future reference, because as we just learned, you’ll probably forget what you just read.
Spring 2022
“Episodic memory” refers to the ability of a person to remember the factual information of an event, answering the investigative questions of who, what, where, and when.
LPM EXCELLENCE
LPM Magpie Awards
Applauding Excellence Excellence in Partnerships
Karen Edwards, JD
Interim Associate Dean of Academic Programs, University of South Carolina
Excellence in Partnerships
Kevin O’Brien
Vice President of Business Development, The Integritus Group
The LPM “Magpie” Awards offer a means to celebrate industry accomplishments recognizing the loss prevention professionals, teams, solution providers, and law enforcement partners that demonstrate a stellar contribution to the profession. Please join LPM in celebrating the accomplishments of our latest honorees.
“Work hard, be kind, and do the right thing,” said Edwards. “Apply these principles every day and you’ll be amazed at how well things come together. It really is that simple.” Edwards began working in retail as a young adult while pursuing her bachelor’s degree. While climbing the career ladder, she moved into an area sales manager position and then into human resources management, eventually becoming a human resources manager, merchandise coordinator, and corporate trainer. She applied for law school with thoughts of moving back into retail at the corporate level upon graduation, but with employee education and training always
among her passions, she realized her interests and skills combined with a juris doctor degree made higher education a career option. She currently serves at the University of South Carolina, where the LPQualified course is part of the student curriculum. “Working in the College of Hospitality, Retail, and Sport Management (HRSM) has been an amazing experience, where my background in retail management, HR and training, and law blend together perfectly,” she explained. “In addition to my role as a senior instructor, I have been privileged to serve in a number of additional roles, including faculty mentor, associate director at the Center for Teaching Excellence,
and now, interim associate dean of academic programs at the College of HRSM.” Edwards has also been named to the LP Foundation Board of Directors. When building a successful career, Edwards also believes it’s important to look beyond ourselves for the answers. “Don’t underestimate the value of volunteerism,” she said. “Whether it’s through your work, community, or favorite charitable organization, volunteering is simply part of doing the right thing. It is personally gratifying and puts you in contact with people you may never have met otherwise. As a bonus, you will be amazed at how these experiences benefit your career.”
“When building business partnerships, it’s the quality of the relationships that matter most,” said O’Brien. “And with more than twenty years as a solution provider, I’ve learned that quality relationships are built by doing what’s right for the customer— not what’s right for me or the company I work for. Decision makers want their partners to be counselors, not just salespeople. It’s extremely important to be a great listener, but it’s even more important to be honest. As a solution provider it is important to find the right solution, even if it’s not yours. The foundations of the best partnerships are built on
trust. The client will have more respect for you if you’re honest and genuine.” O’Brien began his career as a sales associate, quickly moving into a loss prevention role while in college studying criminal justice. He continued to take on positions with increasing responsibility with Marshall’s, Ames, and Bradlees where he was promoted to corporate director of loss prevention and store audit before taking on the role of divisional director of loss prevention with Home Depot. He then moved to the vendor side as director of retail services for LP Innovations and DTiQ before becoming
vice president of business development with The Integritus Group in 2021. “For me the role of solution provider was an easy transition as I would be developing and executing loss prevention programs for retail companies,” he said. “I’ve always believed you should never forget where you came from, but nothing in life is handed to you just because of your past accomplishments. You need to work hard every day to get what you want. Still, you can’t do it all on your own. Whatever success I’ve had is because of the partnerships I’ve had made along the way.”
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Controlling Self-Scan Checkout Losses A Global Survey of Retailers By Professor Adrian Beck
Martin Stiavnicky / Skylines / Krakenimages.com /Thunderstock / shutterstock.com Photo illustration by SPARK Publications
S
elf-checkout and pay (SCO) technologies are not necessarily a recent development within retailing. Early forays into enabling consumers to scan and pay for their items without recourse to a retail staff member can be seen in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But in the last ten years, the pace of development and adoption has quickened considerably, especially in the grocery sector. In addition, far more types of SCO are in use. While fixed SCO machines remain the most dominant type of system currently in operation (where consumers go to a fixed checkout and pay station/robot), retailers are now offering shoppers alternatives. These alternatives include: ■ Scan-and-go, where the consumer is provided with a device to scan items they wish to purchase, ■ Mobile SCO, where the consumer uses their own handheld device to
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scan and, in some cases, pay for their items, ■ Smart carts, some of which can automatically detect items placed within them, and ■ Whole-store SCO systems, where once a shopper has registered and scanned themselves into a store, they can pick up items and leave without any need for further scanning or interaction with a payment point, such as Amazon Go, Tesco’s GetGo, and ALDI’s SHOP&GO. The considerable growth in the use of SCO systems has been fueled by three major factors—many retailers’ desire to reduce their labor costs by getting consumers to undertake tasks previously done by employees, brick-and-mortar retailers’ need to better compete with online shopping by reducing some of the key friction points in their shopper journeys, and
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FEATURE Controlling Self-Scan Checkout Losses
the growing capability of SCO technologies, telecommunication networks, and computing to work more reliably, across more platforms and locations, and at relatively lower costs. Taken together, in many parts of the world, SCO is now spreading across various retail sectors, including grocery, DIY, fashion, convenience, beauty, and pharmacy, to name but a few. Despite the claims of some providers, SCO introduction has not always been an unbridled win for the retailer, nor indeed the shopper, some of whom regard SCO as an unwarranted irritant in the shopping journey. In addition, many of these systems have been found to generate an increase in retail losses. The opportunities SCOs present for both malicious and nonmalicious activity is now relatively well documented, including nonscanning items, misrepresenting products, switching barcodes, walking away, and so on.
Despite the claims of some providers, SCO introduction has not always been an unbridled win for the retailer, nor indeed the shopper, some of whom regard SCO as an unwarranted irritant in the shopping journey. An ECR Retail Loss Group report published in 2018 estimated that for each 1 percent of retail sales processed through fixed SCOs, a retailer will suffer an increase in unknown loss of one basis point. This means that if 50 percent of sales go through this type of system, then a retailer could see an additional loss of 0.5 percent of their retail sales. With some estimates suggesting that unknown losses (shrinkage) for a grocery retailer might be in the region of 1.5 percent of retail sales
Spring 2022
per year, this would represent a 33 percent increase in losses. More significantly, estimates for other types of SCO system losses were even more concerning. Scan-and-go and mobile could see the rate of losses rise higher, possibly as much as seven to ten basis points of loss for each 1 percent of transaction value. Despite these considerable losses, for many retailers, the proverbial genie is now out of the bottle, and few SCO adopters are realistically envisaging a future without it as a major part of their checkout environment. The question, therefore, is no longer will SCO be a significant part of the retail landscape, but how can it be effectively managed and controlled to ensure it does not become an unacceptably large drain on business profitability? In this respect, there has been growing interest in, and development of, a wide range of interventions and approaches designed to try to mitigate the risks posed by SCO systems. These have largely been focused on key points within the shopper journey—registration, the store entrance, store aisles, the checkout area, and the store exit. In addition, they have coalesced around four broad themes—the application of various technologies, the way in which guardianship is delivered, adjustments to store processes, and changes to the design and layout of stores and SCO-specific environments.
Survey of Retailers Using SCO As part of a larger study looking at the impact of SCO systems on retail losses, the ECR Retail Loss Group commissioned a global survey of retailers to better understand what SCO technologies are being used, the extent to which retailers are concerned about the losses associated with them, and the various ways in which they are trying to control them.
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In total, ninety-three retailers took part in the survey drawn from twenty-five countries. Most responses came from European retailers (51), followed by North American (29) and Australasian (11). Nearly three-quarters were grocery retailers. The rest were a mixture of nongrocery, including pharmacy, DIY, department stores, and apparel retailers. The total sales for all respondents in 2019 and 2020 were more than €2.237 trillion ($2.44 trillion USD), accounting for approximately 13 percent of global retail sales. In terms of overall sales value, eight of the top ten and fourteen of the top twenty largest retailers in the world took part in this study. It should be noted that the survey does not claim to be a representative sample of all retailing. Africa, Asia, and Latin America are heavily underrepresented, and of course the survey is only focused on those retailers using some form of SCO and prepared to complete the survey. As such, the results must be interpreted within that context.
Survey Findings While the survey covered a range of topics, only the results relating to the use of a range of interventions focused on fixed, scan-and-go, and mobile SCO are presented here. A free report that summarizes all results from the study is available at the ecrloss.com website or by scanning the QR code on page 40. Retailers were given a list of interventions grouped around four key thematic areas: ■ Technologies, such as video and weight checking, ■ Guardianship, such as training and the use of security teams, ■ Design, such as the use of corrals and exit controls, and ■ Process (such as closing SCO machines in off-peak times). Retailers were asked to indicate which of the interventions they
had either already deployed to some degree or were in the trial or planning phase of use. Fixed Self-Checkout. For grocery retailers, the most deployed intervention was product weight checking (71%), perhaps not surprising given that it is probably one of the most long-standing and established approaches to try to restrict nonscanning by users. The next most frequently used intervention was some form of enhanced selection and training for SCO supervisors (56%), followed by two forms of design intervention: enclosed SCO areas (46%) and some form of corral system for managing the movement of customers (44%). The use of video monitors was also relatively common: 41 percent of grocery respondents were using personal display monitors at each fixed SCO machine. A very similar picture was found with the use of interventions by nongrocery retailers, although the rank order was slightly different, and there was a lower overall level of utilization. The most common approach was enhanced selection and training for SCO supervisors (41%), followed using a corral design (38%), personal display monitors (38%), random checks by SCO supervisors (30%), and product weight checking (30%). A different picture emerged regarding the interventions in the trial or planning phase. For both grocery and nongrocery retailers, the emphasis is clearly shifting to trialing and testing a range of analytics, particularly those driven by some form of video-based intervention. More than one-half of grocery retailers stated that they were in the process of trialing or planning to use analytics to try to remedy the issue of customers not scanning some or all their products (53%). The next most frequently cited analytic was product recognition, for both grocery (41%) and nongrocery (35%). Grocery retailers were also focused on understanding
Top 5 Most Currently Deployed and Trialing/Planning Interventions for Fixed SCO, Grocery and Nongrocery Retailers Deployed in Grocery Interventions
Trialing/Planning in Grocery Percent
Interventions
Percent
Product Weight Checking
71
Non-scanning Analytic
53
Enhanced Supervisor Selection and Training
56
Product Recognition Analytic
41
Enclosed SCO Areas
46
Barcode Switching Analytic
28
Corral System for Entering SCO Area
44
Remote Video Monitoring with POS Overlay
22
Personal Customer Display Monitors
41
Enhanced Supervisor Selection and Training
19
Deployed in Non-grocery Interventions
Trialing/Planning in Non-grocery
Percent
Interventions
Percent
Enhanced Supervisor Selection and Training
41
Non-scanning Analytic
44
Corral System for Entering SCO Area
38
Product Recognition Analytic
35
Personal Customer Display Monitors
38
In-Screen Display of User’s Face
30
Product Weight Checking
30
Enhanced Supervisor Selection and Training
27
Random Checks by SCO Supervisor/Security
30
Public Display Monitors
27
how analytics could be used to identify incidents of barcode switching—something that many retailers believe is a growing concern. Beyond analytics, both types of retail respondents were taking time to consider how they could improve the selection and training of SCO supervisors. For the most part, this data points to a growing trend by grocery retailers employing
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fixed SCO systems to invest in a twin-track approach based upon enhanced guardianship and analytics to supplement their existing investments in store design, store processes, and various forms of technological intervention. For nongrocers, a broader-ranging strategy cutting across the four thematic areas seems apparent, although this may be a function of the relative
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FEATURE Controlling Self-Scan Checkout Losses
More than one-half of grocery retailers stated that they were in the process of trialing or planning to use analytics to try to remedy the issue of customers not scanning some or all their products (53%). immaturity of SCO use in this part of retailing—a process of catching up with the already established approaches found in grocery. Scan-and-Go. Respondents who had deployed or were trialing scan-and-go systems were asked to indicate the types of interventions they were using to try to manage and control the associated losses. Earlier ECR research had identified four areas where it might be possible to apply interventions to control scan-and-go: at the point of registration/entrance to the store, while the user is in the shopping aisle, at the point of checkout, and when the user is exiting the store. Currently, the checkout area is where the greatest number of possible interventions have been
identified (seven out of twelve covered in the research). Within this area, partial rescans of audited users was the most frequently deployed, with over two-thirds of retailers who use scan-and-go implementing this intervention (69%). In support of this strategy, almost the same number were employing an algorithm to select customers for audit (64%). A significant majority of respondents had also invested in carrying out full audits of selected users (62%). Undertaking these audits and achieving a good outcome for both the retailer and consumer is challenging for the staff employed to perform them, so it was perhaps not surprising that nearly two-thirds stated that they had invested in enhanced selection
Top 5 Most Currently Deployed and Trialing/Planning Interventions for Scan-and-Go Deployed Interventions
Trialing/Planning Percent
Interventions
Percent
Partial Rescans of Audited Users
69
Enhanced Supervisor Selection and Training
21
Algorithm to Select Users for Audit
64
Staff Select Users for Audit
21
Full Rescans of Audited Users
62
Algorithm to Select Users for Audit
20
Enhanced Supervisor Selection and Training
62
Full Rescans of Audited Users
18
Convert (security staff) In-store Monitoring
50
Random Full Rescans of a Sample of Users
15
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and training for these staff (62%). Approaches focused on customers using the scan-and-go system in the aisle were less common, although one-half said they were using covert staff to monitor customers (50%). In terms of interventions currently being trialed or planned, the top five were all based around the checkout area. Of those, four related to how the customer audits were delivered: introducing some form of algorithm to select users (20%), enabling staff to have the option to select users they view as potentially suspicious (21%), making use of full rescan audits (18%), and finally bringing in a program to carry out random full rescans (15%). This last option is often viewed as the most reliable way in which retailers can begin to get accurate data on the scale and extent of scan-and-go abuse by users, although it is potentially a driver of consumer inconvenience as well. As with fixed SCO, improving the selection and training of staff with responsibility for managing and controlling scan-and-go was frequently cited by respondents as an approach they were currently piloting or planning to use soon (21%). Mobile SCO. A very similar picture to scan-and-go was found when it came to the types of interventions that had been deployed for mobile SCO. Once again, those focused on the checkout area were the most adopted: partial rescans (60%), use of algorithms to select users for a check (53%), full rescans (41%), and enhanced selection and training of supervisors with responsibility for these systems (47%), and slightly over one in three (36%) had deployed covert security staff to monitor users. In terms of interventions that were currently being trialed or in the planning phase, the most common was the use of an exit-point-validation process (19%). This is perhaps understandable given the nature of a mobile SCO system, especially if users
are given the opportunity to pay anywhere in the store. Imposing any form of control in these circumstances is extremely difficult, so the introduction of an exit-validation process would seem an understandable strategy to adopt, although it may prove challenging to deliver in some retail environments. Like with the scan-and-go systems, the use of audits was also dominant, such as using an algorithm to select users for a check (12%) and bringing in some form of partial rescan process (12%). In addition, evidence also showed that some respondents were investigating use of their mobile app interface to message users to reinforce appropriate behavior, such as reminding them of the importance of scanning all items (12%). Finally, as with all the other forms of SCO systems
Top 5 Most Currently Deployed and Trialing/Planning Interventions for Mobile SCO Deployed
Trialing/Planning
Interventions
Percent
Interventions
Partial Rescans of Audited Users
60
Fixed Exit Point Purchase Validation
19
Algorithm to Select Users for Audit
53
Enhanced Supervisor Selection and Training
16
Enhanced Supervisor Selection and Training
47
Algorithm to Select Users for Audit
12
Full Rescans of Audited Users
41
Random Full Rescans of a Sample of Users
12
Convert (security staff) In-store Monitoring
36
Messaging in App
12
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Spring 2022
FEATURE
Octus_Photography / shutterstock.com
Controlling Self-Scan Checkout Losses
in this report, respondents were keen to prioritize improvements in the selection and training of those tasked with managing and controlling the systems (16%).
The survey found that between one-fifth and one-quarter of all store losses may now be due to SCO, with some respondents believing it could be even higher. Concerns about SCO Few significant retail business choices have no downsides. Moving to open product displays in the early twentieth century brought participating retailers a significant growth in retail sales, but it also spawned a dramatic increase in shop theft. Getting rid of routine till/cash register audits saved money on staff costs, but it also facilitated an increase in cash theft by staff. The same is
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true for the introduction and use of SCO. In the early days of the latest wave of SCO use, many of the technology providers tried to argue that it was a win, win, win for the retailer—lower labor costs, happier customers, and lower levels of unknown loss (shrinkage)—the proverbial “no brainer” when it came to business choices. Of course, the reality has proved to be somewhat different. While the labor savings for many have been profound, the road to customer happiness has been somewhat rockier. And as the ECR research paper on the scale and extent of losses associated with SCO found, retail losses have gone in the opposite direction to that claimed by the SCO providers. For those tasked with managing retail losses, early concerns about the extent to which SCO systems provide increased opportunities for both malicious and nonmalicious forms of loss—and that these opportunities are now available to a much larger proportion of the shopper population—were
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well-founded. The current research captured this ongoing concern about the impact of SCO systems on retail losses. Two-thirds of respondents thought it was becoming more of a problem to their businesses, while only one in nine thought it was becoming less of a problem. This growing concern is likely driven by the ongoing growth in SCO system use. Numerous respondents participating in this research commented on their organizations’ aspirations to drive 80 percent or more of their transactions through SCO systems in the next few years. In addition, a generation of shoppers have now become extremely familiar with this technology, likely moving from being wary and risk-averse to seasoned and opportunity-aware users, with the archetypal self-scan defense of “I thought I had scanned it” now becoming engrained in the shopper psyche. continued on page 40
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FEATURE Controlling Self-Scan Checkout Losses
Continued from page 38
This concern was reflected in estimated amounts of store losses that may be accounted for by SCO systems. The survey found that between one-fifth and one-quarter of all store losses may now be due to SCO, with some respondents believing it could be even higher. Of course, many of the organizations investing in this technology may well have enjoyed
As with much in retailing, managing SCO effectively will be about balancing often competing priorities: improving customer service and convenience while limiting retail losses. a labor cost-reduction dividend to offset this increase in retail losses. But past savings are soon forgotten, and inflated unknown losses are likely to draw increased attention toward how these systems can be better managed and controlled to ensure that they remain a business choice that contributes positively to profitability.
Investing in Interventions Earlier ECR research reviewed the various ways in which losses from SCO systems might be better managed and controlled. This study provides a more detailed review of the different approaches that have been deployed or are in the trial/planning phase. The research clearly highlights the need for significantly different approaches depending upon the type of SCO in operation. The control toolbox for fixed SCO is quite different from the one used for scan-and-go and mobile SCO systems. It also shows how approaches are likely to change in the future. For fixed SCO now, a picture emerges of a multilayered strategy
Spring 2022
using elements of guardianship (capable SCO supervisors), technologies (weight checking, public and personal display screens), design (use of corrals, entrance and exit controls), and process (controlling the number of open checkouts). For scan-and-go and mobile SCO, the emphasis is much more on using controls at different stages in the shopper journey, primarily at the point of payment, but also focusing on the point of registration/entry to the store, while the user is selecting products, and when they are exiting the store. Presently, using some form of audit check at the point of payment, often driven by a user- selection algorithm, is the dominant strategy for these types of SCO. Looking into the near future, the data clearly points to supplementing the multilayered strategy for fixed SCO with a twin-track approach: growing the investment in a range of analyticbased technologies capable of identifying malicious and nonmalicious behavior (such as not scanning products, misscanning or switching products, switching barcodes, and repetitively scanning the same, low-value item), and investment in selecting and training SCO supervisors. For scan-and-go and mobile SCO, the data points largely toward more of the same (using audits and algorithms) and an emphasis on better guardianship to deliver this strategy. As with much in retailing, managing SCO effectively will be about balancing often competing priorities—improving customer service and convenience while limiting retail losses. Certainly, some of the emerging approaches can address this issue. Improving guardianship is a good example of something that can combine the two, as can some types of analytics that can reduce the rate of false positives, improving the checkout experience. Achieving this, however, will require both a cross-functional approach and a strong dose of organizational reality. Examining
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the impact of any business choice needs to account for not only the benefits but also the negatives that may arise. Otherwise, like many retailers currently using SCO, those tasked with managing retail losses will be constantly playing catch up. After graduating from the University of Leicester in 1988, Professor Adrian Beck worked with John Benyon and others to establish the Centre for the Study of Public Order, which became the Scarman Centre in the mid-1990s and subsequently the Department of Criminology in the early 2000s. He was head of the Department of Criminology from 2009 until 2015 and in 2017 became emeritus professor at the University of Leicester. His research sponsored by the Retail Industry Leaders Association led to the development of the Total Retail Loss concept. Beck is currently academic advisor and researcher with the ECR Retail Loss Group (ecrloss.com). He can be reached at beckbrc@gmail.co.uk.
This free report can be downloaded at the ecrloss.com website or by scanning the QR code.
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CERTIFICATION The Loss Prevention Foundation (LPF) is a leader in educating and certifying retail loss prevention and asset protection professionals by providing relevant, convenient, and challenging educational resources. The LPF is dedicated to elevating the industry through its accredited LPQualified and LPCertified courses. For more information, visit losspreventionfoundation.org.
Spotlighting Loss Prevention Certified Professionals
“This certification has definitely changed my viewpoint of loss prevention as a whole. The LPQ taught me that we can be more involved with all areas of the business to help increase sales and reduce shrink.” — Stephanie Hayes, LPQ
Mark Sliwa, LPQ ALTO
Donald J. Alexander, LPQ Under Armour
Jeremy Sutherberg, LPC Walgreens
“The LPQ course provided a strong foundation of loss prevention and leadership concepts. The detailed coursework is well-rounded and opens the door for continued education for those just getting into the LP field. The Loss Prevention Foundation offers a wealth of articles, webinars, and knowledge to help you continue to grow as a loss prevention professional.”
“The course material redefined what it means to be an LP professional. I greatly appreciated the depth of knowledge and practicality of the material. It covered the loss prevention field across different sectors that allowed me to learn how to make application of my training across different retail and supply chain environments. Achieving this certification has equipped me with the knowledge and skills necessary to reach new heights professionally. A certification from the Loss Prevention Foundation is a necessity for professional development.”
“Early on, I started seeing the LPC and LPQ courses become a requirement for a lot of LP and AP positions. I knew to be relevant in my career, I needed to pursue one of them. Choosing to become LPCertified was one of the best business decisions I have made for my career. Pairing this with my years of dedication working in the asset protection field has given me not only the knowledge, but also the skills needed to be successful at any level within this industry. Today, I feel this certification is more important than ever. Being prepared with the LPC certification helps potential employers to understand that.
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Darren Leonard, LPC Whole Foods Market
Marcus Young, LPC United Supermarkets
Stephanie Hayes, LPQ Giant
“I would highly recommend the LPC to any loss prevention professional looking to continue their personal development, regardless of their experience level. I found the course content comprehensive and incredibly informative. The end of chapter quizzes make sure your learning is validated as you progress through the course and help to make sure you are prepared for the final exam.”
“The LPC is one of our industry’s top recognized certifications because of the relevant and comprehensive content. Even though I’ve been in the industry for many years, I gained new knowledge and found it to be beneficial to my career and company. The LPF’s membership and certifications are a must to continue your self-development.”
“This certification has definitely changed my viewpoint of loss prevention as a whole. The LPQ taught me that we can be more involved with all areas of the business to help increase sales and reduce shrink. I also learned about other loss prevention jobs and how I can continue my career.”
Richard Halverson, LPC Kroger
Fernando Vallecillo, LPC Saks Fifth Avenue
“Transitioning from law enforcement to retail loss prevention is a unique and challenging process. The LPC certification expanded my knowledge of retail operations. It simultaneously showed various touchpoints that build upon my law enforcement and public safety experiences to increase my contributions and value add in LP. The LPC course is an excellent program for anyone wanting to continue to learn, grow, and enhance their professional development and career.”
“First and foremost, I would like to thank the Loss Prevention Foundation for their total devotion to sharing and detailing all their wonderful information. As a business major, I believe trust and knowledge will always go hand in hand, providing inspiration and care for our companies’ future. I would encourage anyone who’s interested or actively engaging in management or a business owner to take the course and trust the process. I promise you—it is worth it.”
“The LPC is one of our industry’s top recognized certifications because of the relevant and comprehensive content. Even though I’ve been in the industry for many years, I gained new knowledge and found it to be beneficial to my career and company.” — Marcus Young, LPC
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Chelsea Tower, LPC, ALPM, Ulta Beauty
Montaque Hall, LPQ, APS, Home Depot
Newly Certified
Rachel Trimble, LPC, LP Site Lead, Amazon
Brian Hellwig, LPQ, AP Specialist, Home Depot
Hector Velazquez, LPC, Loss Control Auditor, TJX
Lucas Jenswold, LPQ, Market AP Manager, Festival Foods
The following are individuals who recently earned their certifications.
Recent LPC Recipients
David Viverette, LPC
Philip Boyce, LPC, AP Agent, Lowe’s
Scott Vollrath, LPC, Regional AP Manager, Dollar General
Craig Butler, LPC, Assistant AP Manager, Wegmans Food Markets Rebecca Cincotta, LPC, DLPM, TJX Damon Downs, LPC, APM, Walmart Learn more about obtaining your LPC or LPQ certification today at losspreventionfoundation.org or scan the QR code.
Michael Wareham, LPC, LP Manager III, Amazon
Claire Kester, LPQ, Student, University of South Carolina Anna Lampke, LPQ, LP Associate, TJX Anoeil Lazar, LPQ, LP Associate, TJX
Racheal Whittaker, LPC, Senior Regional AP and Safety Manager, Whole Foods
Thomas McLarin, LPQ, LP Manager, TJX
Recent LPQ Recipients
Glenn Owens, LPQ, Security Supervisor, Ralph Lauren
Michaela Ferguson, LPC Troy Gallegos, LPC, MAPM, Home Depot Joe Henderson, LPC, Zone LP Manager, Purpose Financial Cameron Lotridge, LPC, Senior AP Manager, Lowe’s
Dwayne Adderley, LPQ, Security Supervisor, Abaco Markets Donald Alexander, LPQ, AP Teammate, Under Armour Andrew Ascencio, LPQ, Customer Success Specialist, ALTO Ellison Branham, LPQ, Student,
Kevin Mattox, LPC, AP Associate, Rite Aid
Kenneth Rayca, LPQ, National Account Manager, Checkpoint Systems Thomas Raymondi, LPQ, LP Associate, TJX
University of South Carolina Crystal Choate, LPQ, LP/S
Investigator, Goodwill Industries
Specialist, Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM)
David Moser, LPC, Multi-Store AP
Rachel Dantuono, LPQ, LP
Manager, Home Depot
Detective, TJX
Sungjin Park, LPC
Kelechi Ebiringah, LPQ, AP
Shawn Moore, LPC, AP
Dean Peterson, LPQ, Organized Retail Crime Investigator, Home Depot
Chester-Mar Rihn, LPQ, Customer Success Specialist, ALTO Rafael Rivera, LPQ, Security Officer, FedEx Todd Roberts, LPQ, General Manager, Staples Canada
Associate, Home Depot Alisha Racin-Torres, LPC, AP
Manager, Analytics, Ralph Lauren
Jonathan Erb, LPQ, AP Assistant
Store Manager, Walmart Latisha Rice, LPC, Senior LP Manager, Old Navy Nelson Roque, LPC, Regional LP Manager, Family Dollar Steven Sharp, LPC, SAPM, Lowe’s
Paul Faranda, LPQ, Store Manager, Five Below Branden Gilmore, LPQ, LP Manager, Army Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) Russell Guthormsen, LPQ,
John Slutz, LPC, Regional LP Manager, Family Dollar
APSM, Lowe’s Dennis Hager, LPQ, AP
Nikki Soares, LPC, District LP Manager, Albertsons
Spring 2022
Investigations Supervisor, Burlington Stores
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Eric Servais, LPQ, National Account Manager, Checkpoint Systems Serena Smith, LPQ, Associate LP Investigator, TJX Francesca Snelling, LPQ, AP Specialist, Home Depot Alexis Vola, LPQ, Student, University of South Carolina Corey Wood, LPQ, AP Specialist, Home Depot
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Professional development is key to a fulfilling career. www.LossPreventionFoundation.org
Educating an industry, one leader at a time.
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Getting Back to Business Recovery Doesn’t Happen Just Because a Crisis Ends By Garett Seivold, LPM Senior Writer
KatePilko / shutterstock.com
A
s resiliency has become an ever-increasing focus of retail organizations, the very idea of protection has transformed. Yes, store security is more important than ever—today’s threat environment demands it—but senior leaders need protection to address all nonroutine risk if it hopes to meet its goal of uninterrupted store operations. This recognition has been pushing asset protection departments into closer working relationships with other pieces in the resiliency puzzle—disaster response, risk management, health and safety, IT, and others—as well as driving coordination and information sharing with public agencies, local officials, and suppliers. Resilience (and the speed of business recovery) hinges on how well these many parts fit together in service of a retailer’s goals. A strategic foundation and stakeholder synergy are particularly important because, when it comes to getting stores back up and running after an unexpected event, “best practices” are unicorns. “There is no such thing,” said John Stagl, CBCP, a property recovery services consultant, in a World Conference on Disaster Management presentation. Best practices can guide specific aspects of program implementation, but in strategic planning, there is no best practice to follow.
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At the heart of business continuity strategy should be a company’s customers and partners; its market and services; and its budget and corporate structure—and no two organizations are alike in that regard. “Planning disciplines can’t rely on best practices. One planning process will not work for two organizations. The only thing that defines a good strategic plan is if it works,” said Stagl. One mistake, he believes, is using business impact analyses (BIAs), which focus on the operational level, as a foundation for business continuity planning. They serve an important function, but business operations move too fast, and markets shift too rapidly for a BIA to act as a reliable base, Stagl warned. A better continuity planning approach is to identify critical functions by looking outward at customers and the market and to then examine how the company services them. Business continuity plans should be developed to serve broad goals, not specific assets. In this way, a more strategic business continuity approach can emerge, one that includes issues like brand protection, something that a “things-based” approach often lacks. “Protecting the brand is already a huge part of risk management, and it also needs to be a big part of business
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FEATURE Getting Back to Business
Ann Pickren
Bill Heine
Byron Smith
Bryan Strawser
continuity,” said Jayne Howe, FBCI, MRP, CBRM, managing partner for the Howe Partnership, a consulting organization specializing in the provision of business continuity planning. Both experts advise business continuity plans to include a section on “maintaining competitiveness” that addresses broad forces such as competition, investors, regulations, and the overall economy. It should identify who are a company’s customers, what values they have, why they buy from the company, and what they want the company to deliver. Their primary point is that planning must focus on meeting customer needs in adverse conditions more than on forecasting disasters. Disasters can cause markets to change, forcing a business to adapt to new market conditions, making it more valuable to focus on supporting corporate objectives in planning than on preventing losses from adverse events. It’s a point supported in research from the University of Wisconsin on business failures in the wake of disaster events, which found no correlation between the amount of direct losses suffered in a disaster and a company going out of business. What did affect business survival? The existence of more than one business location, the effect of the disaster on customers, and business flexibility in meeting changes in consumer demand. Retailers’ flexibility shined during the pandemic, giving support to the idea that it should be the centerpiece of recovery planning. The need for it is also reflected in the disparate impact of similar weather events in recent years. Some hurricanes have resulted in retailers dealing with power but no employees, and others with employees but no power. “The place I’ve seen organizations struggle most is with the crisis within the crisis,” said Anne Pickren, chief customer officer at OnSolve, in a January webinar titled “Lessons from a Dark Day.” Secondary
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risks— power outages, school closures, labor shortages—often slow business resumption more than the event itself. True business continuity is achieving corporate goals, and these can change given market factors and the nature of the disaster, explained Stagl. In this way, “the planning is actually more important than the plan itself. It’s about getting people thinking about what is truly important and creating a framework for servicing it,” he said. “Practitioners get hung up on risk analysis, asking, ‘What is the chance that a hurricane will hit us?’ But really, who cares?” Howe asked. “Unless you’re an insurance adjuster, it’s the effect of a disaster that we need to care about, not what might cause the damage.” Business continuity needs to focus less on evaluating disaster probabilities and more on meeting corporate goals under challenging conditions regardless of the cause. “The only reason to have a business continuity plan is so when you must make a decision under stress, you’re sure to consider everything you need to consider. It’s not to spell out exact procedures to follow in every situation you might encounter.” In 2021, natural disasters caused overall losses of $280 billion, the second-costliest year ever (2017 was worse). And natural events are only one reason business recovery plans are being pressed into action, with social unrest and violence common causes of store closures. As asset protection leaders look to add value in the increasingly critical area of business recovery and operational continuity, experts suggested questions in areas they may want to focus.
How Will We Assess Damage? The role of asset protection departments in business recovery varies considerably, but a common responsibility is to help with damage assessment—step one in reopening store doors.
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“You’ve got to physically get in there to see what the damage there is, where there is and isn’t power, and whether or not you can get the doors open,” explained Brinker’s Bill Heine after Hurricane Irma in 2017. He said their timely responses in past events have been aided by advanced positioning of business continuity teams—comprised of security, facilities, HR, risk management, and operations—to the periphery of anticipated impact zones. Quick deployment of staff to impact zones is central to an effective, flexible crisis response. “Watching the event unfold on television is one thing, but nothing replaces getting boots on the ground so that you can understand the actual impact on the business—and to use that information to tell you how you should respond.” 7-Eleven approached its response in a similar fashion. The company had crisis response teams in southern Texas and, as Irma approached, loaded them up in RVs and sent them over to Florida to be able to quickly help franchisees there. Once they were allowed in, each team inspected roughly fifteen stores per day. “We were ready with boots on the ground,” said Byron J. Smith, CFI, LPC, business continuity and corporate asset protection manager. “We helped them clean up, prepare for customers, get merchandise on the shelves, and get ready to open.” One retailer added that they’ve seen the value of backup plans, as damage to infrastructure can disrupt plans for how and who will be able to get into damaged areas to conduct initial damage assessments alongside a facilities expert. Technology can also help, retailers note, with many identifying the benefit of IP camera systems that allow remote assessments of damaged store assets and inform recovery planning. And drones represent another tool in the recovery toolbox.
Are Relationships Ready? To improve his organization’s resiliency, one LP leader told LP Magazine that their strategy centers on improving its ability to proactively deploy resources to regions they’ve identified as high risk, including the Gulf Coast, the Eastern Seaboard, and the Pacific Northwest coast. In these locations, so that it can handle crisis events more efficiently, the company is prearranging contracts and agreements with vendor for services, equipment, and response personnel. It has been a central part of 7-Eleven’s ability to quickly recovery from past disasters, according to Smith. “It’s important to secure relationships so that help is just a phone call away,” he advised. Others noted value in crafting memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with entities that may be called upon during recovery efforts and in developing relationships with security contractors who may be needed to provide personnel to prevent further damage and store looting in the wake of evacuation events. Relationships also need to be assessed for their ability to withstand upheaval. “Your business is only as resilient as your third parties. And if you’re leaving them out of your business continuity and crisis management planning process, your business might not be as resilient as you think,” according to Bryghtpath Chief Executive Bryan Strawser. Because most large vendors tend to have good business continuity programs, he recommends identifying particular third-party providers whose disruption would have the most impact on your company’s operations. Emergency plans should include contact information for companies that stores may need to make properties safe, from boarding up windows to cleaning a chemical spill. The closer the partnerships are, the better off you’ll be, say experts, because in
a widespread disaster a retailer will be fighting for their services in competition with hundreds of other businesses. Staff should periodically call contractors listed in emergency plans to ensure numbers and contacts are current and to check that service contracts are active. Finally, business continuity industry leaders are increasingly stressing to organizations the need to examine business recovery within a community context, and to create a network of local relationships with first responders, utilities, community organizations, and churches. Research studies have identified networking as the most effective method of leveraging additional resources in times of scarcity and uncertainty, and supporting communities quickens the ability of marketplaces to return to normal. “Retail sector recovery processes should be integrated and aligned with the broader macro-level urban recovery process following disaster,” concludes a study by David Dyason, Peter Fieger, Girish Prayag, and C.M. Hall on efforts to revitalize the retail sector in Christchurch, New Zealand, after its major earthquake in 2011 (“The Triple Blow Effect: Retailing in an Era of Disasters and Pandemics—The Case of Christchurch, New Zealand,” Sustainability 14, no. 3).
Has Risk Changed? After a closure or evacuation, certain conditions should be met before operations at a store, distribution center, or business property can resume, making “reoccupation planning” a central component of a business resilience strategy that puts the safety of people first, say industry experts. Exactly what considerations need to be made will depend on the reason for the disruption. A riot will demand a different checklist than a tornado, for example. But more than the physical safety of the property
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may need review. While an evacuation or closure may be caused by a one-off event, it may also represent a substantive shift in risk at that location. A location’s risks may revert to normal after a period of social unrest, for example, but it’s also possible for the event to alter the area’s safety baseline. This is also true for weather-related events. An unprecedented heat wave or storm surge may indicate that the risk of future events has changed, demanding new prevention and mitigation countermeasures. It’s plain when geopolitical events disrupt operations, such as the invasion of Ukraine. There can be no expectation in such events that a prior risk assessment can be relied upon for resumption, and this type of event is expected to occur more frequently around the world because of conflict fueled by economic disparity, resurgent nationalism and populism, social fragmentation, border disputes, and scarcity of available natural resources. Experts recommend refreshing intelligence reports and risk assessments to determine what new threat conditions may exist upon returning to an evacuated site. Physical threats, hostilities, and crime may need to be reassessed, and so may more “mundane factors,” according to Michael Blyth, author of Business Continuity Management. These include a review of health risks, logistics, infrastructure, communications, and other aspects of the environment that support store operations but may have been compromised during the crisis. Blythe says reoccupation planning is an overlooked part of crisis management, overshadowed by concerns over the potential need to evacuate, but he warns that reoccupation of evacuated sites “should be at the forefront of planning.” He suggests thinking of the reoccupation process and a restart of operations “as almost a limited version of
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A better continuity planning approach is to identify critical functions by looking outward at customers and the market and to then examine how the company services them. Business continuity plans should be developed to serve broad goals, not specific assets.
FEATURE Getting Back to Business a mobilization plan” and notes several ways in which planning for reoccupying a facility can quicken the process and make it safer, including creating plans for sweeping a site for harmful materials, assessing damage or loss of materials, making needed repairs, and creating a restaffing plan that defines when different personnel will be allowed back in.
Is Planning Aligned?
Kathryn Turman
Regina Phelps
Organizations typically have both a security operation plan and a business continuity plan and identifying the points of coordination and conflict between them is important. For example, a security or operations team might write the facility evacuation plan and oversee an evacuation, but the business continuity plan and team may take over once the location is cleared. Retail organizations need to map how different plans fit together in all aspects of crisis management to make sure that they don’t conflict and that authority is clear. If companies don’t examine incident response plans against the overall business continuity plan, they risk confusion in the handling of disruptive events. Operations, human resources, loss prevention and security, health and safety, and others all have a role in business resumption, and improving how they work together can quicken a return to normal and reduce duplicating efforts. It’s something that businesses find challenging, according to a prepandemic national crisis management survey. In it, 48 percent of companies said alignment among the various resilience disciplines complicates successful crisis management leadership, and 47 percent identified clarity around roles and responsibilities as a hindrance. As noted previously in LP Magazine, the challenge of alignment is why Walgreens is a big proponent of regular “blue-sky meetings.” During relative times of calm, the company
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brings together crisis team representatives from corporate communications, supply chain, safety, and other departments to conduct planning to ensure strong coordination facilitates faster business recovery. Tabletop exercises are popular among leading retailers, with one AP leader noting that they are an excellent way to highlight the responsibilities of different crisis team members and play an important role in helping its stores to recovery quickly from a wide range of potential crises. Crisis management software can lend a helping hand by enabling companies to better orchestrate their responses across their organizations.
Will Employees Get Support They Need? Time and again, after crisis events, retailers have shown their dedication to employees, such as helping them repair their homes after a storm and administering disaster displacement assistance by coordinating housing and bringing in and distributing essentials. Unique needs can arise depending on the type of crisis, and this is especially true in cases of violence, notes the FBI Victim Services Division, which has a long history of working with state and local agencies to assist victims of mass casualty events (MCE). It says private businesses have an important role to play in these events and has been pushing them to accept responsibility to provide support in the wake of an MCE. Kathryn Turman, the department’s former assistant director, recently penned a plea in Security magazine, noting that her thirty years of experience shows private businesses plan and conduct exercises for a tactical response to an MCE but rarely have plans for assisting victims. “Caring for victims is a critically important but often overlooked aspect of the response,” she wrote in March.
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Retail organizations need a care team with a knowledgeable team leader who can effectively liaise between senior management and victims and their families, suggested Turman. Security leaders should identify available support, such as victim specialists from the nearest FBI field office, community-based victim service providers, and the mass casualty response team from the FBI Victim Services Division. Caring for victims of MCEs should be a high priority for enterprise security leaders, Turman insists. Supporting victims has never been a sufficient priority in business crisis planning, according to Gerald Lewis, PhD, a consultant and trainer who has worked with businesses on facilitating organizational recovery. “You have companies willing to spend $50 million on surveillance cameras and dedicate three days of training to people on that but won’t put resources toward helping people cope after something happens.” It reflects mistaken priorities and is also bad business, as a focus on helping people in crisis response provides “the most bang for the buck,” he said. “You have to think about people in each of the four legs of emergency management—mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery—because they are your greatest asset,” agreed Regina Phelps, president of Emergency Management & Safety Solutions. Both said business recovery plans, as commonly implemented, focus too much on getting infrastructure and IT up and running and not enough on helping employees to return to work. Companies tend to offer help to workers for the first two weeks after a major crisis event, like a workplace shooting, but then “really drop the ball,” said Lewis. The two-week mark, when most companies return to business as normal, is when people often need the most support. Sleep disturbance, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and self-medication grow more
acute, resulting in performance problems, absenteeism, and aggressive behavior that can lead to additional workplace violence, he warned. Several experts suggested companies use some form of scoring tool to assess the potential impact on personnel from a crisis event, from a criminal act to a hurricane. While scoring is necessarily subjective, they say it can be a useful exercise to rate an event’s impact on people in light of its duration, the amount of warning employees had leading into it, and the damage it caused to people’s property, utilities, roads, and other social systems.
Do Plans Put People First? No business continuity plan can succeed if it doesn’t include the human element, as employees are critical for rapid business resumption. A technology architecture that covers the restoration of operations may be the centerpiece of a plan, but other critical questions must be asked: ● In an emergency, would our security team have information about where key personnel are located? ● Have we already established a method for how to contact key personnel and their family members in the event of emergency? ● Do we have contingency plans that include backup personnel who can assume responsibilities in case an employee is not able to perform them? Post-disaster plans also need to be people-centric, and while many rely on corporate employee assistance programs (EAPs) to address the issue, these can put the burden on employees to seek help—and many don’t in the aftermath of a violent event, for example. Training of first- and second-line supervisors is important, say experts. If they understand their people, can spot when they’re
having difficulties, receive training in how to support staff, and operate under a corporate mandate that the well-being of store workers is a prerequisite for meeting organizational goals, then companies can help avert the personnel problems that can accompany crisis events. The goal of supporting workers needs to be ingrained in crisis management via disaster and workplace violence prevention plans, say experts. Plans should be designed to enable the organization to respond to traumatic security incidents in a systematic manner; demonstrate the organization’s commitment to employees and their well-being; and facilitate identification of those employees who need additional help. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health suggests that any organization’s workplace violence policy is incomplete unless it addresses the following people-centric recovery elements: 1. Specific procedures, including each person’s responsibilities in the event of a violent incident. 2. How the response team is to be assembled and who is responsible for the immediate care of the victim(s). 3. How to carry out stress debriefing sessions with the victim(s). 4. Procedures for conducting stress debriefing for coworkers, victims, and coworkers’ families. The stakes are high, warns Noreen Tehrani, a UK researcher and author of Supporting Distressed Employees: How to Survive the Disaster. Failing to effectively respond to incidents that cause employees stress—such as workplace violence, an armed robbery, or natural disaster—deepen an event’s impact and can harm the effectiveness of future security awareness and training programs. To support a retailer’s long-term security interests, studies suggest that trauma services must be effective at all stages: crisis
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Reoccupation Planning Process Situation Stabilized • Intelligence review • Risk assessment and contingency plan • Advanced teams identified • Staged reoccupation planned • Stage work plans established • Possible re-avacuation requirements
Reoccupation Starts • Intelligence review • Risk assessment and contingency plan • Security sweeps of facility • Liason with local agencies/officials • Repairs to facility and recruitment • Work plans confirmed
Reoccupation Finalized • Intelligence review • Risk assessment and contingency plan • Additional security required to remain • Revalidation of evacuation plans
Business Recovery Source: Business Continuity Management by Michael Blyth
management and diffusing; first-line debriefing; psychological debriefing; trauma counseling; and auditing and evaluation. Key elements of an effective trauma response may include: ● Providing information and offering counseling services to employees and their families. ● Providing a debriefing twenty-four to seventy-two hours after a serious incident of violence to all affected employees so that the cause of the violence and expectations can be discussed, a plan of action can be addressed, and those needing further counseling can be identified. ● Allowing employees to take a liberal leave of absence.
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FEATURE Getting Back to Business Offering counseling for employees not directly involved in the incident. ● Providing a group debriefing for immediate coworkers in how to communicate with the victim or coworker who is reentering the job after absence. ● Providing ongoing follow-up treatment, as needed. Tehrani’s research suggests five areas in which a retailer should ask questions to assess the effectiveness of its trauma response program: 1. Organizational appropriateness of the program. Does the program meet the needs of the organization? 2. Level of satisfaction by users of the program. How do users rate your trauma response program? Would they use the service again? Would they recommend it to a colleague? 3. Reduction in sick days and medical retirements. Did the program effectively minimize the days off taken by workers in the wake of an incident? What was the financial benefit? 4. Quality of the training and education. How useful was training? How informative did users find the educational materials? 5. Quality of the professional support for employees and managers. What was the quality of the professional support? How did employees regard their skills? Did the service meet agreed service standards? ●
The role of asset protection departments in business recovery varies considerably, but a common responsibility is to help with damage assessment—step one in reopening store doors.
What Do Retailers Do to Enhance Business Recovery? Interviews with LP leaders and business continuity consultants elicited the following advice. Allow for Employee Input. When employees think their unique needs have been considered, they are more likely to follow instructions regarding resumption of store or other operations. Have More than a Plan. One engagement manager for a
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recovery services firm was harsh in his assessment of the average company’s business continuity plan: “There are companies that think they can take an individual out of the mailroom, send them to a conference, and tell them to write a business continuity plan.” A viable business continuity program requires more than a plan, he warned. It requires a team, complete with a charter, and led by an individual with industry and business continuity experience. Track Trouble. Several asset protection managers said they’ve become adept at preparing for and recovering from storm events, and technology that allows them to map assets against approaching storms has been a valuable tool for quickening their recovery. Write Specific Recovery Plans. Security teams need different plans to address distinct security events, such as a data breach or active shooter. Plans will outline prevention and mitigation, and they also should cover the fine points of failure, in other words how the organization will respond if an event occurs. C. David Shepherd, CEO at Readiness Resource Group, says the “recovery” section of individual security plans is often woefully thin. “A specific recovery plan for an active shooter is required. The recovery portion of a BCP [business continuity plan] is not enough.” He explained that active-shooter events raise too many unique questions that a general plan won’t address and that a company will not want to answer on the fly. “Would you let victims of a family see where a loved one was shot? How would you deal with people’s fear and quitting? You should get together with legal counsel and [other appropriate team players] and answer such questions now,” he said. Conduct Postmortems. One LP leader said his team always picks apart its response to disasters to identify what they can do differently next time to improve
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the speed of resuming operations. “We ask our teams: Did you feel prepared? What can we do better? How was the quality of the communication? Was the amount of information appropriate, or were you inundated?” Matt Bradley, vice president global security solutions at OnSolve stressed a similar point: “Lessons are hard to learn if you don’t document them,” he said. Build Trust. A deep well of credibility and goodwill is something that retailers need to be able to tap to quickly resume operations. Workers need to sense that the company is ready to handle the event and has their interests at heart, which is not something that a retailer can build once a storm is already on the radar. Examine Power Solutions. One AP leader said the experience in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Irma, where entire parts of the grid remained down for months, caused the company to investigate options for alternative power generation to support store operations and run registers. Track Performance. Operational metrics are helpful to understand and report on the progress of the business continuity life cycle and should include tracking when there is a disruption, said Strawser during his company’s Managing Uncertainty podcast in March. “You need to find some metrics that will resonate with your board and your C-suite. I use the example of our work for a large retailer: one of the things that we were able to show from a crisis management perspective is that we could reopen more quickly than our competition.”.
Garett Seivold is senior writer for LP Magazine. A trained journalist, he has spent the majority of his career writing about security, risk management, supply chain, and loss prevention topics. He can be reached at GarettS@LPportal.com.
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RETAIL COMMUNITY Stefanie Hoover, CFI Hoover is the AVP of strategic accounts and business development at ALTO USA. She is a member of the ASIS Retail Council and IAI Midwest Chapter Executive Board, and has over twenty years’ experience in retail loss prevention. She can be reached at shoover@alto-us.com.
Incident Reporting One Key Element of Shrink Reduction
A the worsening problem of
s retailers struggle to combat
Ray Adams
Getting to the root of the problem in a community not only helps to reduce crime in stores, but also helps to create meaningful change that can impact a greater group of people.
shrink and theft, they’re also engaged in battle on another front—getting store employees to file incident reports. All too often, we hear that stores have given up reporting, and police state that without incident reporting, they cannot take action. It’s a vicious cycle. Retailers have invested in incident- reporting technology over the years but are finding that it does not completely solve the underlying problem: store employees don’t report theft when it happens. Yes, improper training plays a role. Additional factors include low employee morale and feeling like “nothing will come of it” when they do report theft to retailers and local law enforcement. This happens when there are rarely enough follow-up actions or consequences on theft due to resources or legal constraints within the judicial system. The longer store employees bear the direct burden of crime and theft coupled with a lack of action, the less they feel compelled to report incidents.
Better Incident Reporting Starts with Proper Training Encouraging incident reporting among store employees starts with proper training and continuous support and education. Training in-store employees on the basics is
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imperative, including what to look out for, what theft can look like in its various forms, and most importantly, how to stay safe when crime is happening. Regular reminders and safety training can help keep this information top-of-mind for employees. Next, retailers must train and retrain employees on how to report an incident quickly and accurately when it happens. Walking through the incident- reporting process on the store’s case management platform on a regular basis ensures quicker, easier, and more complete reporting.
Create a Follow-up Process to Ensure Success As my colleague Ray Adams, COO of ALTO USA, frequently talks about, the best way to reinforce incident reporting is to ensure action is taken once an incident is reported. The key is creating a system that unites staff, community, and law enforcement. And Adams agrees: “Getting to the root of the problem in a community not only helps to reduce crime in stores, but also helps to create meaningful change that can impact a greater group of people.” An example of this process in action is the ALTO Alliance, a team of in-store customer success specialists (CSSs) who partner with retailers and employees to provide boots -on- the-ground support through in-depth
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training and, more importantly, relationship building. CSSs foster trust and build relationships with employees as well as local law enforcement by holding in-store meetings with lead officers and highlighting store problems. From there, they work with attorneys to ensure shoplifters get charged, evidence gets collected, and people get prosecuted. This process, starting with timely reporting by employees and ending with concrete legal action and support from law enforcement, is the key to bolstering your incidentreporting program and ensuring it is successful.
The Key Is Building Trust We have seen this play out too many times—theft and lack of reporting on an endless loop. But there are two realities: one in which this continues and one in which communities come together to close the loop. We can’t expect to reduce crime and shrink in stores without the proper training and support for our frontline retail workers. At ALTO, we believe that human connection and community can make the most direct impact. And we have found that the support, encouragement, and training of our in-person specialists bolsters morale, strengthens in-store relationships, and increases complete incident reporting by our employees.
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Leveraging Situational Crime Prevention to Combat Retail Crime and Loss By Read Hayes, PhD Pat is ringing up a customer at the point of sale, engaging in a little friendly banter with a regular customer. Suddenly, three males burst into the store wearing masks and wielding a handgun and two long guns. They’re screaming for everyone to get on the ground. But one of the men then yells at Pat to get back up and open and empty all the registers’ contents into a well-worn shopping bag.
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hile this scenario isn’t common, it is happening across the nation. It creates lifelong trauma for those in the store at the time of the event, may cause those victims and others to avoid that spot in the future, and can even negatively affect employees across the enterprise. We won’t even get into the financial harm crimes create for stores, companies, and communities.
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Divert, Deter, Detect, Disrupt, Document for Action It’s got to start somewhere. And when it comes to preventing crime and loss, it starts with the individual offender—the “bad guy.” Offenders are creating our crime and loss problems. They’re the ones victimizing others and places. They’re making the decision to harm. And offenders are the key to crime prevention. After all, it’s them we’re trying to deter. Asset protection and loss prevention aren’t just terms, they’re what we’re supposed to be doing—supporting our organizations by preventing incidents and reducing negative impact. And to reduce crime events, we
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FEATURE
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Situational Crime Prevention to Combat Retail Crime and Loss
need to reduce crime attempts. That means creating deterrence, which means, of course, convincing the bad guys not to initiate or progress a crime on our property. The teams at the Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC) and the University of Florida (UF) are focused on refining and measuring deterrence measures using surveys, in-depth offender field interviews, store walk-throughs, crime-event video footage review, and rigorous field experiments. We’re working with over seventy leading retailers and eighty-five solution partners to find what really works, what doesn’t, and, just as critically, how to deploy and execute countermeasures. It’s really about how we do something, not what we do. Reviewing video, case reports, and witness interviews, for example, helps us better Spring 2022
understand intricate crime incident details to identify sensor- and action-tool aiming points or targets. When we measure how a new or adjusted intervention performs in reducing events and crime harm, we typically find good outcomes due to our upfront precision aiming and dosing efforts. Many retailers have found a big difference between a security measure that (1) looks like it’s probably working, (2) is definitely working, and finally (3) is working well enough to provide a good return on investment. More and more retail chief executive and chief financial officers expect number three, and this high hurdle can be difficult to achieve in all but the worst crime locations blessed with the best place managers. So research and development activities continue as crime problems rapidly evolve, geospatially and tactically.
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Science and Strategy Many professions today are largely driven by good science. Medicine, agriculture, business, law enforcement, teaching, and construction, to name a few, use explanatory theories and empirical data to inform their processes and decisions. Loss prevention also continues to incorporate evidence-based decision-making. In fact, criminological theory and research is becoming one of the more developed scholarly areas. A key part of the criminology literature is deterrence. Deterrence means convincing would-be offenders to abandon thoughts of harming someone or launching an actual crime attempt—a tough thing to do, but what loss prevention professionals must be adept at doing. Loss prevention and asset protection executives are their companies’ crime and loss control experts. That means being deterrence experts.
Frameworks or Theory Tools Crime theory doesn’t just imply academic pondering. Good theory means a thorough understanding of a problem, so cost-effective solutions can be precisely applied. It’s tough to prevent a heart attack if we don’t understand how they occur. Research-based medical theory predicts how heart attacks take place, as well as how to prevent and recover from them. Likewise, science can help LP managers with their missions by continually building practical tools using rigorous field research and development. Deterrence theory tools are critically important since good theory explains in detail how retail crime takes place. They also explain how loss prevention methods disrupt or degrade crime and criminals. For example, routine activity theory predicts crime events based on the dynamics of likely offenders coming into contact with desirable and poorly guarded assets across an individual’s activity space (Cohen and Felson, 1979; Felson, 1996; Felson, 2002). Social learning, rational choice, planned behavior, and control theories explain why individual offenders are motivated and commit deviant acts (Akers, 1998; Cornish and Clarke, 1986; Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990; Tonglet, 2002).
It’s the Opportunity Situational crime prevention (SCP) and theft triangle theories build on these macro and micro theories by explaining why assets are contextually desirable and vulnerable. These user-friendly concepts provide practical guidance to asset protection executives on using crime and criminality theories to impact their specific crime and loss problems (Clarke, 1997; 1999; Hayes,
1993; 1997a). Situational crime prevention, for example, describes twenty-five crime-reducing tactics to reduce an offender’s motives, will, opportunities, and perceived low risk of detection (Clarke and Eck, 2003). Similarly, the theft triangle provides direction on reducing offender motives and opportunities while increasing their perceived risk of detection in different environments using people, processes, and systems delivered in zones of influence (Hayes, 1997a).
It’s All Relative A critical bridge stands between applying situational protective measures and reducing crime attempts. Like modern medicine that is rapidly moving to the molecular level to provide greater prevention and treatment, we should examine a deeper crime prevention concept—crime control impact is often highly conditional. Offender background factors like peer influences, life experience, and even current mood—as well as the design and ongoing execution of crime control measures—affect crime-event outcomes (Piquero and Pogarsky, 2002; Pogarsky, 2002). For example, a basic tenant of deterrence says that those to be deterred should: 1. See or otherwise know about the protective cues we deploy, such as CCTV domes in the ceiling. 2. Understand how this cue will directly affect them. CCTV domes mean their crime attempt will be detected through monitoring of video images, for example. 3. Believe they will be detected and detained as advertised. The cue must be credible and immediate to them. LPM
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4. Be concerned enough about possible consequences to alter their plans or behaviors (Hayes, 1997a). To capitalize on this premise, researchers and practitioners need more data on protective methods to boost awareness and understanding of deployed asset protection cues, as well as how to improve their credibility. This is why LPRC and UF researchers spend so much quality time “in the wild” with current or recent offenders, to get their take on all the above for a given problem.
Deterrence means convincing would-be offenders to abandon thoughts of harming someone or launching an actual crime attempt—a tough thing to do but what loss prevention professionals must be adept at doing. Deterrence Primer This article started by stating the primacy of deterrence for LP professionals. LP people apply deterrence cues to disrupt and displace criminals. Two basic types of deterrence are: ● General deterrence or convincing individuals not to deviate before they do. Cues, like alert staff, convey a message that essentially says, “Don’t even try to steal that item because I’ll see and report you.” ● Specific deterrence or convincing prior offenders not to reoffend. Hopefully, a person who previously stole from us was detected, and whatever happened from that point convinces them not to try again. Spring 2022
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Deterrence factors include: Certainty of detection, apprehension, and punishment. To deter someone, they really must be convinced that our protective cues are a clear and present threat to them. Severity of consequences. It is also imperative that potential offenders be convinced that detection will result in serious problems for them. Sanctions can be formal (governmental or organizational) and informal (personal embarrassment or guilt) and include other risks stemming from victim defenses, such as injury or detention. The celerity or swiftness of the detection and consequence process. Many offenders tend to be short-term oriented, so whatever’s going to happen needs to happen quickly, not months or years down the road.
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Deterrence is often conditional because people commit crimes partly based on and considering: ● Foreground factors, meaning the condition, atmosphere, and protective cues that exist naturally or that we deploy in our stores and other properties, including lines of sight, lighting, people, and technologies. ● Background factors, meaning what offenders “bring to the party,” including their mental capacity, current mood, needs, wants, experiences, and beliefs. Offenders are encapsulated in their own psychosociological worlds. Like many of us, they continually pursue their own comfort and pleasure. They also have beliefs and moods, such as anger, that affect what they perceive and, most importantly, how they react to our cues. Deterrence is also highly situational since it is: ● Time dependent. Seeing or Spring 2022
hearing about a credible, protective threat within moments or days is more likely to deter someone than something observed or heard months earlier. Contextually dependent. The effect of our cues is situational. Deterrence results from a snap decision by a human. They wanted to do something bad, but something or some things we did convinced them not to attempt a crime. “Some things” is probably more often the catalyst than something. A combination of alert, active employees, good store layout (clear lines of sight, good lighting, and so forth), well-designed fixtures, improved packaging, and technologies tip the steal or don’t steal decision in our favor more often than a single effort. Space dependent. Specific cues at and around a crime target are more likely to influence offender behavior. In other words, proximate or nearby cues such as active employees and a large CCTV public view monitor or dome with a motion-activated flashing light and sound should prove more impressive to would-be thieves than a more distal threat, such as stiffer criminal sentencing laws.
Taking Action Numerous retailers report that despite extensively deploying LP staff and technologies, they still catch a lot of thieves and experience tremendous losses. We can do better. Although retailers sell other people’s products through a variety of channels, the action is still centered around offices, distribution centers, and physical stores. LP professionals should help store and facility managers better control these mission-critical
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spaces. The company cannot meet or beat its goals if sales and support places aren’t safe and secure. And adequate safety and security is a function of the quantity and quality of LP effort in each space. LP professionals should be experts in supporting their company’s goals by providing field-tested deterrence processes to busy place managers. Since LP exists to support the organization’s operating goals by providing safety and security initiatives and results, LP managers also need to clearly understand their organization’s flow of merchandise, data, and money, as well as national and local cultures and practices. They need to know how things are supposed to work as well as how they actually work when no light is shining on them. This information comes from walking and mapping supply chain activity, as well as talking to and surveying field staff. Armed with clear understanding of corporate strategy objectives, knowledge of current operating practices, infrastructure and manager and employee attitudes, and current crime and loss problem dynamics (who, what, when, where, why, and how), asset protection leaders can construct their evidence-based loss prevention programs. Issues like employee and customer safety, fraud, and theft are then defined and prioritized for action based on likelihood and downside risk.
Putting It All into Play in Concentric Zones Research shows that we can make a difference. We can’t affect an offender’s home life, peers, genomics, or other background factors, but we can shape our physical environments. A critical hypothesis is that crime attempts drop in part due to changes in
Zones of Influence in situational crime prevention in which interventions can be done to deter bad actors (red color) and encourage safe behaviors by good actors (green color), leveraging collected information and built environment adaptions.
the level and quality of situational crime-reduction efforts (Farrell et al. 2008, 2011). According to situational crime prevention studies, crime is the result of an interaction between an offender’s intent or disposition, opportunities, and the immediate situation (Eck, 2019).
Interventions and adaptations based on analytics Zone 5 Cyber/ Public
Zone 4 Parking Lot
Zone 3 Entry/ Interior
Zone 2 Proximate Area
Data collection and information extraction
Offenders choose to commit crimes based on their perceptions of available, desirable target opportunities (e.g., Felson, 1987). Consequently, situational and built environmental factors can either stimulate or suppress crime, so addressing these structures is paramount. SCP provides a
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posited framework and action options designed to influence offender decisions by shaping the environment to create a formidable impression of control (Clarke, 2010). SCP options include reducing potential crime benefits, increasing apparent effort, and increasing the
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Zone 1 Point/ Target
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perceived likelihood of serious consequences for offenders contemplating victimizing another person or a place (Clarke and Eck, 2007; Freilich, et al., 2017). Significantly, SCP also focuses on very specific categories of crime or disorder, especially where crime concentrates. Understanding how, when, where, and why crimes are most frequently committed and how offenders find and attack victims in these places is critically important to SCP.
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Situational Crime Prevention to Combat Retail Crime and Loss
A critical bridge stands between applying situational protective measures and reducing crime attempts. Like modern medicine that is rapidly moving to the molecular level to provide greater prevention and treatment, we should examine a deeper crime prevention concept: crime control impact is often highly conditional. To maximize protective success, SCP efforts should be implemented three dimensionally along the criminal offender’s likely approach, attack, and post-event pathways in concentric “zones Spring 2022
of influence” (Hayes, 1997). As part of this SCP process, place managers can determine the signals an offender emanates at stages or points along their crime journey and include appropriate sensors designed to pick up meaningful visual, aural, and digital signatures that might provide earlier and more accurate warnings and definitions to situationally protect place users. The more data on offender intention and action is gathered, the more precise preventive measures can be. Sensor data can also help assess countermeasure reach and effectiveness. The zones-of-influence model proposes five primary areas to both detect and influence behavior prior to entering a place, while on-site, and after the visit. The areas work outward from the crime target (whether a person, cash, store merchandise, or other), starting with zone 1 as the target. The zone 2 or proximate area around a target provides the opportunity to gather immediate offender and action data, and possibly influence an offender not to progress their crime with specific crime-reduction measures or by priming or alerting a potential victim to enhance protective action at or on the actual target (zone 1). Zone 3 is the entry or exit to a place as well as the interior space at large. Place managers can leverage technologies or people to sense approaching offenders or at least attempt to create a credible impression of capable guardianship via, for example, signage, electronic tag antenna pedestals, and large screens with onboard CCTV cameras. Place workers can be directed to certain areas to observe or engage as
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appropriate to deter and disrupt an offender’s activities. A critical spatial zone that practitioners leverage is known as zone 4 or the surrounding parking area. Highly visible sensors and protective devices placed in the parking lot can collect data around approaching threats and possibly deter approaching offenders by creating more realistic downside risk concerns. Zone 4 protective measures are designed to deter those contemplating harming others, but these prevention efforts may also comfort the legitimate place user or “green shopper or employee” as they feel safer and more inclined to return there to work, shop, or otherwise enjoy the protected place and space. Just as importantly, place managers have the ability to detect and define possible threats and maybe even deter or disrupt them beyond the parking lot in the built, social, and digital world of zone 5. Increasingly, retailers are deploying a variety of monitoring devices (such as cameras), surveillance systems, and controllable devices (such as lighting and sound-alert systems) for situational crime prevention. In this context, we are interested in studying what we call “SaferPlaces,” which we define as places (such as a retailer location) where observational data are gathered, followed by data analysis and decisions on how to manage the built environment and/or trigger interventions to change behaviors and protect people and property.
Framework to Action After the heavy protective-process discussion, let’s go back to the armed robbery nightmare described at the continued on page 64
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FEATURE Situational Crime Prevention to Combat Retail Crime and Loss
Continued from page 62
beginning. How could we leverage the zones of influence to reduce the likelihood their store is robbed? The following list is not all-inclusive but should be considered for thoughtful program development as you plan and grow your asset
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Offenders are encapsulated in their own psychosociological worlds. Like many of us, they continually pursue their own comfort and pleasure. They also have beliefs and moods, such as anger, that affect what they perceive and, most importantly, how they react to our cues. protection program and specific problem-solving efforts: ● Prior commercial robbery research indicates that many robbers first consider the “size of the prize,” so we strive to reduce the amount of accessible cash as much as possible and at all times since many robberies occur during daylight business hours. Many retailers use frequent cash pickups, secure cash-dump
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safes, and time-delay safes combined with highly visible zone 1 (on the protective container), zone 2 (near the cash retainer), and zone 3 (on store entry and exits) signage advertising low or no-cash access situations to reduce crime incentives. Safe opening might also include sounds and lighting changes. All employees should periodically receive robbery or other forceful-crime prevention and response training, so they reduce cash or pharmaceutical levels and have ready access to reinforce zones 1 and 2 protective action. Training should also help them learn to reduce possible behavioral “triggers” that an offender might perceive causing them to escalate violence. Zone 2 might also have cashcontainer lighting that increases in intensity when an individual approaches it or loiters near it. Having the cash area highly visible to others outside the building might also help deter offenders. Most offenders don’t want to appear on stage while victimizing others and would rather control the situation and get away with their crime. Visible and covert cameras might also be placed in the cash area and on entry and exit points to record inbound and outbound individuals, perhaps before or after masking. Again, we might prime camera effectiveness with visible signage in zones 3, 2, and 1. If placed or viewable from zone 4, competent and capableappearing off-duty law enforcement or other guards may deter some robbers before they enter the location. Creating a more secure parking area (zone 4) with fewer curb cuts or vehicle-entry points can slow post-theft escape. Similarly,
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higher fencing and other barriers like hedges and walls make pedestrian escape more difficult and time-consuming, exposing the offender to increased apprehension risk. ● LP analysts should collect geo and temporal data, including all event, environmental, and offender characteristics across the zones to understand robbery dynamics for better protection and problem-solving. ● Social media, blogs, and other online platforms can be used to detect, identify, and share offenders and crews in zone 5 before or after they strike. Similarly, traditional and social media outlets in zone 5 can be used to help identify offenders and alert others. ● LP practitioners should coordinate with each other across chains and law enforcement partners to identify patterns, offenders/ crews, and multizone protective program results. Using a framework like situational crime prevention and its processes to stand up, test, refine, and deploy across all zones of influence can help plan, sell, and measure outcomes. The LPRC team suggests that your asset protection team look into SCP and train your team to leverage it along with asking a ton of why and why not questions using great critical-thinking skills. Please send your comments, questions, and suggestions to operations@lpresearch.org.
Dr. Read Hayes is director of the Loss Prevention Research Council and coordinator of the Loss Prevention Research Team at the University of Florida. He can be reached at 321‑303‑6193 or via email at rhayes@lpresearch.org.
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ASK THE EXPERT Interview with Brad Campbell Campbell is dedicated to his lifelong commitment to protecting people and property. His specialized knowledge comes from many years of experience in the security glass and films industries. His company Riot Glass is hired to conduct security upgrades by government agencies, entertainment facilities, schools, celebrity homes, and private institutions. His company’s strict privacy protocols and employee training give clients confidence that their constituents’ facilities will receive high-quality security consulting, materials, and installation labor, conducted with professionalism and discretion.
Four Tips for Choosing Storefront Security Glazing S
ecurity glass comes in many forms, so determining which one is best for your storefront(s) requires a clear understanding of the options. There is no one size-fits-all solution. This article will help you think through the four most common factors retailers face when making a decision of this magnitude. 1. Is it imperative the glass security product be invisible to patrons?
2. What is the anticipated threat level? 3. What are the size limitations of the security glass?
4. What budget is required for an effective smash-and-grab prevention strategy?
Thicker and heavier is not always the best solution. Many security-glass types are designed for both forced entry and bullet resistance and are generally quite bulky and heavy. Other lighter materials are virtually unbreakable and, while not bullet resistant, can prevent very heavy attacks for several minutes.
How can retailers prevent smash-and-grab crime while maintaining a clear view in? Choosing the wrong window security can diminish the open, inviting look of retail locations, but there doesn’t need to be a compromise to have effective glass security. Recent technological advancements in security glazing allow retailers to protect storefronts with unbreakable retrofit security-glazing shields from Riot Glass Inc. that can be mounted in front of existing glass to protect it from breakage in a forced-entry attack. Not only will you prevent entry, but also in many cases the primary glazing is not damaged in any way. This prevents the expense of emergency board-up service, long glass lead times, and a less than optimal storefront appearance while waiting for the replacement glass to be installed. Access-denial glazing
shields are virtually invisible while providing protection similar to a board up.
How can retailers determine glass strength requirements? Threat-level assessment is not an exact science, but you can use historical data and crime statistics for a given location to formulate the nature of a likely attack. What is the nature of most crimes in the area—a broken window from thrown rocks, or crimes involving multiple attackers using heavy tools? What is the average police response time for a burglary alarm? In today’s unpredictable environment, even previously low-crime neighborhoods are seeing brazen smash-and-grab crimes, so some retailers are adding increased glass protection to all stores. The highest-level protection is chosen for locations with a track record for continual break-in attempts. If there are concerns about vagrants vandalizing the glass, an anti-graffiti or security window-film solution can be effective, but if there is a history of crimes involving multiple attackers using heavy tools such as sledgehammers, the security glazing and framing will need to endure extreme punishment for a prolonged period. Thicker and heavier is not always the best solution. Many security-glass types are designed for both forced entry and bullet resistance and are generally quite bulky and heavy. Other lighter materials are virtually unbreakable and, while not bullet resistant, can prevent very heavy attacks for several minutes. Discussing your anticipated threats
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with a professional security-specific glazing contractor is an effective way to determine the needed security-glass system.
What are the size limitations for security glass? Forced-entry and bullet-resistant security panels that are made with or reinforced by polycarbonates or other impact-resistant laminates are generally limited in size due to the complex laminating process. The largest security-glass size is typically 72 by 120 inches. Recent breakthroughs in technology enable security glass manufacturers to span much larger openings by seamlessly connecting security panels to form a formidable barrier to entry without compromising appearance.
Let’s talk budget. One of the most cost-effective storefront security solutions is our retrofit ArmorPlast® product, which acts as an “invisible board up.” ArmorPlast is installed with our patented framing and military-grade polycarbonates and acts as an invisible, unbreakable shield that blends seamlessly into your existing storefront, repelling burglars and smash-and-grab mobs, even multiple attackers with heavy tools for a prolonged period of time. Retrofitting an entire storefront can cost about the same as a single board up. Glazing shields are always in place, so you are protected around the clock, year-round.
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Interview with Ned McCauley McCauley is a well-known technology innovator in the retail industry. He has more than twenty years of experience in Sensormatic’s retail business, where he has focused on go-to-market strategy and helping drive the adoption of EAS, video, and RFID technology. McCauley is always one step ahead and understands how to accelerate growth. Prior to joining Sensormatic, he was a senior leader in a successful start-up, earning Inc. Magazine’s award for the fastest-growing private companies. McCauley was recently appointed to the board of directors for the Loss Prevention Foundation..
The State of Loss Prevention o get a better look at how loss prevention is responding to the current moment—and how it can expect to adapt in the future—we spoke with Sensormatic’s Ned McCauley to get his perspective.
T
That’s key when we think about loss prevention. On one side, you’re helping reduce exposure to margin compression. On the other side, you can help drive sales by having proactive indicators around out-of-stocks.
What is the most consistent pain point you’ve heard from those in LP recently?
How do you see loss prevention evolving over the next ten years?
Organized retail crime (ORC) comes up in every conversation I have with asset protection leaders. We know that this problem has grown incrementally year over year, and this has occurred alongside the explosion of e-commerce. So for retailers, the good news may be that the business is growing. The bad news is that the digital marketplace also provides the opportunity to fence merchandise stolen from physical stores.
Loss prevention and asset protection folks have been asked to play many roles over the past few years. Whereas loss prevention has traditionally focused on the business problem of shrink, more recently I’ve seen increased focus on what I would call life-safety issues, brought about in large part by the pandemic and a rise in violent crime. These issues have introduced a need to keep shoppers and associates safe through compliance, social distancing, temperature checks, and the like, but have fallen under the umbrella of loss prevention. How do you protect associates? How do you protect shoppers? How do you protect the brand? These questions have become front and center for the loss prevention community. I think this is an area in which they will continue to invest, evolve, and become more relevant across the overall retail operation.
Who do you think is on another level when it comes to their loss prevention strategy? I think that there are a lot of great leaders in the AP business, and Macy’s, which has been a great account of Sensormatic Solutions for a long time, is one of them. They have been on the cutting edge of advanced technology because they’ve been able to leverage the smart-sensor footprint that has come forward with RFID. Additionally, the strategic omnichannel practices they’ve put in place have enabled the Macy’s team to leverage smart exits in a way that not only drives down shrink, but also informs buyers and merchants of out-of-stocks.
How has shrink integrated into more areas of a retailer’s business? And what is the impact on the retail C-suite? The growing challenge of shrink has a number of drivers. We know there’s a spike in violent crime. And we know that
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various states have changed some laws to increase the threshold for what constitutes a felony; therefore, that deterrence isn’t what it used to be. On top of that, there is the front‑end transformation many retailers have undergone. Increased utilization of self- checkout, assisted checkout, and various omnichannel processes—like buy-online, pick-up in-store (BOPIS) and buy-online, pick-up at curbside (BOPAC)—means the line is now fuzzy. There is not the impression of control that retailers have relied on for many years. In other words, shrink has increased not only because society has changed, but also because the impressions of control have disappeared. And that creates larger leakage points and higher shrink rates. Therefore, you have the need for more advanced technology, more strategic thinking, and for the loss prevention community to deal with it. Loss prevention executives are now brought into more conversations, not only because margins decline as shrink grows, but also because, as customer experience rises to the top of everyone’s priority list, there are tradeoffs to manage. How do you manage customers so that their experience delights them? At the same time, how do you protect them and reduce shrink? Those tradeoffs are difficult things to square, so many loss prevention executives today are brought into those conversations that they perhaps weren’t in the past.
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Whereas loss prevention has traditionally focused on the business problem of shrink, more recently I’ve seen increased focus on what I would call life‑safety issues, brought about in large part by the pandemic and a rise in violent crime.
Retail Council of Canada Leveraging Collaboration between Retailers, Police, and the Crown By Jack Trlica, LPM Editor-in-Chief EDITOR’S NOTE: Rui Rodrigues is executive advisor on loss prevention and risk management for Retail Council of Canada based in Toronto. He can be reached at rrodrigues@retailcouncil.org.
RUI: I’ve been in LP in Canada for about thirty years. I started as an LP officer and investigator on the floor at a department store called Eaton’s. I have also worked with Hudson Bay Company, Best Buy, and Staples. At Best Buy, Staples, and most recently at Holt Renfrew, I had the chance to lead their programs. I’ve been in the industry quite some time, took on different roles throughout, wanted to learn and be a well-rounded retailer with expertise in loss prevention and risk management. I worked in stores, in district roles, but also looked after supply chain, health and safety, and risk management, really to learn as much as I could and focus on the areas where losses could occur in an organization.
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JACK: Before we discuss RCC and the LP industry in Canada, give us a brief summary of your professional background.
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FEATURE Retail Council Of Canada JACK: How long have you been associated with RCC?
RCC is all about serving and advocating for retail, doing the heavy lifting that’s needed for members, whether it’s advocating with government, police, the crown, you name it. They’re very good at doing that.
RUI: I’ve been involved with Retail Council of Canada as a member for eighteen years. I’m very passionate about our industry as are many of my colleagues in Canada. I have also worked with my colleagues in the US, whether it’s through NRF, RILA, or through the parent companies of Best Buy and Staples. I recognize where we have a lot of similarities and where we have some key differences. Recently I joined RCC as an advisor. I am a consultant now, and they are a permanent client, which gives me the opportunity to continue to do what I’m so passionate about in a manner where I can actually work with many retailers to support our common objectives.
“What’s RCC doing for us?” I’m a big advocate of asking, “What are we doing for ourselves?” RCC is there to help, but as retailers, we have to come together with a common ideology of what needs to be done, and then leverage RCC to do that. I believe RCC is extremely strong at facilitating the conversations, narrowing in on a common focus, and then helping identify what we are going to do. What is the activity that needs to happen? It’s always keeping the retailer front-of-mind and involved through that process, and then reaching out to the relevant parties that need to help, whether it’s government or police agencies—being that common glue that brings us together, keeps us together, and keeps driving that agenda forward.
JACK: Tell us a bit more about the broad mission of Retail Council of Canada.
JACK: What are some RCC programs that are in place specifically to support LP, asset protection, and risk management?
RUI: Obviously it’s an association set up to support its retail members. It also believes in creating information that can benefit others who are not members. RCC is all about serving and advocating for retail, doing the heavy lifting that’s needed for members, whether it’s advocating with government, police, the crown, you name it. They’re very good at doing that. Specifically in the loss prevention and risk space, it’s really about gathering our leaders together to talk through common issues, common concerns, and coming to the table to work together, sharing information and best practices where we can. Most critical is getting things done. I’ve been on the member side for a long time where it’s easy to say,
RUI: We have some common recurring events. We have a Loss Prevention Forum or Conference every year that allows everybody to gather, share, network, and learn, and it facilitates the discussion with our peers and vendor partners. However, those one- or two-day events are not enough. RCC has facilitated other gatherings such as webinars, to triage information from the teams about their concerns, what’s bothering them, what they need help with, and then working on activities to deliver content back to the members. We also have a Loss Prevention Community Hub on the RCC website that has several really useful resources for retailers on helping to protect people, profit, and assets at retail. It’s a great resource to bookmark:
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retailcouncil.org/community/ loss-prevention/. One thing I’m very proud of over the last year is getting an advisory committee together. About twenty-eight retail members have come to the table and said, “We want to work together.” During COVID, RCC did a great job keeping people together. Crisis has a way of doing that, but when the crisis is gone, people can easily gravitate back to their own work and are busy. So, we stood up an LP advisory committee representing all of Canada, different verticals of retail—grocery, pharma, big box, small, specialty—to talk about common issues outside of COVID. We started with about thirty items that the group discussed and prioritized three that are important to everybody, are not going away and need attention. Those became three strategic objectives for the advisory to steer, guide, advise, and move forward. JACK: During the COVID pandemic, Canada was pretty severely locked down. How did you support your members during the pandemic? RUI: I started out as a retail member at the beginning of COVID before joining RCC, so I can speak from both sides. One thing RCC did very well through the crisis was connecting with members and keeping them informed. For example, they had daily member calls keeping members informed of COVID stats, announcements, and regulations changing every day. RCC had a dedicated page on the RCC website to make sure there were updates by province on the latest information including masking limitations, quantities, and occupancy rates. RCC has
government relations directors in the various provinces who are all very connected within their own areas, speak to members regularly, and stay aware of what’s happening there so members were getting the information firsthand. They trusted that RCC would keep them updated More than that, RCC created some great content. As things happened and regulations changed, members as well as non-members could go to the RCC website to find content for posters, occupancy requirements, shutdown playbooks, reopening playbooks, government regulations, and general templates. Even the smallest retailers who might be hard pressed with everything they were dealing with, who may not have the resources and people larger organizations have to work on posters or plans, could go to one central place and leverage what RCC created or gathered from the various government agencies. I’ve heard from a lot of members through COVID that RCC did a great job. The crisis brought the best out of RCC. JACK: What are some of the retail brands that are represented on your advisory council? RUI: If I go West to East Coast, we have brands like Aritzia, a women’s fashion brand based in Vancouver. Sobeys and Save-On, which are both grocers. Big brands everyone would recognize like Walmart, Home Depot, and Staples. We have SAQ, which is a liquor brand in Quebec. LCBO, which is another liquor brand in Ontario. Sephora is a smaller retailer, but with a lot of stores. Rexall, which is primarily pharmaceutical. [See the full list of
the RCC Loss Prevention Advisory Council on page 72.] JACK: Talk about the three specific initiatives the advisory council settled on. RUI: One was our concern with the increase of violence, arson, and property damage that we’ve seen through COVID that is not going away. While we’ve seen the increase in violence, we haven’t seen an increase in response from the police. We are all very understanding that police resources are stretched as well. We want to talk to them and work on some solutions. That’s a critical one. The second one was collaborating with police, the crown, and government. Not just saying, “Hey you, I’ve been waiting eight hours. I didn’t get a police response.” Is there an opportunity for the retail sector to look at these wait times and acknowledge that we’re not going to call for every shoplifting incident, so we don’t tie police down with a hundred calls when maybe only a few really needed an urgent response? Can we get to an agreement that when we call it’s because there’s a threat of life, a real risk of assault or violence, then we do get priority response? Then there’s the perception in the court system that every crime in retail is a property crime, that there’s no violence, no victim, which is not true. But I think retailers own a bit of that to clarify when there is an incident, where there is violence, we need to lead that with a good victim impact statement that clearly identifies to the police and the crown that this isn’t about losing X number of items worth X amount. This is about an employee who has
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been assaulted and is out for six months and forever impacted by what occurred. I think we’re still going through that piece of understanding, but that collaboration is critical. And I’m happy to say we now have police at the table, we’re reaching out to the courts, we’re reaching out to some of our government agencies and ministers to get them to speak with us and to work with us on solutions. Conversation is great, but it’s better when those conversations lead to aligning minds on something to do, and then going after it. The third strategic objective is organized retail crime (ORC). We have formed a working group with police partners at the table in discussion with us. We’re now getting some crown and other government participants to look at redefining ORC because I think people are tired of hearing the term and not understanding it. Some think it’s just shoplifting. I think the concern now is a more serious one around the professionals, the black-market demand, and the prolific violent offenders and gangs. We know that as the market has boomed with e-commerce creating all kinds of different avenues for people to shop, that has also led to an increase in the ORC enterprises that are able to sell online. Combine that with COVID and the economic hard times that it’s put people through, there are a lot more people willing to buy black-market merchandise that is stolen, which two years ago may not have been the case because people were in better economic situations. That supply and demand fuels the ORC activity. We need to get a handle on this because right now we feel like we’re losing this battle.
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RCC is there to help, but as retailers, we have to come together with a common ideology of what needs to be done, and then leverage RCC to do that. I believe RCC is extremely strong at facilitating the conversations, narrowing in on a common focus, and then helping identify what we are going to do.
FEATURE Retail Council Of Canada
Loss Prevention Advisory Committee The LP Advisory Committee is chaired by an RCC member retail LP executive and co-chaired by the RCC resident expert.
Chairperson Paul Trickett, Director of Asset Protection, Staples Canada
Co-Chairperson Rui Rodrigues, Executive Advisor, LP & Risk Management, RCC
Committee Members Tullio Baldessara, Vice President, Loss Prevention, TJX Canada Robert Beastall, Vice President, Field Operations & Asset Protection, Walmart Canada Isabelle Bergevin, Directrice Adjointe, Gouvernance securite & Enquetes, SAQ Daryl Blackmore, Director, Loss Prevention, Rexall Michael Chicoine, Director, Resource Protection, Jim Pattison Food Group Martin Dempsey, Senior Manager, Loss Prevention, Best Buy Brian Drane, Senior Director, Building Services, Energy and Asset Protection, The Home Depot Canada Sarah Edward, Regional Manager, Canada, Nordstrom William Eisener, Senior Director, Asset Protection, Walmart Canada Joe Esterreicher, Director, Loss Prevention & Risk Management, Harry Rosen Rita Estwick, Director, Security Fusion Centre, Canada Post Steven Fortier, Director, Loss Prevention, Dollarama Jay Francis, Director, Loss Prevention, Maison Birks Gary Fullerton, Director, Asset Protection, Mountain Equipment Co-Op Calandra Guiry, Director, Loss Prevention, Sephora Beauty Canada Tony Hunt, General Manager, Loss Prevention, London Drugs Bernard Keys, Director, Loss Prevention, Sobeys George Lembessis, Divisional Vice President, Asset Protection, Hudson’s Bay Marty Power, Director, Resource Protection, LCBO Stephane Proulx, Manager, Loss Prevention, Bed Bath & Beyond Mike Richards, Associate Vice President, Corporate Loss Prevention, Canadian Tire John Smith, Director, Loss Prevention, Sporting Life Chris Strongman, Vice President, Enterprise Risk Management, Aritzia Dina Yakhin, Senior Regional Asset Protection Manager, Old Navy Canada
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JACK: ORC is a topic that everybody’s struggling with. It’s certainly prolific in the United States, but I didn’t realize that it was as prolific as it is in Canada. I think there’s going to be learnings from what’s going on both in the US and Canada, which brings me to my next question. How can US and Canadian loss prevention professionals better connect to learn from each other? RUI: I think it starts there, Jack—connecting. We have great relationships with the NRF and RILA, and now that we’re getting our structure and strategic objectives in mind, it’s time to start reaching out to our LP communities. There’s obviously a lot of retailers in Canada with parent companies in the US. There are going to be differences, but there’s value in sharing. For one example, over the last few months with the mob-type of thefts happening in California and other areas like Chicago, it’s easy in Canada to get sucked into the media. The reality is though, that it hasn’t happened in Canada to the same degree. Are the risks there? Sure. But we don’t necessarily have the same level of population density in as many US cities. So, there are risks that are apparent in the US that may not be in Canada. That doesn’t mean we don’t learn from them. We just need to be conscious of sharing best practices and leveraging each other but recognizing those subtle differences because I think sometimes it’s easy to run with something that is happening in the US or other parts of the world and try to make that relevant in Canada. We lose our ground and our credibility when we try to argue for something that people can say, “Wait a minute, that’s not happening here.” So, I think we
need to be cautious here, not to sensationalize things happening elsewhere in the world, if we can’t substantiate it in Canada, but learn and prepare. JACK: This has been very interesting, Rui, and I hope that our readers have learned something about the RCC. Is there something that you want to say that we haven’t touched on yet? RUI: You know what, Jack, I think we have a great bunch of people in the US and Canada who are very passionate about the safety of our shop workers. Whether it’s the operators, HR, LP, or the support teams, what I’ve seen through COVID is people have come together to help each other
out. If we’ve gotten nothing else out of COVID, it is closer sharing, leveraging each other, and maximizing what we can from each other. My goal and my hope is that we continue to do that. My goal at RCC is to keep people at the table, sharing, talking through best practices, collaborating, and realizing that COVID was just one example of how when we work together well, even through a crisis, we get some good things out of it. I welcome our US partners, and I’ve been looking forward to reaching out to the teams there. If people in the US see this interview and say, “I should reach out to Rui and connect with RCC up there and see what we can do to help each other,” then that’s a win for me.
JACK: Hopefully, as things open up more, and we start to have in‑person conferences again, we’ll be able to meet face-to-face and have some of that networking and share some learnings together. Thanks again, Rui. Hopefully, we’ll see you soon. RUI: Thank you, Jack. I really appreciate it. EDITOR’S NOTE: RCC is hosting a webinar on organized retail crime on June 21, 2022, from 1:00 – 2:00 pm Eastern. For more information on this upcoming session or to find out more about the RCC Retail Loss Prevention Forum please contact events@retailcouncil.org.
The Current State of ORC Special Edition
LPM’s first special edition of the magazine is focused solely on the many impacts of ORC on retail. Here is a list of the articles: ● A Perfect Storm for Organized Retail Crime ●
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● Powered by The Loss Prevention Foundation
To listen to the podcast version of this interview with Rui Rodrigues, visit the Podcast tab on the magazine website or scan the QR code.
Taking the Battle against ORC to Another Level with Homeland Security Investigations Applying Effective Interviewing Skills to ORC Investigations Prioritizing People’s Safety in the Tidal Wave of ORC Human Trafficking and ORC What Research Is Telling Us about the State of ORC Prosecuting ORC Cases Leading the Push for ORC Legislation Organized Retail Crime Associations Directory
To DOWNLOAD a PDF of the full magazine, go to bit.ly/ORC-special-edition-download or scan the QR code.
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CYBERSECURITY Tom Meehan, CFI
vs148 / Shutterstock.com
Meehan is retail technology editor for LPM as well as chief strategy officer and chief information security officer for CONTROLTEK. Previously, Meehan was director of technology and investigations with Bloomingdale’s, where he was responsible for physical security, internal investigations, and systems and data analytics. He currently serves as the chair of the Loss Prevention Research Council’s (LPRC) innovations working group. Meehan recently published his first book titled Evolution of Retail Asset Protection: Protecting Your Profit in a Digital Age. He can be reached at TomM@LPportal.com.
Cybersecurity Trends and Strategies I
In light of the increasing threat of ransomware attacks, one positive result is the growing concern of the federal government. The federal government now treats ransomware to the same degree it treats terrorism.
t is no surprise that cyber incidents have become a significant concern, not only for large enterprise companies but also for small-to mid-size businesses (SMBs) and consumers alike. Unfortunately, no one is immune from a potential attack, which means all individuals and those inside an organization are responsible for protecting assets. This article will cover the top areas where malicious activity occurs, the critical trends in cybersecurity that put companies at risk, and the importance of creating a corporate strategy for better cybersecurity hygiene. First, what exactly is a cyber incident? The FBI defines a cyber incident as “a past, ongoing, or threatened intrusion, disruption, or other event that impairs or is likely to impair the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of electronic information, information systems, services, or networks.”
Ransomware Ransomware is malicious software that locks computer files by encrypting them. The attacker then requests a payment (ransom) to release the files. The threat of ransomware continues to be a significant concern for
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businesses. Recent findings from Cloudwards found that 37 percent of companies were hit by ransomware in 2021, with the most considerable ransom demand coming in at a whopping $50 million and made to computer giant Acer in March 2021. In 2021, every eleven seconds, a company fell victim to ransomware. Ransomware attacks can happen in several ways, the most common being when someone clicks on a link in an email, which executes malicious code. One of the most prominent issues today is that many ransomware attacks target solutions providers. For example, an IT services company was recently attacked, which led to several hundred customers getting infected. This type of thing is very concerning. In light of the increasing threat of ransomware attacks, one positive result is the growing concern of the federal government. As discussed, the federal government now treats ransomware to the same degree it treats terrorism. For instance, with the Colonial Pipeline incident in May 2021, the federal government seized 80 percent of the $4.5 million that was paid in bitcoin.
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However, that is not always going to be the case. Sometimes a company pays a steep ransom to regain access to its data files. For example, for a small business, a ransom is often $3,000 to $10,000, or sometimes as large as $100,000. For large enterprises, ransoms can easily reach the millions. As a result, some question the wisdom of paying a ransom; however, it may be the only option in some cases. According to Cloudwards, 32 percent of victims paid a ransom in 2021, while only 65 percent of data was recovered from victims who paid the ransom. Here are a few critical recommendations for organizations to protect themselves against ransomware attacks: ● Don’t click it. Don’t click on links or open attachments if you get an unexpected email. Taking extra time to validate an email is always a good use of time. ● Stay up to date. Companies running outdated IT systems likely have inadequate protection. Cybercriminals scan job websites for companies hiring programmers with experience using COBOL, an old programming language that is still widely used by many companies today. In addition to
outdated versions of Windows and macOS, patches (updates) that are no longer developed can significantly increase a company’s risk.
5G-Connected Devices As 5G networks are built, the number of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors will continue to expand. This creates network vulnerabilities to large-scale attacks. I believe this will become a company’s most significant cyber risk over the next five years, as the more connected you are, the more vulnerable you become because your digital footprint expands. Each connected product creates an entry point into your network. Even if an IoT device doesn’t necessarily generate an intrusion point into your network, it could be a disruption point for your business. Any connected device must be from a reputable company and patchable. Companies should also make sure someone manages the life cycle of their IoT devices. For example, a solution purchased five years ago might not be patchable in three years, so it is critical for someone to be responsible for recognizing the end of life of specific devices. Another risk associated with 5G stems from speed’s most significant benefit. Hackers can access a network with increasing ease and speed. Due to this factor, cybersecurity professionals are studying many IoT devices for signs of backdoors and other vulnerabilities. Additionally, as a standard best practice, companies should update their network encryption because much of what is in use today is outdated.
Telecommuting Over the last two years, employees working from home have become a significant risk for their organizations. Malicious actors exploit misconfigured cloud security measures and insecure
home networks and devices. Think about an organization’s digital footprint to get a more holistic view of this scenario. Even a headset or phone connected to a computer creates another potential entry point due to these vulnerabilities. Remote workers are targeted by phishing scams via email, text, voice, and third-party apps. Therefore, remote workers must remain vigilant. (See below for more information on phishing.) I recommend another piece of advice to avoid “crossing over” devices. For example, you should resist the temptation to let your child use your work computer for a few minutes. It would be best if you also refrained from using your work computer for personal purposes as any website you visit or email you open may pose a potential threat.
Phishing Phishing is a type of cybersecurity threat that targets users through email, text message, or direct message. The attacker poses as a trusted contact in one of these scams and steals data like logins, account numbers, and credit card info. Phishing attempts are becoming more sophisticated and creative as cyberattackers become more sophisticated and savvy. However, what unites these attacks is their common purpose—identity theft or transferring malware. Below is a review of the different types of information attacks. Spear Phishing. Unlike spam, spear-phishing attacks target specific people within an organization. Usually, hackers customize emails with the target’s name, title, work phone number, and other information to make the recipient think that the sender knows them personally or professionally. Whaling. Whaling is spear phishing that targets CEOs and other executives. The risk-reward ratio is drastically higher when individuals have unrestricted access to sensitive corporate data.
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Whale hunting occurs in criminal organizations with the resources to accomplish such an attack. Business Email Compromise (BEC). In BEC attacks, impersonated executives lure customers, employees, or vendors into wire transferring funds to a different bank account. In 2019, BEC scams were the most damaging and effective type of cybercrime, according to the FBI’s 2019 Internet Crime Report. Clone Phishing. This type of scam involves the scammer creating an almost-identical copy of an authentic email, like one from your bank, so you’ll share valuable information. The attacker replaces what appears to be an original link or attachment with a malicious one. In addition, the email is from an address that resembles that of the original sender, making it harder to spot. Vishing. Also called voice phishing, vishing is when a scammer displays a well-known, trusted company’s phone number on a victim’s caller ID to entice them to answer. After impersonating an executive or official, the scammer uses social engineering or intimidation tactics to get money purportedly owed to them. The victim can also get a voicemail asking them to call back a number. When they do, they enter personal details. Snowshoeing. Snowshoeing is a method used by attackers to circumvent spam filters. They accomplish this by sending messages from multiple domains and IP addresses, sending out such a low volume of messages that reputation-based spam filtering technology cannot detect and block malicious messages immediately. Messages often make it to inboxes before the filters learn to stop them. Many scam emails center on current events, such as package tracking and vaccine-related information, where hackers are able to automate the sending of thousands of emails.
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As 5G networks are built, the number of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors will continue to expand. This creates network vulnerabilities to large-scale attacks.
More than 80 percent of reported cyber incidents result from social engineering, a derivative of phishing that seeks to manipulate people into divulging confidential information. Ninety percent of organizations shared having a social engineering attack within the last year.
COVID-19 was, of course, the biggest news in 2021. Vaccination information was in demand, from the current state of the disease to the location and timing of vaccinations. This type of online behavior was ideal for malicious actors. The United Kingdom’s National Health Service sent out warnings about fake vaccination appointment emails, and IBM X-Force identified a supply-side attack looking to compromise the cold vaccine chain. Another type of phishing is spear phishing, which is gaining popularity. As opposed to sending the message to many people, spear phishing targets a minimal number of people. A good example is an email sent to a specific group of people, such as colleagues, about a particular topic or even a particular project. It will entice one of the recipients to click a link or provide information. However, spear-phishing attacks aren’t necessarily for ransomware. In many cases, spear phishers want to be able to monitor what you’re doing and get information like log- in credentials. For example, let’s say you initiate a wire transfer. The following day, an attacker sends an email posing as an official request for the wire transfer to be redirected to a different bank account. This tactic is used over the phone. Whatever the case, the rule of thumb is never to give out credentials and always use two-factor authentication.
Social Engineering More than 80 percent of reported cyber incidents result from social engineering, a derivative of phishing that seeks to manipulate people into divulging confidential information. Ninety percent of organizations shared having a social engineering attack within the last year. In essence, these malicious attackers are modern-day con artists who initiate a conversation and try to build trust. Some even
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go to job interviews to learn more about a company before beginning their attacks. While social engineering is a popular tactic for phone attacks, it also occurs in emails. Email filters have matured and can sometimes identify social engineering emails. User awareness campaigns also play a significant role. Organizations need ongoing training to help employees spot the latest techniques cybercriminals utilize.
Unfortunately, a company’s most significant risk is human error. Seventy-five percent of cyber incidents originate from within the company. Furthermore, 40 percent start with an employee falling victim to a phishing or social engineering scam. Insider Threats Unfortunately, a company’s most significant risk is human error. Seventy-five percent of cyber incidents originate from within the company. Furthermore, 40 percent start with an employee falling victim to a phishing or social engineering scam. In addition to employees, contractors and security guards can also pose an insider threat, as they have access to your offices
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and computers. But, again, it is imperative to note that this is something that a company can control. Recently, IBM conducted a wide-reaching study into cyber breaches. According to the study, human error was the major contributor to 95 percent of all breaches. Human error can show up in several ways. For instance, employees often don’t initiate software security updates or password resets, exposing sensitive data. It’s also a concern among cyber risk professionals when cloud-based apps are misused or configured wrong. Unintentional security breaches occur due to remote workers, inadequate training, or the lack of security best practices, which can harm your company’s data, finances, and brand reputation. A successful cybersecurity strategy must include proactive measures to mitigate human error because skilled cybercriminals understand that security measures are only as effective as the people who implement them.
Lack of Protection Companies can also control their insurance coverage, which is necessary for modern business. However, obtaining coverage isn’t enough. Specifically, companies should thoroughly review their policies. Traditionally, cyber insurance is limited to mitigating the costs of identification and recovery. Companies must also consider liability, mainly if the customer data includes more than just the company name. Ensure that your insurance policy also covers everything you might need, including compromised emails and ransomware. It is important to remember the best protection is a good defense. Educating employees on ever-changing tactics and how to practice proper cybersecurity hygiene is critical in keeping your company protected.
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Keeping Exits Clear Protects Customers and Store Associates An Automated Solution Designed Specifically for Retailers
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temporarily blocked fire exit might not seem like that big of a deal. Sometimes it might be tempting to stack some boxes off to the side while restocking, or to use that open space in front of the door for quicker access to a rolling rack of winter coats. In a fluid and dynamic retail work environment, it’s understandable to think about taking a shortcut here and there to save time later. When it comes to fire exits, though, blocking them puts the safety of both
customers and store associates at an unnecessary risk—and not just from fires, but also from any number of situations that might require a rapid emergency exit. This is why regulatory organizations like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have clearly written standards when it comes to obstructing exits. Occupational Safety and Health Standard number 1910.37(a)(3) says, “Exit routes must be free and unobstructed. No materials or equipment may be placed,
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either permanently or temporarily, within the exit route.” Your company doesn’t need to have been fined by OSHA to understand how costly such fines can be or how quickly they can add up. It may be difficult to see that this is a potential problem for your company because store associates might clean things up in advance of a visit from leadership. Or it might happen only on certain shifts, or at certain locations, or at certain times of the year, all increasing the
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challenges associated with preventing the problem in the first place. But what if you already have eyes in place? What you if you could leverage your existing video surveillance system to proactively address this issue? We often think of crime scene investigations when we think about video analytics. They can be used to improve operational efficiencies in stores too, providing real-time alerts via mobile notifications to alert staff when action is needed. You could potentially send those alerts to a nearby speaker instead, creating a powerful tool that notifies staff that something is blocking the fire exit.
Axis Communications can help improve overall safety and reduce the potential for significant regulatory fines through real-time automatic detection of blocked exits. Axis video cameras with native analytics can detect when an exit is blocked by an object and then take action to send one or more notifications about this event. Retail is no exception when it comes to being asked to do more with less. More and more tasks are being assigned to fewer and fewer store associates, and it’s understandable that things might occasionally slip through the cracks. Video analytics can be a force multiplier. They can help provide real-time guidance to your staff by actively monitoring important areas in your stores. Axis Communications can help improve overall safety and reduce the potential
for significant regulatory fines through real‑time automatic detection of blocked exits. Axis video cameras with native analytics can detect when an exit is blocked by an object and then take action to send one or more notifications about this event. A light near the exit might turn red, for example, using the new AXIS Strobe Siren. An audio message might play on a nearby speaker until the exit has been cleared. Alerts could be sent to specific users in the store, to the local loss prevention office, or to a centralized security operations center. Additionally, a video management system can bookmark when these alarms take place for further investigation after the event. Bookmarking these events saves you time and effort when reviewing footage of the incident, to more easily identify how the exit was blocked in the first place. When it comes to employee and customer safety, we’re here to help. Visit axis-communications.com/blocked‑exits or contact us-proserv@axis.com for more information.
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F
or a half century Alpha High-Theft Solutions has been providing retailers with the most innovative and technologically advanced products engineered to protect high-theft merchandise. We have been proudly manufacturing our core products in the United States. Our 210,000-squarefoot Canton, Ohio, manufacturing plant is strategically located in the Midwest, which allows for optimal delivery to our customers. From here each year, more than thirty- million units are produced and shipped to a majority of the top retailers in the world. The plant directly provides more than 200 jobs for engineers, quality staff, customer-service representatives, global project leaders, and more, not to mention it utilizes local molders and contractors who provide raw materials, components, and finished goods. There are many benefits to having full- line manufacturing in the US. By producing from start to finish, Alpha is able to meet our customers’ needs with end-to-end manufacturing control, ensure the quality of our products, ship products with 99.9 percent accuracy, and manage inventory. Other benefits include quicker time to market updates, fewer delays due to time zones, and more ecofriendly production.
The Classic Keepers and Bottle Caps Keepers® are where the Alpha innovation story truly begins, and over 27,000 Keepers a day are produced in Canton. Keepers are made with the strongest clear recyclable polycarbonate with anti-crazing material available.
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Following Checkpoint’s Green Initiative, Keepers are recyclable. Keepers allow retailers to create attractive visual displays and promote “open sell” with the confidence that merchandise is protected. Available in over seventy-five sizes, Keepers are one of the most versatile and secure solutions for high-theft merchandise. Based on the variety of sizes, our expert sales team or our online Keeper Selector tool at alphaworld.com can direct you to the perfect-sized fit you need. Small and Large Bottle Caps are another product proudly produced in Ohio. Alpha has a long, innovative history of protecting
wine and spirit merchandise with Bottle Caps, the aesthetically pleasing solution that doesn’t detract from merchandise presentation and prevents opening or tampering of the liquor. Each year more than 18.5 million units (Keepers and Bottle Caps) are produced and shipped to retailers around the world.
Introducing the D-Line Alpha is continuously growing. A wide range of high-theft solutions to fit multiple needs are now in production. Called Disposable Hang Tags (DHT), these simple and effective devices are available in RF or AM EAS technology and fit a wide array of high-theft consumer products, including jewelry, electronics, hardware, and cosmetics. This new loss prevention solution can be applied quickly and easily or applied in-store, providing a strong visual theft deterrent. The tag features a unique ratcheting design to ensure it securely fits a diverse range of packaging dimensions and provides a robust visual deterrent against opportunistic shoplifters. Deactivation is simple, by either a store associate or by the consumer in self-checkout lanes with less delay and a more frictionless experience. Consumers can remove and discard the tag
Alpha’s new Disposable Hang Tag
post‑purchase or simply discard it with the product packaging. Checkpoint’s DHT solution enables retailers to protect a wider array of lower- priced high-theft merchandise, while reducing shrink and increasing sales and profits, thus supporting a strong return on investment in just a few short months. Stuart Rosenthal, global vice president of Checkpoint’s Alpha High‑Theft Solutions business, commented: “We are proud of our Canton, Ohio, facility and its support of the Stuart Rosenthal local economy, and are constantly investing in and upgrading our manufacturing facility that produces quality products sold globally for Alpha.” To see all our Alpha High-Theft Solutions, visit our website at alphaworld.com.
Alpha Keepers Copyright 2022, Checkpoint Systems Inc. All rights reserved. Checkpoint, the “check” logo, Alpha, and Keeper are all trademarks of Checkpoint Systems Inc. Rights in all other brands belong to their respective owners. Use of third-party brands does not imply any endorsement of Checkpoint Systems Inc. or any products of Checkpoint Systems Inc. by the brand owner.
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SPONSORED CONTENT
SOLUTIONS SHOWCASE
CIS Security Systems
It’s a No-Brainer By Donna Carey, VP Marketing & Inside Sales
H
ave you ever walked into a store and found the item you want is in a clear plastic case that is locked? It looks well protected in that anti-theft box, which goes by many names, sometimes called a “lock box,” “keeper,” or “safer.” That plastic box has a magnetic slide lock on it to keep dishonest people from stealing, but does it really protect that item? Many thieves take the whole item with the box if they can’t open it, and they break it open later after leaving the store. You can search online and see page after page of instructions, video tutorials, and conversation threads on how to defeat security boxes. Replacing those boxes can be very costly. Damaged boxes can be a safety issue. And scratched boxes are unsightly and make it difficult to see the product or read the ingredients. What is the best alternative to protect your merchandise, deter theft, keep the cost low, reduce checkout time, SAVE MONEY, and have lower loss or shrink numbers?
Super Mini Tick-R-Tape Tag The Super Mini Tick-R-Tape Tag is small yet mighty. It will not be defeated without alarming. The Super Mini, as we call it, can be used alone or with conductive tape or a conductive label. The Super Mini is a smaller version of the Tick-R-Tape Tag. You can read the research report written about the Tick-R-Tape Tag by the Loss Prevention Research Council at cisssinc.com/f/Tick-R-Tape_Final_10.16.pdf to see the customer reactions, the associate reactions, and the offender reactions. The Tick-R-Tape Tag had a 100 percent deterrence rate.
The Mini Tape Tag has established a proven record of deterrence as well, protecting fragrances, cosmetics, razors, small electronics, and accessories. Here is feedback from stores using the Mini Tape Tag: ● “Our backroom staff prefer the Mini to the keepers because the keepers are bulky, ugly, and take up too much space.” ● “The Mini is so easy to apply and remove. Much better than safers.” ● “We’ve seen a difference starting the first day. Usually, by the end of the day, this item is stolen, and the shelf would be empty. Look! It’s still there!” (Shared during a store visit.) ● “Can we put it on everything? I want to put it on everything.”
Versatility with Great Benefits This is a “one size fits most items” solution that has versatility. The small size means less storage space is required, and it limits exposure to contaminates and viruses due to the smaller surface area, which is healthier for customers and associates. It allows for better visibility of products and allows you to see and feel the product without hindrance while keeping it secure. The tape can be customized with your company logo, or you can use our generic designs. This tag is perfect for small fragrances, cosmetics, electronics, hair care, tools, bedding, and more.
The tape can be customized with your company logo, or you can use our generic designs. This tag is perfect for small fragrances, cosmetics, electronics, hair care, tools, bedding, and more.
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The benefits are there for the taking if you switch to the Super Mini Tape Tag: ● Save time in checkout. ● Save under-counter space at the point of sale. ● SAVE MONEY. ● One size fits most items. ● Increase available shelf space on sales floor and in stockroom by up to 640 percent compared to keepers. ● Reduce loss. ● Deter theft visually and aurally. ● Device is made of ABS and is water and impact resistant. ● Circuit can’t be “jumped.” Use Alone. The ABS plastic base adheres to the product with “sticky note” type adhesive that won’t damage the finish on the packaging. If the base is lifted off the package, the Super Mini will alarm. It will also set off the EAS pedestals if brought close to them or through them. Most importantly, the ninety-eight-decibel alarm will catch the attention of the store employees, allowing them to act earlier. It is available in two-alarm or three-alarm. Use with Conductive Tape. The conductive tape can wrap around hard or soft packaging of any size, from small fragrances to an eight-piece comforter set. The base holds the tag onto the packaging. The conductive tape is wrapped around the package snugly and connected to the base and is then activated when the Super Mini is placed on the base, creating an electrical circuit. If the base is lifted or the tape is cut, stretched, burned, or has any other type of connection interference, the Super Mini will alarm. Use with the Corner Label. The conductive corner label is applied to the base of the Super Mini and over the edge
This is a “one size fits most items” solution that has versatility. The small size means less storage space is required, and it limits exposure to contaminates and viruses due to the smaller surface area, which is healthier for customers and associates
of the packaging, adhering it closed with 3M adhesive. Once the Mini is attached, it creates a completed circuit that will alarm if the base is lifted or if the corner label is cut or lifted off the package without disarming first. It’s perfect for keeping the lids with expensive hydration bottles and for cookware, flatware sets, fragrances, cosmetics, skin care, and small electronics with one entry point. The Super Mini can cut down on checkout time dramatically. The base and the tape or label go with the customer, and the Super Mini Tape Tag is dropped into a small bin to be brought back to the stockroom for use again and again. One flick of the wrist using your XT detacher or equivalent strength magnet, and the tag is removed, and the item is in the bag with the base and tape still on it. No more plastic boxes taking up all the free space under the counter or on the shelves.
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So, yes, it’s a no-brainer when it comes to the best alternative to a plastic locking box to protect your merchandise. What are you waiting for? Contact us for pricing at 772-287-7999 or at info@cisssinc.com. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.
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SOLUTIONS SHOWCASE
Impact Security
Top 5 Reasons DefenseLite Is the Preferred Solution in Mitigating Smash-and-Grab Crime 1.
Superior Patented Design and Engineering
Created by a team of respected glazing industry experts and engineers, DefenseLite® is a unique, advanced forced-entry solution specifically engineered to protect all your assets—your people, property, and inventory. Clear and unobtrusive in appearance, DefenseLite is designed to outperform traditional, nonventilated systems, security window films, and roll-down grilles and gates. This overglaze system will not break under attack or require periodic maintenance as with laminated glass, metal gates, and grilles. The UV-coated and anti-graffiti polycarbonate shield
is a cost-effective and aesthetically pleasing retrofit security-glazing system that retailers can rely on. The patented flexible frame design is engineered to work like a shock absorber for windows and doors when under attack. It does not attempt to act as a solid brick wall as with more traditional systems that are very rigid. Instead, the anchored frame and panel design flexes and absorbs impact, dissipating the forces harmlessly out to the edges of the panel, without breaking or detaching. DefenseLite also acts as a deterrent to criminals who will quickly realize they will not be able to gain access to the building and will flee the scene of the crime.
Created by a team of respected glazing industry experts and engineers, DefenseLite is a unique, advanced forced-entry solution specifically engineered to protect all your assets—your people, property, and inventory.
The DefenseLite Benefits ● ● ● ● ● ●
Shield that is 250 times stronger than glass Flexible, patented rocker frame design Virtually invisible, seamless aesthetic Long-term forced-entry system with moisture control guaranteed Patent-pending venting engineered for each climate zone Dynamic retrofit for interior and exterior applications, including curtain wall
2.
Material and Components
DefenseLite systems are manufactured in the US utilizing components that are also made in America. ● Proprietary high-optic UV polycarbonate shields (0.375-inch thickness, standard) ● Sturdy and strong 6061 T-6 aluminum frame components (heavy walled, standard) ● Security-tipped stainless steel fastening anchors ● Ultra-high-bond VHB tape and structural adhesives ● Turnkey solution from manufacturing and measuring to installation
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Mounted and anchored onto the exterior or interior of your existing glazing, the DefenseLite shield creates a cushioning airspace between the primary glass and the DefenseLite. DefenseLite is custom made for every opening with custom coloring and powder coating optional. Designed to blend into the existing framing for a clean and finished look, DefenseLite is virtually invisible upon completion of the installation, with no moving parts or maintenance requirements.
3.
Quality Control
Only trained and certified Authorized DefenseLite Dealers are allowed to purchase and install this patented retrofit security-glazing system. The training program is facilitated by the Impact Security engineering and design team and includes extensive classroom training combined with hands-on experience provided at our factory, and they are tested to meet all installation standards. To ensure quality outcomes and long-term performance of every
project, noncertified general contractors, glazing subcontractors, and other third-party installers are not allowed to purchase or install DefenseLite or BulletShield™ systems.
4.
Engineered Ventilation
It is not advisable to fully seal any overglazing to the prime window or door due to the probability of condensation. With any overglaze system, moist air can eventually get between the exterior panel and the primary glazing and fog up. DefenseLite utilizes a patent-pending engineered ventilation that prevents moist air from building up inside this cavity, and it keeps the glazing clear. The DefenseLite passive, sustainable design is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, we match the venting to the local climate and property for the best long-term performance. Our moisture -sealed and vented system mitigates panel “pillowing” and condensation buildup, which will occur in time with more traditional nonventilated systems.
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5.
Warranty and Maintenance
Based on the DefenseLite system installed, the warranty can range from a minimum of two years up to fifteen years. Custom warranties, “smash-and-grab” performance guarantees, and extended service agreements are available. DefenseLite and BulletShield are exclusive to Impact Security LLC and are available through a national network of authorized dealers. To learn more about these solutions or to request a threat level assessment, visit defenselite.com or email us at info@defenselite.com.
SPONSORED CONTENT
SOLUTIONS SHOWCASE
Hanwha Techwin America
How Retailers Can Leverage Their Security Infrastructure to Improve Operational Efficiency By Jordan Rivchun
Rivchun is director of vertical solutions for Hanwha Techwin America. Prior to this position, he held numerous loss prevention management roles with DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse, Target, and Nordstrom.
R
etailers today face a number of security challenges, including shoplifting, shrink and theft at the point of sale, protecting the premises after hours, slip and fall lawsuits, and much more. Adding complexity to the security challenge is that retailers face these threats in a variety of locations within stores, each of which comes with its own unique requirements. For example, in the store itself, retailers must monitor register activity for accuracy, theft, fraud, or sweethearting (theft by employees at the cash register giving away merchandise to a “sweetheart” customer such as a friend, family, or fellow employee). They must also capture video footage from around the store to ensure that if someone commits a theft, they will be caught on camera, or if someone claims they’ve slipped and fallen, they will have video evidence. At the same time, this must be accomplished unobtrusively to ensure a positive customer experience. In the back of the house, retailers must protect stock, and monitor loading docks and parking lots for intrusion or other crimes. In these locations, however, visibility of security cameras may be more important to serve as a deterrent.
Today’s flexible, intelligent surveillance cameras offer a variety of form factors and capabilities that allow them to address the range of security and operational challenges.
What to Look for in a Security Camera When choosing a security camera for retail applications, a number of factors will determine the success of security and operational efforts, as well as the return on investment in the technology. The first of these is video quality because details are important for investigating a crime or identifying an individual. Therefore, cameras should be capable of capturing a high level of detail for a variety of retail applications. A second primary factor is field of view. Even the highest-quality video is useless if the camera is incapable of capturing video of an event of interest. Wide angle or 360-degree capabilities, coupled with high resolution, provide the best possible view over a larger field of view, which allows retailers to see the entire sales floor in detail. Lighting changes can be problematic with video, so it is necessary to choose cameras capable of overcoming these challenges. Cameras with wide dynamic range (WDR) capability are particularly useful at store entrances, for example. With WDR, images are not affected by the bright sunlight that often shines through windows, making it possible to capture
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While security remains a primary driver behind retailers’ use of video, cameras perform a number of functions beyond surveillance. When combined with a variety of video analytics, cameras provide value to retailers in the form of business intelligence, which can directly result in increased sales. details about individuals as they enter a store. These three factors allow retailers to capture the highly detailed images that make video surveillance effective, but often at a cost. The more detail the video contains, the larger the file sizes, which requires more bandwidth to transfer video from the camera to the storage solution.
LossPreventionMedia.com
All of this can add up to increased costs. However, with the advent of more efficient compression technologies like H.265, cost increases have been somewhat mitigated. Cameras for retail should incorporate H.265, which some manufacturers complement with their own compression technologies for even greater efficiency. Flexibility is another important factor when evaluating cameras. Today’s advanced models are built on open platforms that make it possible to integrate multiple technologies easily. Many also offer the ability to add new capabilities by installing apps directly to the camera. Finally, cameras that incorporate onboard video analytics bring intelligence to the video that allows the detection of specific events or situations, such as when someone enters a particular area of a store. These analytics solutions also serve to extend the value of security cameras beyond security.
Going Beyond Security to Improve Business Operations In the traditional retail businesses, the most critical aspect was providing goods and services according to consumers’ demands at a reasonable price, and the main role of security cameras was protection of property, in other words, safeguarding products from theft and deterring other illegal activities. While security remains a primary driver behind retailers’ use of video, cameras perform a number of functions beyond surveillance. When combined with a variety of video analytics, cameras provide value to retailers in the form of business intelligence, which can directly result in increased sales. Therefore, exploring the management benefits of video in addition to the traditional focus
High resolution, efficient bandwidth usage, and onboard video analytics combine to allow cameras that may initially have been deployed for security purposes to be transformed into intelligence-gathering devices that directly impact the bottom line more than simply from a loss prevention perspective. on security and loss prevention is key to leveraging the complete value of video in retail operations. In retail, where margins are often narrow, creating a positive customer experience becomes a priority for retailers. As they seek to identify and meet the rapidly changing needs and preferences of their customers, an entirely new approach is needed for retail businesses. Today’s cameras not only meet the basic requirements of safety and security but also deliver the intelligence necessary to enable the “smart retail” necessary to understand customer behavior. Many cameras offer built-in heat mapping, people counting, and other video analytics that utilize video to review and analyze movement of people within a retail outlet. This makes it possible to improve the store layout to alleviate crowding and to increase profits by placing high-profit items at a higher traffic point. Video analytics also provide insight beyond sales numbers to determine how well a new display is performing based on time, day, or other factors. Short wait times play a main role in the customer experience, and watching video can provide important data about when additional personnel may be needed in specific areas of the store, such as the checkout when lines are long. Having enough sales associates
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available during busier parts of the day can improve sales and increase the value of individual transactions. Video also presents opportunities to improve employee performance in the areas of customer service, attentiveness, sales aptitude, and more. Both good and poor performance can be reviewed and analyzed to create teachable moments and positive reinforcement. These are just some of the many possibilities for retailers using surveillance cameras to address both security and operational challenges. High resolution, efficient bandwidth usage, and onboard video analytics combine to allow cameras that may initially have been deployed for security purposes to be transformed into intelligencegathering devices that directly impact the bottom line more than simply from a loss prevention perspective. Armed with the intelligence available in today’s cameras, retailers can not only protect their assets but also increase profits and generate a greater return on their investments in surveillance cameras. To learn more about video surveillance tools, visit the Hanwha Techwin America website at hanwhasecurity.com.
SPONSORED CONTENT
NEW PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
Product Spotlight
New Solutions from Leading LP Suppliers This New Product Spotlight section provides readers with information on new products and services from leading retail asset protection solution providers. If your company is looking for new technology or solutions, please check with these vendors as well as the other advertisers throughout the magazine. Visit the magazine website for more information about these new offerings.
Total Situational Awareness The AXIS M5000-G PTZ is ideal for a wide variety of indoor applications. This 15MP indoor camera features three 5MP sensors and one PTZ camera with 10X optical zoom for total situational awareness and wireless I/O connectivity with Z-Wave Plus® devices. bit.ly/Axis-M5000
Decrease Rates of Loss and Retail Assault with Axon Body-Worn Cameras and Incident Management Software The Axon suite of security solutions offers a way for retail to substantially decrease shrinkage, reduce rates of assault, and effectively battle organized retail crime. Axon technology protects retail assets, creates a safer workplace for associates, and a pleasurable shopping experience for customers. bit.ly/Axon-loss-prevention
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Alpha High-Theft Solutions RFID Mini NeedleLok™ This one-piece tag is fast to apply and remove, a great visual deterrent, and user friendly. Utilizing a needle instead of a pin allows for broad apparel application, especially delicate merchandise. Added RFID technology makes it versitle to use RFID as EAS or enhance current EAS systems. Optional customizable QR codes available. bit.ly/Alpha-mini-NeedleLok
Counterfeits Bills Are Everywhere
The Ready-Set-Go Face Recognition Solution
It is an up-ticking trend. Stores, and restaurants are at risk now more than ever. The CIS 143 4-way counterfeit detector validates bills in under 0.5 second, checking multiple levels for authenticity. Insert bills from any direction for ease of use. Affordable, reliable, with a 3-year replacement warranty!
Is he on the watchlist for violent offenders? Premier face recognition technologies for real-time video security, recorded video investigation, crowd detection, and anonymous people analytics. Let’s talk about face recognition benefitting your business at sales@cognitec.com.
cisssinc.com/products/CIS_143.html
bit.ly/Cognitec-face-recognition
Sneak Detection Where You Need It Detex puts dependable sneak detection in any area where unauthorized entry must be controlled, while allowing authorized entry to be easy, quick, and reliable. The Detex tailgate detection system is compatible with most access control technologies and can be customized for your needs. bit.ly/Detex-sneak-detection
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SPONSORED CONTENT
NEW PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
Loss Prevention Starts in the Parking Lot Add an LVT mobile surveillance unit to your parking lot and decrease in-store high-risk incidents by 62% and grab‑and‑go theft by 69%. With a robust Zone 4 defense that automatically uses deterrence techniques, you can stop bad actors from ever entering your store. www.LVT.com
Ultimate Commercial Exit-Door Protection QMI’s High-Security Door System is an industry first, turnkey exit-door solution providing nearly impenetrable protection. Patent pending anti-cut technology prevents saw attacks. Integrated anti-drill plates defend against drill breaches. An interlocking astragal protects the exterior door edges from pry attacks, and a continuous hinge is through-bolted for extra strength and ease of installation. bit.ly/QMI-security-door
Spur Tag: Damage‑Free Boot Protection
Lockout Theft and Product Sweep with New Timed Lockout Feature!
The Spur Tag’s innovative design wrangles boot shrink without damaging the product. The solution allows the customer to try on the boot free of obstruction. The 3-alarm design utilizes a ratcheting cable and proximity sensor for security that is just as tough as the boots being protected.
What sets the Lockout Spiral Anti-Sweep Hook™ apart from other security hooks is the internal time-delay lockout function, which initiates after a single item has been dispensed from the hook and locks out anyone from making additional selections for 6 to 8 seconds.
bit.ly/contact-ISS
bit.ly/lockout-spiral
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True Cloud Video and Transaction Audits
Shrink Management as a Service
Simple enough for a new manager to use, powerful enough for your entire organization to gain insight into which behaviors are driving profitability and which are causing loss. A bandwidth friendly and secure True Cloud platform to manage video, exception reporting, speed of service, brand compliance, and more.
Shrink Management as a Service (SMaaS) is a cloud‑based solution designed to boost performance for more effective, reliable loss prevention programs. Designed with user-friendly, customizable dashboards and 24/7/365 automatic and remote monitoring of EAS equipment, SMaaS helps reduce shrink, improve sales, and optimize staffing while delivering actionable intelligence and insights.
bit.ly/get-savi
bit.ly/Sensormatic-SMaaS
Fighting Loss and Fraud with Qognify BVI Qognify BVI reduces time, efforts, and costs to investigate loss, fraud, or damage in retail stores and warehouses. It is based on the Qognify VMS video surveillance software that is used by retailers around the globe, and combines video with transaction data from PoS and ERP systems or barcode scanners. bit.ly/Qognify-BVI
Get Help Faster When Gun Violence Occurs Law enforcement is trained to go to the last reported location of an active shooter. Give them the information they need to stop the violence as quickly as possible. Learn why Shooter Detection System’s Guardian Indoor Active Shooter Detection System is the first choice for leading retail and logistics companies. bit.ly/shooter-detection
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SPONSORED CONTENT
NEW PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
Reduce Theft and False Alarms with Integrated Cameras and Monitoring Detect, verify, and respond to threats faster. Verkada is a cloud‑based physical security solution that integrates video security, intrusion detection, access control, 24/7 professional monitoring, and more. Trusted by almost 10,000 organizations to simplify and scale security across stores and warehouses. bit.ly/Verkada-retail-security
Boa Tag: Adjustable Cable Lock
SONR Is siffron’s 3-tier Retail Security and Loss Prevention System
The Boa Tag is the most customizable adjustable cable lock on the market. Colors and length can be special ordered, guaranteeing the solution fits just right and keeps displays looking on-brand. Boasting one of the strongest locking mechanisms on the market, the Boa is sure to strangle shrink.
The SONR™ anti-shoplifting device provides audible beeps at the shelf level and protects merchandise throughout the store. SONR integrates with existing store security systems to create a tiered alert system that ensures retailers are always aware of activity anywhere in their store.
bit.ly/contact-ISS
bit.ly/SONR-eco-system
Iron Curtain Portable Barriers Iron Curtain Portable Barriers are your NEW solution to protect your business from civil unrest, looting, theft, hurricanes, and more! These units are 9 feet tall and weigh almost 1,900 pounds each. They can be moved in place to protect your business easily with a simple pallet jack and locked together! bit.ly/Iron-Curtain-barriers
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The Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC) conducts evidence-based research and provides a collaborative environment to develop crime and loss control solutions to improve the performance of its retail members, solution partners, and entire retail industry.
80+
Engagement Opportunities
300+
Completed Research Projects
160
Member Organizations
Connect with Nearly 70 Retail Chains Make an IMPACT in your Organization
Join Today! Lpresearch.org
Operations@lpresearch.org
LPM DIGITAL Courtney Wolfe Wolfe is LPM’s managing editor digital focusing on expanding the magazine’s digital content and reach. She most recently was managing editor for SDM magazine, a trade publication for security systems integrators. She received her bachelor’s degree in multimedia journalism from Columbia College Chicago. She can be reached at CourtneyW@LPportal.com.
Popular Articles on the LPM Digital Channels T
To ensure that you don’t miss any important loss prevention information, subscribe to our digital channel by scanning the QR code above.
he LP Magazine website and digital channels offer loss prevention and retail professionals a myriad of thought-leadership articles from a wide range of industry experts, original articles from LPM writers, webinars with industry experts, podcasts, whitepapers, and much more. There is new content updated to the website daily that is featured in our e-newsletter. To ensure that you don’t miss this important information, subscribe to our digital channel at LossPreventionMedia.com/email or scan the QR code on the left.
Retail Council of Canada Shares Industry Insights at Loss Prevention Forum
The Retail Council of Canada (RCC) hosted its annual Loss Prevention Forum on Tuesday, April 12, through a virtual format. The Forum explored the latest strategies and retail tactics to
better protect people, property, and assets. Though the Forum was virtual, attendees could privately video chat with others through the conference site, and there were dedicated breaks throughout the day for networking. This digital article looks at the different sessions and lessons learned at the Forum.
Workplace Violence Is Broken Down into 4 Categories
OSHA defines workplace violence as “any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site.” OSHA estimates that about 2 million workers report violent workplace incidents each year,
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but the actual number is thought to be much higher as many events do not get reported. According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), workplace violence typically falls into one of four categories: criminal intent, customer/client, worker on worker, and personal relationship. Here, learn more about each.
Identifying Theft and Fraud Inside a Retail Business | Ep. 73
Similar to any business operation, ORC networks operate to make money. A key difference however is that they must innovate to move and hide that money as much as possible. continued on page 96
As the investigative interviewing environment evolves, so does the need to obtain powerful training methods, connections, and recognition as an elite interviewer. So make sure you prepare for the changes ahead when you start your story with Wicklander-Zulawski (WZ), continue with the International Association of Interviewers (IAI), and include a chapter of your professional development to obtain your Certified Forensic Interviewer (CFI) designation. A great story can motivate, encourage and inspire - leading you to new opportunities and growth. Start yours today!
Attending NRF PROTECT on June 21-23, 2022? Scan to find our booth, enter raffles, get presentation details and party info!
BEGIN YOUR SUCCESS STORY
GET. TRAINED.
GET. CONNECTED.
BECOME. MORE.
Get trained in the latest, evidence-based investigative interviewing techniques to obtain the truth and successfully close cases.
Get connected and advance your interviewing career with free resources, training and networking opportunities with the International Association of Interviewers.
Become more and get recognized as an elite interviewer when you obtain your designation as a Certified Forensic Interviewer.
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Continued from page 94
Finding and following the trails of money as it flows through legal and illegal channels is critical to identify the network, build the case, and ultimately dismantle the ORC operation. In this LPM podcast, Kevin McMenimen, LPC and Jacque Brittain, LPC look inside the retail business at areas of opportunity in e-commerce and e-fraud. Well-known researcher Adrian Beck, emeritus professor at the University of Leicester, along with Todd Isenhour, director of investigations and fraud mitigation at Lowe’s, discuss expanding the category of e-commerce within the typology of Total Retail Loss, and examine the trails of theft and fraud within the retail business.
Illinois Man Guilty in $20 Million ORC Enterprise
There is new content updated to the LPM website daily that is featured in our e-newsletter.
An Illinois man has been convicted of running a multi‑million-dollar retail crime ring after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. According to court records, Artur Gilowski, 48, operated a criminal enterprise that involved co-conspirators stealing tens of thousands of retail products valued at over $20 million from retail stores across the United States. The products were then
Spring 2022
shipped to Gilowski, who sold the stolen goods on various e-commerce websites, generating more than $11 million in profits.
ISC West 2022 Shows Security’s Expanding Focus on Retail
investigation, or even a member of your family, there are typically five types of lies. In this digital article and video, Wicklander-Zulawski and Associates’ Wayne Hoover explain the five types of lies and how to identify them.
WEBINAR: Accidents, Active Threats, and Attitudes
Three years after the last regularly scheduled ISC West, the massive physical security conference returned to Las Vegas March 22-25, bigger and better than ever. After a significantly smaller, delayed ISC West show last July, many were unsure of what to expect at this year’s conference, but people are ready to get back to business. More than 500 exhibitors were on display, and the word on the show floor was that around 22,000 people ended up attending.
Interview and Interrogation Training: The Five Types of Lies
When trying to obtain the truth from a dishonest employee, a suspect involved in another type of criminal
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While smash-and-grabs, active threats, and pandemic fallout have dominated the headlines, the slips and falls, merchandise risks, and hazardous materials opportunities are even more common—and collectively all of these events contribute to the liabilities that face everyone in retail and can have significant impact on the bottom line. It takes a communal effort and a shared mindset across the entire organization to make safety the number one priority for customers and coworkers. Here, listen to a discussion with two industry leaders who live and breathe safety—Lowe’s Director of Safety and Hazmat Hank Jones and Kroger’s Senior Manager of Safety and OSHA Compliance Tina Baumann—as they share the successes and the lessons learned in keeping stores safe.
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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE To stay up-to-date on the latest career moves as they happen, visit the Professional Development page on the LPM website LossPreventionMedia.com. To inform us of a promotion or new hire, email us at peopleonthemove@LPportal.com.
Professionals Advancing Their Careers Janel Perez is now a corporate investigator, and Adrian Rivera is now an AP specialist at 7-Eleven. Ashley Kendall is now investigator of brand protection at Abercrombie & Fitch. Jordan Gove was promoted to group head of risk & compliance at Adairs Retail Group (Australia). Jorge Cajero is now a regional LP representative at Adidas. Greg Sarrail is now senior VP of sales at Alcatraz AI. J. Karen Long was promoted to head of LP (Kuwait), Mahmoud Kalash was promoted to senior AP specialist (United Arab Emirates), and Thaer Haj-Isead – CPO was promoted to LP manager (Saudi Arabia) at Alshaya Group. Rhett Asher is now VP, community relations & partnerships at ALTO USA.
(Germany), Timothy Klass to head of risk & resilience EMEA (Germany), John Lubin CFI, CPP to head of security and LP investigations (UK), Lt. Bhannu Singh, PCI®, CBCP, CSP, TAPA to intelligence and critical incident operations (India), Abigail Holdnak to policy specialist operations LP, Martin H. Lisitza, CFI to investigations data analyst, physical retail investigations, Brent Cohen, CFI, LPC to senior program manager, ORC investigations liaison, Drew Welch, APCIP to security and LP program implementation manager (UK), Darryl Keister, MBA, CFI and John Miller to regional LP managers, Omar Lara to area security manager, Brad Hayes to cluster LP manager, and Freddy Ontiveros to on-road risk manager. Sydney Munsey is now pharmacy diversion manager, Paul Witten, MA is now a senior program manager, Chris McArthur is now physical security manager, data centers (Canada), and Chaitanya Ram Chelamkuri is now prototype security area manager (India). Ed Scearce was promoted to director of assets protection at America’s Thrift Stores.
Jason Coren was promoted to director of global security operations at Amazon.
Amazon announced these promotions: Lee Davies, CPP to head of security and LP (UK), Andreas Seidel, CPP to director of field security and LP EMEA
Eric Spatola is now a territory AP manager at American Freight and Furniture. Wilian Almeida was promoted to LP supervisor, and Luiz Henrique
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Uchoa was promoted to LP coordinator at Americanas sa (Brazil). Kristine L-Lopez, MSc was promoted to manager of fraud investigations at Ascena Retail Group. Marcos Baptista da Cruz Pereira was promoted to regional LP manager at Assaí Atacadista (Brazil). Teresa Warren is now national AP manager at B&Q (UK). Warren Brannon III is now a LP zone investigator at Beall’s. Matthew Tracy is now an area profit protection manager at Bed Bath & Beyond. Nicholas Hrdlicka was promoted to LP project manager at Big 5 Sporting Goods. Sonia Ortega is now a regional LP manager, and Felix Mosquera is now distribution center LP manager at Bob’s Discount Furniture. Miguel Salveron is now a regional LP manager at Brandbank Group (Australia). Hemant Chutani is now a LP analyst at Bunnings (Australia). Adam Eaton is now senior director of AP investigations, and Greg Hietanen, LPC is now a district AP manager at Burlington Stores. Carlos Perez, LPC is now company AP manager at Busch’s Fresh Food Market.
Sarkis Grigorian is now senior manager of global retail security and profit protection at Callaway Golf. Lori Bonacci is now retail LP analyst, enterprise corporate security & LP at Canadian Tire Corporation (Canada). Dawn Trojan, CFI was promoted to field AP director, and Matt Farley is now a field AP manager at CarMax. José Carlos Ginaldo Silva was promoted to senior analyst of fraud and chargebacks at Carrefour (Brazil). Mahesh Singh is now an area manager, loss & prevention at Cars24 (India). John Cornett is now an AP team lead at Carvana. Carlos Alberto Rosa was promoted to LP and corporate security coordinator at Cencosud S.A. (Brazil). Malik Barrett is now a district LP manager at Charlotte Russe. Anderson Assis is now coordinator of LP and inventory at Chatuba Materials and Construction (Brazil). CVS Health announced these promotions: Adam Oberdick to lead director of AP, Timothy Pietraszewski to regional manager, ORC & corporate investigations, and Jason Beck, LPC to security operations manager, corporate security and resiliency. Christina Briggs is now
senior manager of applications and innovation, Brian (BK) Sanders is now manager of security operations, and Kelly Eby, LPC is now a regional AP manager. Dick’s Sporting Goods announced these promotions: Justin Voss, CFI, LPC to senior manager of LP investigations, Lindsay Parker, LPQ to digital LP analyst, and Trevor Polverini to district LP manager. Matt Dorgan is now AP operations senior analyst at Dollar General. Jimmy Madrigal is now regional safety and LP manager at Domino’s.
Anthony Aloisio, CFI was promoted to senior director of LP at Floor and Décor. Andrew Wildey is now a regional AP manager at Follet Higher Education. Bill Hughes is now a regional LP manager at Forever 21. David Hill - Dip CSMP, (M.ISMI), MSyI was promoted to director of profit protection & security – EMEA at Fossil Group (UK). Allie Chretien and Tripp McMillan are now district directors of LP at Gabe’s.
Tim Mottershead was promoted to senior manager - regional AP at DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse.
Alan Fagergren is now director of LP at GameStop.
Ellis White III is now a regional LP manager at DTiQ. Cristian Ayala is now head of stocks and internal control at Easy Cencosud (Chile). Dustin J. Eaton CFE, CAMS, CFCI, CFCS, CAFP, CGSS, CCCI, CCI was promoted to senior director of risk operations at Fair.com. Brent McNeely was promoted to regional AP manager at Family Dollar. Eric Stone, CFI, LPC is now director of LP at Fetch.
Melissa Lauricello, CFI, CFCI is now senior manager of AP investigations, and Sarah Lillard was promoted to regional AP manager at Gap Inc. Joshua Keznor was promoted to senior district LP manager at Giant Eagle. Ed Rainey is now director of LP-specialty at Golf Galaxy/Public Lands/Going, Going, Gone. Christine Sampaio is now country lead, global security operations and resiliency at Google (Canada).
How do you find the best person for the job when they don’t even know they are looking? You call West Coast Recruiting. Placing retail and solution provider LP/AP and security professionals for over 33 years.
www.WestCoastRecruiting.com (818) 506-0516
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
Jeremy Cross was promoted to director of LP at GP Mobile.
area retail profit protection manager (Netherlands) at JD Sports Fashion.
Fabricio Ferreira is now corporate security and LP supervisor at Grupo Fiesta.
Kevin McClanahan, CFI was promoted to division assistant AP manager at King Soopers.
David Pruett, CFI is now an area LP manager at Harbor Freight Tools.
Scott Pickrel, CFI is now director of LP at Kittery Trading Post.
Nicholas Elwell, SEM was promoted to project manager, safety and AP – construction and launch, and Marc Zucaro, LPQ was promoted to a multi-site AP manager at HelloFresh.
Kris Barta, CFI, LPC was promoted to division AP assistant manager at Kroger. Daniel Kelling is now security manager, national supply chain at Kuehne+Nagel.
Dan Nesselroth is now director of LP and safety at Herbl Solutions.
Nicola Williams was promoted to senior LP analyst at Hermes. Ben Thomas was promoted to director of LP/security and Ryan Smith was promoted to regional LP supervisor at H-E-B.
Wolf Ahonen was promoted to senior manager, security and LP, US & Canada at Levi Strauss & Company. Carrie Francis was promoted to senior regional LP investigator at LIDS. Ryan McLaughlin was promoted to district AP manager at Loblaw Companies (Canada).
Home Depot announced these promotions: James Mannarino, LPC to market DC manager AP supply chain, Benny Iradi to manager of rental operations - AP, and Dylan Evans to ORC investigator. Daniel Richards is now a corporate auditor at Iceland Foods (UK). Rikki Acosta, Jamie Peffer, and Sondra Michelin were promoted to senior account managers at InstaKey. Jason Curnow, CFI is now national LP manager at Insomnia Cookies. Mark Stinde was named SVP of operations, retail and compliance at The Integritus Group.
Lowe’s announced these promotions: Kate Early, LPC to senior director of AP process and strategy, Tiffany Paxton, CCII, LPQ to investigations manager, retail crime and fraud, Jose Martinez to regional AP director, Vanessa Rea and Jason Hannula (Canada) to district AP and safety managers, and James Theisen, LPC to manager of physical security. Sara McFann, PhD is now a research scientist at the LPRC. Michael Potvin and Sonia Hernández are now regional AP managers at Luxottica.
Francesca Wood is now a profit protection audit analyst (France), and Bram Janssen was promoted to senior
Will Pratt, CFI was promoted to regional manager of physical security at Lyft. Angel Padilla was promoted to senior investigator LA North, and
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Ricky Limas is now a senior ORC investigator at Macy’s. Jay Francis is now director of LP at Maison Birks (Canada).
Luciano Lima is now a regional LP coordinator at Makro Atacadista (Brazil). Jamie Marquez was promoted to district LP manager at Marshall’s. Chris Austin, LPC is now a regional AP manager at Maurice’s. Meg Whittaker is now a LP partner at Mecca Brands (Australia). Greg DePuy was promoted to regional AP senior manager, and Karen Lelito is now a market AP manager at Meijer. Rodrigo Gomez was promoted to LP senior excellence manager LATAM (Argentina), Marco Ramirez and Aldo Nava are now LP supervisors (Mexico), and José Fuentes Vallejos is now a LP supervisor (Chile) at Mercado Libre. Roberta de Souza Gomes is now a LP senior analyst, and Raissa Hickmann Corbellini is now a LP coordinator at Mercado Livre (Brazil). Michael Jensen was promoted to regional manager of investigations at Meta. Christopher Walden, MBA, CFE now has an additional role as cofounder of the National ORC Investigators Coalition.
Nicolas De Carvalho was promoted to district LP and risk operations manager (France), and David Moore is now manager of LP operations, Asia Pacific & Latin America at Nike. Noe Lares was promoted to district AP manager at Nordstrom. Mark Granquist, CFI is now a district LP manager at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet. Kishan Gupta, CII is now LP manager overseeing Pan India LP operations at OSSLA Group (India). Cleber Nascimento is now a LP supervisor at Pay Less Pharmacies (Brazil). Tim Moore was promoted to director of global security operations (UK) and Jose Montoya, CFI was promoted to senior program manager of global security operations at Peloton. Bryan Hillman was promoted to senior director of field LP and safety at PetSmart.
Mattia Panico is now manager of security intelligence at Poste Italiane (Italy). Ryan Griffin was recently named national sales director at Protos Security.
Weston Pate, MBA was promoted to senior director of LP, risk management, & facilities at Refuel Operating Company. Col. Vipin Bhatia, Shauraya Chakra is now VP, national head, security and LP grocery, pharma, and logistics, and Arun Gupta is now a senior LP manager at Reliance Retail (India).
Gene L. Traylor, CPP is now security manager with S.A.F.E. Management. Oscar Santos, Jr. was promoted to ORC manager at Safeway. Jeana Pantoliano, CFI is now digital manager of investigations, and Robert Henle is now a district AP manager at Saks Fifth Avenue. Briana Cooke is now a district AP manager at Saks Off Fifth. Bill Inzeo is now senior director of global safety and security technology and operations at Salesforce.
Lauren Linsenbach is now manager of investigations and AP analytics at Retail Business Services. Rite Aid announced these promotions: Chuck Lindow, LPC, CFI to divisional AP leader, Daniel Davies, CFI to director of AP solutions, Suzie Prebosnyak to senior leader of investigations, and Beatriz Enriquez to lead AP shrink investigator. Scott Tassinari is now a regional AP director, and Jay Lapierre, Bert Rosa Jr, and Jenn Wismer are now regional AP leaders. Brian J. Aquilina is now group VP, organizational safety and security at Ross Stores.
Chris Reagan is now a regional AP manager at SalonCentric. Cordell White was promoted to regional assets protection director at Sam’s Club. Carlose Estes is now senior director of monitoring operations at Securitas Electronic Security. Sephora announced these promotions: Scott Martignetti, CFI to senior regional LP manager; Brandon Mitchell, Lucious Caston and Tony Saxton to area LP managers; and Casey Kirsner to area LP investigator. Gil Fennell, III was promoted to LP regional director at Shoe Carnival.
Ben Paiste was promoted to senior manager of LP operations at Ross Stores.
Linda Ringuette was promoted to regional LP specialist at Shopper’s Drug Mart (Canada).
How do you find the best person for the job when they don’t even know they are looking? You call West Coast Recruiting. Placing retail and solution provider LP/AP and security professionals for over 33 years.
www.WestCoastRecruiting.com (818) 506-0516
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
Carlos Ortiz is now director of LP at Snipes.
Jason Selkirk was promoted to AP market leader at SpartanNash.
investigations; Kala’i Bustos, Colleen Dillon, MS, Willis Evans, Juan Suazo, Resh Harrian, and Renee Bricker, CFI to district LP managers, and Deviin Mabry, LPQ to ORC investigator. Alfred Harris III and Nick Hanlon are now national task force ORC investigators.
Mitchell Wigler is now a regional LP manager at Spencer’s/Spirit.
Target announced these promotions: Fabiola Morin to senior director assets protection, global supply chain, Kait Thacker to segmentation lead business partner AP – assets and design, Dalibor Kojovic and Andre Pijaca to assets protection director, Peter Nwankwo to director of AP-global supply chain and logistics, and Anne Sisk, Ross Swanson, Vanessa Enriquez, Mark Lilley, Quintin Abney, and Dan Schmidt to assets protection business partners. Tysen Osborn is now director of AP - global supply chain and logistics.
Catherine Stasiowski was promoted to VP, LP and safety at Total Wine & More.
Elvira Vojnikovic was promoted to director of food safety, LP, and workplace safety at Town & Country Markets.
Marc Rojas is now head of data center security, US West and Central, South America, and Canada; Jason Petty was promoted to senior director II, AP; Gerald Corson III was promoted to senior director II, information security, cloud; Mike Rosser was promoted to corporate security, aviation manager; and Carey Yiwen Lu is now director of supply chain compliance (China) at Walmart.
Mark Hart was promoted to national profit protection director at Trulieve. Ryan Robles was promoted to ORC manager, Logan Rivers is now a regional LP manager, and Marc Veilleux is now an area LP manager at Ulta Beauty. Zach Fereday is now a regional lead AP at Under Armour. Brad Gilliam was promoted to VP of LP at Variety Wholesalers.
Michelle Michael is now director of business development at ThinkLP.
TJX announced these promotions: Victoria Anguiano and Robert Toliver to market LP managers; Kaushal Pillay to global safety and security centre specialist (UK); Michelle Chalmers to area LP manager (Canada); Leah Newkirk, Billie Moore, Chris O’Neil, and Ryan Hussey to managers of field
Bryan Finney is now VP of information technology at Vector Security. Michael Currier, CPP was promoted to director of LP and workplace violence prevention, and Pete Tsirakidis CFE was promoted to programs and project management for corporate security at Verizon.
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Adina Spencer, CFI and Arnold Garrido are now regional AP managers at Victoria’s Secret. Jose Barreto was promoted to major crimes - AP manager, Craig Good was promoted to high-risk product analyst - AP, and Pierre Briseno and Jason Conaway are now managers of AP solutions at Walgreens.
Elizabeth Parkes was promoted to manager of retail standards, and Kyle Tooth is now an area AP manager at Staples Canada. Diorge Pinheiro da Silva is now corporate coordinator of LP and fraud at Studio Z (Brazil).
Alexsson Araujo was promoted to LP and asset security supervisor at Via (Brazil).
LossPreventionMedia.com
Don Grimes is now an AP divisional management trainee at Wegman’s Food Market. Timothy Rushdan is now a regional LP manager at Whataburger. Rob Wynn was promoted to senior director of AP at Whole Foods Market.
Roxanne Goldberg, CPP was promoted to senior regional LP manager at Williams-Sonoma. John Pappas was promoted to director of LP at Windsor Fashions. Ollie Duhig was promoted to operations manager - central stores loss at Woolworth’s Group (Australia). Izzy Ratkoceri is now LP manager at Zapp (UK).
Find the Perfect Match
Are you ready to ignite your job or candidate search? Whether you’re an LP professional looking for a new opportunity or an employer looking for new talent to fill a position, LPjobs.com is a resource you cannot afford to miss utilizing if you are truly committed to finding the best job or the best job candidate! We have been helping to find jobs and fill positions since 1999 as the only online resource dedicated to the loss prevention and asset protection profession.
Don’t miss out on the perfect match. Visit LPjobs.com today!
Advertisers ADT Commercial..................................................23 adtcommercial.com ALTO..........................................................................65 alto.us Bosch........................................................................ 21 bit.ly/boschretailsolutions Checkpoint.............................................................25 checkpointsystems.com CIS Security Solutions......................................... 3 cisssinc.com CONTROLTEK..................................................... 108 controltekusa.com/controlspan Cyber Security Summit.....................................77 cybersecuritysummit.com Detex.......................................................................... 7 detex.com/ecl1 InstaKey...................................................................55 instakey.com Intertek Catalyst..................................................63 intertekcatalyst.com LiveView..................................................................26 lvt.com Loss Prevention Foundation..................45, 107 losspreventionfoundation.org Loss Prevention Research Council..............93 lpresearch.org LPjobs.................................................................... 103 lpjobs.com LPM Media Group..............................................105 lpmmediagroup.com NRF Protect............................................................97 nrfprotect.com/lpmag QMI............................................................................ 41 qmiusa.com Riot Glass.................................................................. 2 riotglass.com Securitas.................................................................53 securitases.com Securitech..............................................................39 securitech.com/lossprevention siffron....................................................................... 31 siffron.com ThinkLP....................................................................61 thinklp.com W-Z............................................................................95 w-z.com West Coast Recruiting.............................99, 101 westcoastrecruiting.com Zebra........................................................................37 zebrainventory.com
Calendar Please go to the magazine website Events page or scan the QR code to get the most up-to-date calendar listings. LossPreventionMedia.com/events
Sign up for a Free Subscription for You and Your Team Don’t miss any of our award-winning magazines. Subscriptions are free to retail professionals, law enforcement, and solution providers serving the loss prevention industry in the US and Canada. Have each issue of the magazine sent to your home or office by simply going to LPMsubscription.com or scan the QR code.
Want to have magazines sent to your entire organization? Provide a list or handout magazines to your office or store associates. Bulk quantities of the magazine can be requested by emailing circulation@lpportal.com. We will contact you to work out the best method to fit your organization.
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PARTING WORDS
Jacque Brittain, LPC Editorial Director
Resiliency Standing Front and Center A
The best leaders I’ve ever known have had a passion for professional development, whether that was self- improvement or the development of their team. They realize the burden that comes with being stagnant and reach for opportunities to grow and change.
s we dive deeper into 2022, all of us are looking for ways to shed the burdens that have held us captive over the past two years and return to routines and responsibilities that have defined the things we do and how we go about doing them. History has shown that our greatest attribute in the face of our darkest times is resiliency. We adjust and find ways to bounce back. These are often the times of greatest invention, spawning new innovations that drive accomplishment in the face of adversity. Sometimes it’s a new product or tool that helps us adjust and move forward. Sometimes it’s a concept or idea that helps us grow and evolve. But for all of us, it has to be an attitude.
Stepping Up It’s the time of year when companies are rolling out new programs, reinforcing what is working, implementing new concepts when needed, and searching for the latest trends that push performance to the next level. Especially considering all that has changed—new roles, responsibilities, tasks, and asks—it’s also a time to step up and show what you’re made of. Retail is changing. Customers have new habits and expectations. Companies have made significant modifications to adjust to those needs. Employees are facing new challenges and occasionally new
Spring 2022
frustrations. Most likely, each of you has plenty of opportunities and adventures to deal with as well. But leaders find a way. We build on our successes and grow from our missteps. The best leaders I’ve ever known have had a passion for professional development, whether that was self-improvement or the development of their team. They realize the burden that comes with being stagnant and reach for opportunities to grow and change. They understand that learning comes in many ways. We learn through formal educational programs, through webinars and presentations, through experiences, and from each other. And every way we learn is important. We’re never too good, too smart, too experienced, or “too busy” to learn. Now is a great time to make that commitment and support others in the process.
Stepping Out Spring also finds us in the middle of conference season once again, with many associations holding their first in-person conferences since before the pandemic. The energy and enthusiasm we’ve seen thus far has been infectious, with strong topics, great presentations, and fervent participation from the audiences, with only more of the same expected for the upcoming events.
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Networking is also at a premium, with new leaders and familiar faces peppering event gatherings. For those fortunate enough to have the opportunity, we look forward to seeing you soon. For those of you that may miss the chance to attend, look for our coverage of the events across the magazine’s digital channels. We will be attending more events this year than we ever have and will do everything we can to keep you informed and engaged.
Coming Together As most of you know by now, LP Magazine was recently acquired by the Loss Prevention Foundation, uniting two of our industry’s strongest brands for the betterment of the industry. All of us remain committed to the advancement of the education of our industry through our media outlets as well as certification and exceptional educational courses. This union only further enhances the ongoing relationship that both teams have shared for many years. While we will continue to operate the business units separately, the teams have always shared great synergies and will leverage the reach of both brands to further the knowledge and progression of the loss prevention and asset protection community. We are excited to report that there are great things in the works, and more will soon follow.
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