EVIDENCE-BASED LP by Read Hayes, PhD, CPP Dr. 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. © 2015 Loss Prevention Research Council
State of the Profession A
Precision Process
fter participating in the Food Marketing Institute’s conferences, the RILA Asset Protection Conference, NRF Protect, the Retail Council of Canada’s Loss Prevention Conference, the Mexican ANTAD, the British loss prevention conferences, ASIS conferences, the Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC) Impact Conference, and several retailers’ annual meetings over the years, I am so proud of the energy, ideas, and results the loss prevention and asset protection industry is achieving. And the talent and dedication of the people is amazing. But I also have to report that—after twenty-five years of the National Retail Security Survey (NRSS) and other retail loss study findings—overall shrink levels have not really improved much. And anecdotal reports from over forty retail chains indicate theft and violence levels may be rising. So we all have a great challenge ahead of us. Retail companies rely on effective crime and loss control. Desired merchandise needs to get to the right place at the right time and be available for busy customers. Hard-earned sales receipts need to stay in the point-of-sale terminal and be deposited. Loyal shoppers and employees need to be and feel safe in retail environments.
So precision LP means using a logical process to more cost-effectively prevent or control a problem. Precision LP has a few primary assumptions: targeting the mechanisms that create loss more effectively improves location performance; these mechanisms are in part unique to each location; LP decision-makers must have research and individual location data to identify critical mechanisms for specific targeting; and problems leave signatures, such as clusters of particular SKUs, incidents, locations, times, people, and crime methods of operation. But more datasets are needed to help retailers more precisely control problems.
Precision loss prevention, like precision medicine, is an emerging approach for prevention that takes into account individual variability in people, environment, and patterns for each location.
More Precision
Industry Level. We don’t need just big data; we need little data, and most importantly, we need to have all the data flow into a central, secure repository. We need practitioners and scientists alike to feed into and have access to the data. Retailers and researchers would feed in their test results on what things work best on specific problems in specific places via a web-based form that provides the research method and results without revealing the submitting retailer’s name. We would also need to bring together data from broader studies and datasets like the University of Florida’s NRSS, the Centre for Retail Research’s Global Theft Barometer, the evolving National Shrink Database, LERPnet, and others. We would need scientists to evaluate the data and provide simple descriptions of what they found and what that means for a practitioner. We would then build a global best-methods database. The LPRC Research Fusion Center is helping work toward that goal as part of this scenario. We then can work toward a comparative effectiveness matrix for common problems. For example, a practitioner might address a truck-hijacking problem by looking at several anti-hijack methods that have all been rigorously evaluated. Company Level. On the retailer and solution partner level, greater precision means consistently using the problem-solving techniques discussed here and elsewhere, like SARA (scan, analyze, respond, assess), to really identify specific problem causes and then focus solutions on those mechanisms. And in-house assessments
Precision loss prevention, like precision medicine, is an emerging approach for prevention that takes into account individual variability in people, environment, and patterns for each location. Precision LP is part of evidence-based practice—using science to more deeply and broadly understand what combination of the above factors is creating a location’s crime and loss, so more precise countermeasures can be applied. Precision LP should boost positive outcomes—such as lower levels of poor process design and execution, negligence, crime attempts, and loss, and greater profitability—because it is targeted at a location’s specific problems and dynamics. Each location is different along with the causes and extent of its problems. So solutions targeted and dosed for a specific location tend to work better than broad-brush approaches. Stores and distribution centers vary on what and how much merchandise or other attractors they have. Each location operates in varying demographic and transportation conditions meaning more or less numbers of potential offenders, as well as ease of ingress and egress levels. Store designs, in terms of in-store sightlines and visibility, vary widely. Store and other place managers fluctuate on how skilled and committed they are on protective actions. And finally, preventive resources and their relevance vary by site as well.
40
MARCH - APRIL 2015
continued on page 42 |
LPPORTAL.COM
