Interface Brings Interactive Monitoring to IPConfigure's Orchid VMS Deployments

The integration unlocks advanced interactive monitoring capabilities for multi-location businesses that have implemented the Orchid video management system.

St. Louis, MO (February 13, 2024) - Interface Systems, a leading managed service provider of business security, actionable insights, and purpose-built networks for multi-location businesses, today announced that it has further expanded its offerings by bringing interactive remote video monitoring with Virtual Guard to customer sites that use on-premises and cloud-based deployments of IPConfigure's Orchid video management platform.

Read more in today's Vendor Spotlight column below
 

LA Shoplifting Surged 81% in '23 - But Stepped Up Efforts Are Making Progress
Since August 600+ arrests, recovered 29 firearms, and recovered $5.5M+ in property

Shoplifting in Los Angeles soars 81% in 2023

Thieves hit stores across the city, from Canoga Park to Sawtelle to Downtown

News reports about retail theft were inescapable in 2023, and when the year came to an end Los Angeles had entered unprecedented territory: There were 11,945 shoplifting reports in the city, according to publicly available Los Angeles Police Department data.

That represents an 81% increase over the previous year. The 2022 figure was consistent with annual totals in the five years before the pandemic.

Overall retail crime-shoplifting is just one type-is tabulated in a category the LAPD labels Personal/Other Theft. That rose by a comparatively measured 15% in 2023. According to LAPD Compstat data, there were more than 35,000 such reports.

In response, the LAPD in August joined with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, police agencies from Santa Monica and Burbank, and other entities to form an Organized Retail Crimes Task Force.

Around the same time, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he was tripling California Highway Patrol resources in the Los Angeles area to combat organized retail crime.

At last month's announcement of year-end crime statistics, Police Chief Michel Moore pointed to results from the stepped-up efforts. "What we have seen is since August more than 600 arrests and recovered 29 firearms, and importantly recovered more than $5.5 million in property," Moore stated.

At the crime statistics press conference Mayor Karen Bass stated, "The task force that the chief set up has absolutely reduced the smash and grabs. There has been a 33% reduction in flash robberies."  xtown.la


Auror Helps Police & Retailers Track Down ORC Groups
Australia: 'Stealing for a day job': Professional shoplifters target meat
A significant spike in meat theft from supermarkets has been linked to organised retail crime groups who are "swarming" shops. Meat theft increased by 85 per cent between 2022 and 2023, according to data from retail crime intelligence platform Auror, which works with companies such as Coles, Bunnings and Woolworths.

There were more than 67,000 incidents of meat theft recorded on the platform nationally last year. Pork was the most popular meat to steal, with thefts increasing by 35 per cent, followed by lamb at 31 per cent and beef at 15 per cent.

Auror chief customer officer Rhod Thomas said the majority of retail crime was perpetrated by organised, professional individuals - 60 per cent of in-store thefts were conducted by just one cohort.

"These people are stealing for a day job - literally putting the uniform on to go steal every day, hitting multiple retailers," he said.

Thomas said Auror shared with local police its data on perpetrators, locations hit and items stolen. This information, for example, led to Victoria Police arresting a man driving with $2000 worth of lamb, salmon and prawns stolen from Coles in Cairnlea in northwest Melbourne in 2022.

Australian Retail Association director Paul Zahra said nearly half of retailers reported a rise in organised crime in the association's latest membership survey.

Zahra said retailers were increasingly using technology to combat shoplifting, but this was hurting smaller family businesses unable to invest in extra security measures. watoday.com.au


The Retail Theft 'Trifecta'
Opinion: The golden age of shoplifting

Crisis or not, retail theft has political, commercial and social implications.

Is there really a crisis? Maybe. A genuine concern justifying the governor's emphasis on it and her task force? Absolutely. But why do we think there might be a crisis?

Because major retailers across the country are saying so. They point to billions in lost inventory to "shrinkage," which includes shoplifting. But these retailers are shy on providing specifics, apparently for proprietary reasons, and because shrinkage also includes employee theft, security problems with self checkout, warehouse and shipping theft and a host of other inventory control problems.

Which is not to suggest the retailers are deceiving us about the negative effects of retail theft, or the increase in plain old shoplifting. A better gauge of the extent is looking at arrest records for petit larceny, which since the mid-pandemic have been steadily rising to record levels.

Bear in mind that when big retailers like Target or Walgreen's complain that shrinkage is getting out of control, every politician in the country pays attention, and so does the public. It's political dynamite. The loss of a store for such a reason would be a major blow to any community, both for the goods and services it provides but also as a concrete symbol of the failure of public safety.

Which brings us to why we seem to have a significant concern in 2024 brought on by a degree of retail theft that we have not experienced before.

Consider it a trifecta. When the emboldened criminally inclined intersect with a lack of accountability for their actions and the rewards of those actions considerably exceed their risks, you get the mess we're in. Of course the last is just a refinement of accountability. Which is the point of all this. We have dropped the ball on accountability. timesunion.com


Despite Positive Trends, Americans Still Feel Crime is Out of Control
Violent crime is dropping fast in the U.S. - even if Americans don't believe it
"At some point in 2022 - at the end of 2022 or through 2023 - there was just a tipping point where violence started to fall and it just continued to fall," said Jeff Asher, a crime analyst and co-founder of AH Datalytics.

In cities big and small, from both coasts, violence has dropped.

"The national picture shows that murder is falling. We have data from over 200 cities showing a 12.2% decline ... in 2023 relative to 2022," Asher said, citing his own analysis of public data. He found instances of rape, robbery and aggravated assault were all down too.

Yet when you ask people about crime in the country, the perception is it's getting a lot worse.

A Gallup poll released in November found 77% of Americans believed there was more crime in the country than the year before. And 63% felt there was either a "very" or "extremely" serious crime problem - the highest in the poll's history going back to 2000.

There are some outliers to this trend - murder rates are up in Washington, D.C., Memphis and Seattle, for example - and some nonviolent crimes like car theft are up in certain cities. But the national trend on violence is clear.

But changing the view of crime is about playing the long game, he added. "Crime affects people very personally. The only way to get people to change their perceptions on a macro scale is for progress to continue."   wgbh.org


New Law Could Imprison Porch Pirates for Up to 7 Years
Porch pirate theft now a felony in certain cases in Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania, stealing packages from someone's front door could now officially be considered a felony offense. Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 527, which expands penalties for porch pirates, during last year's legislative session. The law was signed by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro back in December and officially went into effect on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024.

The new law creates stiffer penalties for repeat offenders and people who steal higher-value packages. According to SB 527, porch piracy is considered a third-degree felony if the value of the stolen items exceeds $2,000, or the accused thief has two or more prior convictions for mail theft. Penalties include up to seven years in prison if convicted.

The porch pirate legislation was one of many new laws that went into effect in 2024.

To deter porch pirates from targeting your home, police recommend installing a security camera outside the front door, rescheduling deliveries if you're not going to be home, or using a tracking service to get notifications when your packages are scheduled to arrive. cbsnews.com


CHP captain says retail theft is "very profitable, and there's low penalties"
CHP Captain Shawna Pacheco said, "In our interviews with them, it's been very clear that it's easy, it's very profitable, and there's low penalties, and they know that."

Businesses To Combat Bensalem Retail Crime
Bensalem Police held a summit recently to help businesses battle retail thefts, which have risen 35 percent in the past two years.

Opinion: When it comes to retail theft, everyday Californians are getting swindled

As omnibus crime bill passes Council, some DC neighbors remain concerned

Coming Soon: Robots Working in Stores
Now Working At A Retailer Near You: Robots
The number of robots working in retail stores has grown significantly. But they're not the fun ones from science fiction that respond to you with dry wit or the scary ones that can blow up your house with their eyes. Robots have become mundane and unremarkable in retail stores and that is worth remarking on.

Most companies in the business agree that consumers aren't ready to interact with robots in a store. But whether they are best utilized in the customer areas or in the back of the store or the distribution center is a debate.

Brain Corp. makes software that runs robots in every Walmart, Sam's Club and Kroger store in the U.S. The robots mop the floors and a tower on the mopper scans the shelves for inventory outages or misplaced products. But the robots only run when the store is not open to consumers.

To get a return on investment on robots in retail, the technology will go "from structured to unstructured tasks," from doing one repetitive thing to different things that require independent decision making on the part of the robot so that it can work 24 hours a day doing multiple tasks.

Cardenas of Apptronik said the way to introduce robots is in the "back of the house," the back of stores or in distribution centers where there are no consumers. Those are environments where the software that runs the robot can learn more complex tasks at lower risk.

So there it is. The capital has to be available. The robots need to be trained. The employees need to get comfortable. The customers have to accept it and not be concerned about robots with laser weapons.

Robots at retail is happening now and the tasks over time will go from the most simple to the most complex. But it's going to be a long journey of training, acceptance and appropriate returns on capital before it's everywhere. forbes.com


Diversity in the Workplace is Key to Retaining Employees
Survey: Employees Prioritize Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Employees who feel their workplace is not inclusive are as twice as likely to leave.

Employees are walking their talk. A recent report, State of Work, from HRBrain.ai, surveyed 2000 employees and explored diversity, equity, inclusion (DE&I) and pay equity. One of the most important findings of the survey was that employees who perceive their workplace policies as not inclusive are twice as likely to be actively looking for new employment opportunities.

Only 42% of those surveyed felt their company effectively implemented DE&I policies. A more nuanced finding was examining internal communications using a DE&I lens. In that case just 42% feel their companies' internal communications are unbiased and inclusive.

On the inclusion side of the equation, 58% report not feeling their voices are heard within the workplace.

These views translate directly to how employees choose companies as the survey found that 51% of the workforce weighs a company's commitment to DE&I heavily in their job acceptance decisions.

On the other side of the coin, if workers aren't content with company policies, they begin to look elsewhere as 30% of those surveyed were doing. ehstoday.com


Retail Looks to Automation
ProGlove study shows retail managers are cautiously optimistic about automation
Up to 36.5% of retail leaders looking to automate expect to see benefits from new technology in two to five years, according to a recent study from wearable technology developer ProGlove. The Chicago-based company surveyed more than 1,000 retail management professionals in the U.S., U.K., and Germany for its "Leadership Insights for Retail Warehouse Management" report.

ProGlove also found that 26.6% are expecting returns in five to 10 years, and 8.6% are expecting it to take a decade or more. According to the company, this data shows retailers have a lot of patience when they invest in technology.

The study also showed that there's a lot of room for growth and optimization in the automation space, said the company. Almost one in five of the respondents, 19.3%, indicated dissatisfaction with their current automation initiatives.

Nearly half, 44.2%, said they were somewhat satisfied, while only 6.3% of respondents said they were very satisfied with their robotics and automation. therobotreport.com


Strong January Retail Sales - Up 3.24% YoY
NRF: January retail sales are 'great' start to new year
Retail sales in January nearly matched December's busy holiday spending and rose significantly year over year, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, powered by Affinity Solutions, released by the NRF.

Core retail sales - excluding restaurants, autos and gas - were down a "slim" 0.04% month over month and up 3.24% year over year in January, according to the Retail Monitor calculation. That compared with increases of 0.19% month over month and 2.4 year over year in December.

Total retail sales, excluding automobiles and gasoline but including restaurants, were down just 0.16% month over month and up 2.34% unadjusted year over year in January. That compared with increases of 0.44% month over month and 3.07% year over year in December. chainstoreage.com


Consumer prices rise 3.1% in January, defying forecasts for a faster slowdown

Has Claire's Cracked the Code for Gen Zalpha Consumers?

Tallahassee, FL: Man accused of stealing $28,000 worth of electrical wire with fraudulent barcode scheme
A man in Florida is under arrest again, this time accused of ripping off multiple Lowe's and Home Depot stores to get his hands on electrical wire without paying. Authorities say he used a fraudulent barcode scheme in 15 counties throughout Florida and the southeast US. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said it found Edrey Santo Rojas went into stores and took "authentic barcodes off smaller rolls of wire in the same color." Then, they said he "placed those barcodes on larger rolls of wire that cost between $300 to $500 a piece. "Rojas then purchased the wire at the store using a debit card, but at the steeply discounted price." But he reportedly wasn't done, even with that discount. "Rojas then traveled to a different store, entered empty-handed, and selected wire matching the receipt to conduct a fraudulent in-store return." They also said he did it frequently, stealing $28,405 worth of electrical wire during "78 confirmed and documented thefts and fraudulent returns" in seven months. Rojas, 38, has been arrested a dozen times in Lee County, Fla., mostly for fraud.  thenationaldesk.com


Four Celina High Students Arrested After Wapakoneta Gun Burglary
On February 12, 2024 Celina Police received information about four Celina High School students involved in the burglary of a Wapakoneta, Ohio gun store the night before. Celina Police officers began investigation and identified the students and conducted searches of multiple area residents. All 17 guns stolen in the burglary were recovered as well as one previously stolen from a car in Celina. Celina Police were assisted by Wapakoneta Police and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. The firearm stolen in Celina was stolen Saturday night from an unknown victim.  mercercountyoutlook.net


Kern County, CA: Bakersfield pair arrested for suspected thefts from Kern Walmart stores
A pair was arrested Thursday at a house in the 1700 block of Orange Street in Bakersfield on suspicion of multiple theft-related charges after police officers found nearly $15,000 of merchandise stolen from Walmart stores throughout Kern County, according to the Tehachapi Police Department. Arel Sonny Martinez and Amanda Nicole Mendez, 30, of Bakersfield were arrested on suspicion of burglary, grand theft, conspiracy, possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools and possession of methamphetamine paraphernalia. The TPD found stolen jewelry, video gaming and electronics equipment. Investigators found that Martinez and Mendez were pawning the items or selling them for cash through social media, TPD said.  bakersfield.com


Bellevue, WA: 5 charged in organized retail thefts of over $17k in Nordstrom merchandise
Five suspects in an organized retail theft ring that stole over $17,000 worth of merchandise from a Bellevue Square store have been charged, according to the Bellevue Police Department. The thefts happened during three incidents over the course of two days, according to police. According to court documents, Benito Uriostegui, 22; Gerald A. Hood, 23; Jesus S. Delgado, 22; Randy E. Navarrete, 28; and an unknown man went into Nordstrom in Bellevue Square and stole items on Jan. 10. The suspects took eight handbags worth about $10,087 and left the store without paying.  king5.com


Foley, AL: 2 arrested in Foley for organized retail theft
Foley PD said they arrested two suspect for organized retail theft. According to police, Don and Tanya Deweese had stocked up over $700 worth of items from a store and never stopped at the self-checkout. Tanya Deweese is also charged with possession of Oxycodone pills. Both suspects have been released on bond.  fox10tv.com


Portland, OR: Police arrest 13, recover stolen cars in Retail Theft Sting Operation

San Rafael, CA: Police arrest suspected roofing supply thieves: $4,000 of merchandise recovered