The D&D Daily's Exclusive - Publicly Reported
'Retail Fatalities Report' Q1 2019

Retail Fatalities Up 22% Since 2016

122 Retail Violent Deaths - Down 2% in Q1 From '18
 

122 Retail Violent Deaths in Q1 2019 by Category
34% Suspects - 66% Victims
41 Suspects, 59 Customers, 20 Associates, 2 LP/LE/Security

Click here for full report

 

Dallas DA Creuzot Takes Heat from Council Members Over New Theft Policy
Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot defended his recent decision to stop prosecuting certain quality-of-life crimes over the objections of members of the Dallas City Council's Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee on Monday. The reforms, Creuzot said, are meant to make Dallas a safer, more equitable city, not to enable those who commit low-level offenses, as critics of the new policies have accused Creuzot of doing.

Most controversially, Creuzot also plans to decline prosecuting anyone caught stealing $750 or less worth of necessary personal items, like baby formula, diapers or food.

"Let me apologize, I can't apologize enough publicly. The way this was written was confusing and totally my fault," Creuzot said. "This confusion and lack of understanding - (that's something) I'm going to take personal responsibility for." dallasobserver.com

Published in Thursday's Daily
Dallas DA:  Won't Prosecute Shoplifting Under $750 Unless Financial Gain
Texas Police Union Calls For DA's Removal Over His Plan Not to Prosecute
Certain Crimes


Chicago's Teenage Mob Attacks Designed To Distract Police
Hundreds of teenagers swarmed city streets for the second time in a week on Easter Sunday. This time, police arrested 12 people who contributed to the mayhem that clogged parts of downtown.

Experts said the mobs aren't just disturbances caused by crowds of teens with nowhere to go. They're actually diversions to serve as a distraction so crimes can be committed.

Alderman Brian Hopkins of Chicago's 2nd Ward says pockets of violence sometimes erupt within the mobs. Hopkins said groups of teens connect on social media and make plans to bombard downtown areas together. "They're trying to get large groups together so they can hide behind these groups and commit these criminal acts."

Hopkins said retail theft in particular spikes during these incidents because the police are spread thin and store security guards get distracted with the large crowds. cbslocal.com
 

Police claim IL State's Attorney's Office charges inconsistently
"They create their own laws at the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, using their own discretion, with some people questioning if they're actually legislating at the county level," O'Shea told Wednesday Journal. "The charging guidelines, the guide they used, is inconsistent with what is in state law. It's putting agencies [in a position where they're] not able to help victims; they aren't able to protect."

"They don't want to increase the felony loads in the criminal court room. They claim they consider retail theft a nonviolent crime in itself," O'Shea said. "They didn't feel they wanted to approve it based on their agenda." oakpark.com

Indiana: Attempts to Amend Public Theft
with ORC Bill Fails
A bill that passed the state House of Representatives without dissent Monday would, in some circumstances, dock the pensions of public officials in Indiana who are convicted of stealing public funds.

On Monday, House Bill 1192 passed 81-0 through the House and is headed to the governor's desk. A recent committee discussion on House Bill 1192 underscored the often last-minute efforts to inject failed legislation into bills that are still moving through the General Assembly.

House Bill 1323, which died in the Senate, would have enhanced a prison sentence for someone convicted of theft who sold the stolen items on the internet as a racketeering enterprise. On April 15, Indiana Retail Council President Grant Monahan asked committee members to amend 1192 by including 1323. The attempt to merge the bills failed.

"The bill before you deals with theft. So does House Bill 1323," Monahan said. "It deals with a very serious threat that retailers face every day. It's sort of what I think as the 21st century version of shoplifting."
Monahan's suggestion didn't sway the committee. Committee member Rep. Donna Schaibley, R-Carmel, said, "1323 is a really good bill, and it's very unfortunate it didn't get heard in the Senate. ... These individuals are kind of targeting Indiana because surrounding states have laws that prohibit this. pharostribune.com

Body Cameras for LP Taking Off in UK, Not US Yet
The use of body cameras to protect retail staff, properties and the general public
The effectiveness of body cameras as law enforcement technology is still subject to debate. When it comes to store security personnel, however, they could well be the next big thing.

Walmart's U.K. supermarket chain Asda began outfitting security guards with body cameras last year in an effort to protect them from abuse and attack from the public.

"There's no doubt that body-worn cameras do have a deterrent effect, and we are very supportive of such measures aimed at reducing violence, threats and abuse at work," says Paddy Lillis, general secretary of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, headquartered in Manchester, England.

USDAW notes recent reports from the British Retail Consortium, Association of Convenience Stores and police on the increase of abuse directed toward retail staff. "Worryingly, 56 percent of shopworkers who experience violence, threats or abuse at work do not report the incident to their employer, including 22 percent who were physically attacked," the union says.

The use of body cameras by U.S. businesses, including retailers, hospitals and sports and entertainment venues, is being discussed; so far there has not been much movement toward its adoption. Read Hayes, a research scientist at the University of Florida in Gainesville and director of the Loss Prevention Research Council, says he knows of only one U.S. retailer currently using body-worn cameras - he isn't permitted to identify the company.

Hayes' team is currently working with a camera provider and a retailer to develop an experiment where parking lot personnel like security guards and cart collectors are equipped with body-worn cameras at select stores. stores.org

Student sues Apple for $1 billion, claims face-recognition caused for false arrest
A New York college student filed a lawsuit against Apple for $1 billion, claiming the company's alleged use of facial recognition software in its stores falsely linked him to a series of Apple store thefts.

Ousmane Bah, 18, claims that he received a summons from a court in Boston saying that he stole $1,200 worth of Apple products in 2018, according to papers filed on Monday in Manhattan federal court.

On the day of one of the thefts in Boston, Bah was attending his senior prom in Manhattan, according to the court documents. The suit claims Bah was also falsely blamed for Apple store robberies in Delaware, New Jersey and Manhattan.

Bah says someone must have used his lost ID to pretend they were him after they got caught stealing merchandise from Apple. The college student believes that the iPhone giant accepted the identification and then programmed its security systems to recognize the perpetrator's face as Bah's. usatoday.com

Proposed Washington State facial recognition & data privacy law stalls in House
The bill's easy passage through the State Senate by a vote of 46-1 had seemed to suggest it would likely be approved by the House, but it is now likely dead, at least until the next legislative session. biometricupdate.com

Amazon Opens 11th Go Store in San Francisco
Bezos Talks Go Stores With Shareholders
While not a direct competitor to supermarkets, the Amazon Go format is seen as a threat to brick-and-mortar food retailers. Published reports have said Amazon Go may pop up in new types of locations such as airports and expand to thousands of outlets over the next several years.

In a letter to shareholders last week, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos noted that the company can leverage its technology prowess to help grow its brick-and-mortar retail presence.

"For many years, we considered how we might serve customers in physical stores but felt we needed first to invent something that would really delight customers in that environment. With Amazon Go, we had a clear vision: Get rid of the worst thing about physical retail - checkout lines. No one likes to wait in line. Instead, we imagined a store where you could walk in, pick up what you wanted and leave."

"Getting there was hard, technically hard. It required the efforts of hundreds of smart, dedicated computer scientists and engineers around the world," Bezos told shareholders. "We had to design and build our own proprietary cameras and shelves and invent new computer-vision algorithms, including the ability to stitch together imagery from hundreds of cooperating cameras. And we had to do it in a way where the technology worked so well that it simply receded into the background, invisible. The reward has been the response from customers, who've described the experience of shopping at Amazon Go as 'magical'." He added that he's "excited about the future" for Amazon Go."

Overall, Amazon's U.S. physical stores currently include 479 Whole Foods Markets, 11 Amazon Go convenience stores, 18 Amazon Books stores, three Amazon 4-Star outlets and five Amazon Pop-Up sites. There are also four "Presented by Amazon" mall kiosks.  supermarketnews.com

A closer look at the BOPIS customer experience
Amidst the news of growth in retail sales, and specifically online sales, what is often buried in the headlines is the area of the greatest growth in retail - Buy Online and Pickup In-Store (BOPIS).

In a collaborative research effort to gain a greater understanding of the BOPIS shopping experience, 300 secret shoppers were dispatched to observe activities at 10 top retailers across the U.S.

Download your copy of this insight-filled report to see shopper rankings of the retailers by experience, as well as analysis and rankings of:

● The online purchase process
● Notification time
● The store pickup experience
● What retailers are doing well
● Where retailers are falling short retailwire.com

Is Your Retailer Considering Jumping Into the Cannabis "Goldrush?"
If So Here's What They're Looking For
5 Key Factors to Consider Before Making a Cannabis Acquisition
Cannabis is near the top of that list for growth industries. In fact, spending on legal cannabis in the U.S. is expected to increase from the current $12.9 billion to $20.4 billion in 2022.

As legal issues get resolved and public support increases, the cannabis industry will become increasingly attractive to institutional investors. A recession in the U.S. could further push more investors into cannabis, chasing yield in the strongest growth market over the last few years. cannabisbusinessexecutive.com

 

Pilot Flying J to Hire 5,000 New Employees

Kohl's Expands Amazon Returns to All Stores

BSI reports top supply chain themes for 2019