Newly Elected San Francisco DA Boudin
Self-Proclaimed "Bellwether in the Liberal Movement"

Bad News For Retail Theft in the Bay: It's Going to Get Worse for Prosecutions

Supporters of San Francisco's newly-elected DA chant insults at police union
Chesa Boudin, son of infamous Brink's truck robbers, elected San Francisco DA
The son of a couple who helped kill two cops and a guard in the infamous Brink's armored-car robbery was just elected district attorney of San Francisco. Chesa Boudin learned he won the hotly contested race Saturday - while flying back from visiting his convict dad in an upstate New York prison, the LA Times reported.

Chesa Boudin ended up being raised by Underground leaders Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn in Chicago while his parents were shipped off to prison.

Their son previously worked as a deputy public defender in San Francisco. He also once served as a translator for late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The new DA - who has said he wants to address such issues as police misconduct and racial bias and bail reform in his California city - was supported in his campaign by Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders. nypost.com

Philly DA Uncle Larry, Chicago's DA Kim Foxx and Bernie Sanders
Endorsed the Bay's New DA

San Francisco's new DA pledges not to prosecute public urination, other quality-of-life-crimes

"We will not prosecute cases involving quality-of-life crimes," he said. "Crimes such as public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc., should not and will not be prosecuted. Many of these crimes are still being prosecuted; we have a long way to go to decriminalize poverty and homelessness."

Boudin, a progressive attorney and former public defender, defeated the city's top prosecutor last week after promising sweeping criminal justice reforms. He was one of several progressive candidates elected to district attorney offices across the country in recent years.

By electing Boudin, San Francisco voters added to a nationwide wave of victories by district attorney candidates who promised a radical departure from the punitive, law-and-order policies of the past.

Boudin described his victory as a bellwether in the liberal movement to refocus the criminal justice system on rehabilitation rather than punishment.

In recent years, voters across the country have embraced candidates intent on reducing prison terms, reforming bail practices and being more judicious about bringing charges against defendants, according to the Vera Institute for Justice, a nonprofit criminal justice organization based in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Though he wasn't the favored candidate of California's political establishment, Boudin received important endorsements from prominent liberal politicians and prosecutors from outside the state, including Chicago Dist. Atty. Kim Foxx, Philadelphia Dist. Atty. Lawrence Krasner and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. latimes.com msn.com

Study Shows Hours When Security Officers Are Most Often Attacked
A new study released on Friday, clearly outlines the hours of when uniform security, loss prevention and campus officers are most likely to be assaulted, injured and killed. Using statistics from news reports, law enforcement incident reports, private agency injury reports, US workplace violence data and our own in-house database curated and analyzed during the past sixteen years, our team has mapped out the hours and days that an officer is most likely to be harmed.

The news staff of Private Officer International definitively and conclusively identified two blocks of time each day when private officers and loss prevention were assaulted, injured and killed most often. We have also isolated three days of the week when these attacks occurred the most frequent. Our data, clearly indicates that between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and on Friday, loss prevention, school security officers, and security officers assigned to business complexes, offices and manufacturing and distribution facilities reported being assaulted and injured 41% more often than during other times or days.

During the study, we found that many retail security staff including mall uniformed officers and loss prevention agents made most of their organized retail theft and felony apprehensions during these times and that during these hours, robberies of jewelry stores and boutique shops often occurred.

During the first few days of the week when there are no sales ads running or special event scheduled, retailers including big box stores, sparsely staff stores during the early morning hours when foot traffic is the lowest, leaving much of the store wide open for shoplifters, especially professional shoplifters who easily move about gathering large amounts of merchandise with few interruptions from employees or customers. During these hours, LP agents who challenge these large scale theft suspects, often alone, outnumbered and unarmed, are injured when struggling to take the suspects into custody.

We have also found that since 2007, shoplifters are 23.4 percent more likely to be armed with a knife, firearm, pepper spray or a Taser. privateofficernews.org

Target is expanding active-shooter training for hundreds of thousands
of employees across the US
Target recently expanded active-shooter training to hundreds of thousands of workers in its stores, distribution centers, and headquarters, the company confirmed.

The training was previously given to select leaders and security workers at stores and distribution centers but was expanded to include more employees in stores across the country and at its headquarters.

The training officially rolled out between August and October, a spokesperson for the company said.

A current employee in a California Target store sent Business Insider a document that was handed out to employees in his store in early August, outlining procedures for handling an active shooter situation in the store. The procedures in the document were based on the protocols advised by the US Department of Homeland Security.

The employee who shared the document with Business Insider said that he received it in August, just days after a mass shooting in an El Paso, Texas, Walmart left 22 dead and over two dozen others injured.

"There have been about 15 active shooter situations in the US over the last week," the document reads. "The more prepared we are for this kind of event, the better decisions your team is likely to make if ever confronted with it."

"We consistently review our programs and security measures to help prepare for a variety of potential security situations," Target spokesperson Jenna Reck told Business Insider in a statement. "We enhanced our emergency preparedness and response training, as we do every year, and expanded active-shooter training this fall to include all of our stores, distribution centers and headquarters team members."

Lisa LaBruno, the executive vice president for retail operations and innovation for the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said that Target is not alone in implementing these training programs.

"Retailers across the country developed active shooter training programs long before the El Paso tragedy," LaBruno said. "Retailers regularly reexamine and enhance their programs based off learnings from events, improvements in technology and best practice recommendations."

Walmart offers active-shooter training during orientation and on a quarterly basis thereafter for more than one million employees. businessinsider.com
 

Digitized faces reduce shoplifting risk at self-service checkouts
Digitized human-like faces at supermarket self-service checkouts may reduce the risk of shoplifting, according to an Abertay University study.

Previous research has indicated that rising automation in retail has increased the likelihood of customers behaving dishonestly.

Experts at Abertay developed virtual characters to examine whether their presence at tills would affect shopper behaviour. They discovered that a realistic, human-like face resulted in fewer instances of dishonesty among customers than less human-like characters.

"People are responsive to social human cues, and there seems to be an in-built mechanism that makes us respond to faces and eye contact," said Dr. Andrea Szymkowiak, Senior Lecturer in Human Computer Interaction. "The idea here is that the presence of human-like digital characters may influence shopper behaviour, but further research is required to determine the real-world benefit of such technology." phys.org

Miami-Dade Cops Want Permanent Access to Pinellas County Sheriff's 'FACES' Database
The Miami-Dade County Police Department (MDPD), Florida's largest police force, is seeking to join the many departments in the state with access to the facial recognition database operated by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office (PCSO), which is one of the largest in America, Miami New Times reports. MDPD is attempting to reach a memorandum of agreement with PCSO to use its "FACES" (Face Analysis Comparison and Examination System).

Miami New Times reports that 243 police departments across the state were using FACES as of 2016, that it is used for about 8,000 searches per month, and that the system's accuracy has been subjected to minimal auditing.

Meanwhile in the U.S., non-government organization Open the Government has joined forces with MuckRock to send dozens of FOIA requests to police departments to gather information about their use of facial recognition under its new "Police Surveillance: Facial Recognition Use in Your Backyard" project.

The project has so far found that Hawaii and Ohio are among states running their own state-wide facial recognition systems, while Clackamas County, Oregon, has been experimenting with Amazon Rekognition in coordination with other agencies, despite a claim to the contrary by its public information officer earlier this year. miaminewtimes.com biometricupdate.com

IBIA combats rhetoric in comments on proposed Mass. facial recognition ban
The root concern with facial recognition among privacy advocates and the general public is with surveillance, rather than the technology itself, according to comments provided to Massachusetts congressional representatives by the International Biometrics + Identity Association (IBIA) in opposition to the state's proposed moratorium on facial recognition and other remote biometric systems.

The IBIA urges lawmakers to consider the allowable conditions for surveillance, and for the use or sharing of identity data collected by the department of motor vehicles (DMV), rather than implementing an outright ban on facial recognition. biometricupdate.com
 

Already-struggling retailers face a new challenge: Finding a CEO
More than a dozen major brands have shaken up their executive ranks this year, adding new uncertainty to a fraught industry.

The retail industry, already reeling from high-profile bankruptcies and thousands of store closures in recent years, is facing a new challenge - churn at the top.

Gap chief executive Art Peck abruptly stepped down this week after six straight quarters of declining sales for its flagship brand and a steep drop-off in the retailer's stock price. Nike, Under Armour and Bed Bath & Beyond announced similar shake-ups recently, extending the run of C-level departures that have touched more than a dozen major retailers this year, including Best Buy, eBay, Calvin Klein and Overstock.

The turmoil comes as traditional retailers struggle to keep pace with online competitors. Corporate boards, experts say, are less willing to wait for large-scale turnarounds. That could become even more pronounced, they said, if the economy sours.

A record 172 CEOs left their jobs across all sectors in October, a 15 percent increase from the year-ago period, according to global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

CEO turnover at publicly traded retailers rose to 23 percent in 2017, the last year for which sector-specific numbers are available, vs. 16 percent the year before, according to a study of Standard & Poor's 500 companies by the Conference Board. By comparison, the industry's historical average is 10.5 percent.

Finding new executives who understand the fast-changing industry, they said, has become increasingly challenging. Although boards say they are looking to shake things up with fresh perspectives and new ideas, they often dip back into the same pool of candidates in what amounts to a game of executive musical chairs.

"CEOs of major companies don't grow on trees," said Paula Rosenblum, managing partner at the retail consulting firm RSR. "There is a lot of pressure to find new CEOs, but there are only so many options out there." washingtonpost.com

Editor's Note: A number of top journalists and financial analysts predicted this would happen over the last few years. With digital and merchants being the top two concerns. As a number of retailers had operators and real estate (Sears) executives running a number of retailers. And their old adage of 'retailers need merchants running them' may not be far off base. But there are exceptions. Just a thought.

McDonald's workers say anti-harassment efforts fall short
McDonald's got tough on its former CEO, who was fired last week for having a consensual relationship with an employee. Now, some workers say, the company needs to get tougher on sexual harassment in its restaurants.

On Tuesday, former McDonald's employee Jenna Ries filed a class-action lawsuit against the company and one of its Michigan franchisees. She's one of at least 50 workers who have filed sexual harassment charges against the company with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or in state courts over the past three years.

McDonald's Corp. has taken steps to tackle the problem. Last fall, it introduced harassment training for its U.S. franchisees and general managers. In January, the Chicago-based company released an enhanced policy against discrimination, harassment and retaliation, and in June it began offering a free hotline for employees.

Last month, McDonald's introduced a new training program for its 850,000 U.S. employees and said franchisees supported it. But franchisees - who own 95% of McDonald's U.S. restaurants - aren't required to offer the training. apnews.com

Starbucks sees traffic decline after going to open restroom policy
Some 18 months after a racial incident in Philadelphia led Starbucks to institute an official policy to open its U.S. coffeehouses and bathrooms to anyone, regardless of whether they make a purchase, a study finds the Seattle giant may be paying a big price for its pledge to be a third place for all people. Monthly visits to Starbucks dropped 6.8% compared with other nearby coffee shops after the open-bathroom policy was put in place in May 2018. forbes.com

New C-Store 'Refreshing the Restrooms' Effort Includes Amber Lighting
Wonder if it will have the similar effect as blue lighting?

Amazon will launch new grocery store as alternative to Whole Foods
Amazon on Monday said it plans to open its first new brand of grocery store in Woodland Hills, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California next year, as it amps up its ambitious push to become a bigger name in food. The store will be different from Amazon-owned Whole Foods, the company said. It didn't say whether it will open more of these locations, what its selection or pricing will be, or what the brand name is. But in the jobs postings, the company described the Woodland Hills location as "Amazon's first grocery store," suggesting that it will have the Amazon brand name and that the company could expand to multiple sites. The store won't use the company's Amazon Go technology, which allows customers to check out without waiting in line. Instead, checkout will be conventional as at other grocery stores, the company said. cnet.com

Meijer Cutting Down Food Waste With New App
Meijer is testing Flashfood, a mobile app that helps lessen store-generated food waste by allowing shoppers to buy near-expiring products at a discount. The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based supercenter retailer said yesterday that it's piloting the app at four stores in metropolitan Detroit. With Flashfood, customers can browse and buy foods nearing their "best by" date at up to 50% off regular prices, according to Loblaw. supermarketnews.com

Weekly US Store Closures: Week 45
In the US, 9,037 store closures announced year to date, compared to 5,844 for the full year 2018; 3,807 store openings announced year to date, compared to 3,258 openings in 2018. coresight.com
 

Senior LP & AP Jobs Market

Director of Asset Protection for MobileLink/Cricket Wireless in Sugar Land, TX
The position will be responsible for Internal theft investigations, External theft investigations, Major cash shortage investigations, Fraudulent transaction investigations, Missing inventory investigations, Reviewing stores for physical security improvements, Liaison with local Police Depts and make court appearances, Interview associates for dishonest/unethical activities, Detailed report writing to properly document investigations, Work closely with surveillance Dept. to identify potential issues, Design and recommend policies to reduce losses, Work to enhance the safety of the stores, Overall proactive drive to control losses in the company. recruiting.adp.com

Program Dir. LP & Security posted for Peloton Interactive in New York City, NY
The Program Director of Loss Prevention & Security (Operations, Physical Security/International Operations) manages the global Security program within the Logistics/Operational environment. All incident management, shrink control, physical security, loss prevention/product protection, workplace violence, investigations and crisis response events within the logistics environment are the responsibility of the Program Director of LP & Security. This leader will work closely with IT, construction and design teams to provide oversight of security system installation as well as training programs for operational teams. This leader will support the Sr. Director of Loss Prevention, Security and Safety in Peloton's international expansion strategies. linkedin.com

Cool Job: Dir. of Safety & Security for the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland, OH
Under the direction of the Senior Director and working with the Security Manager and Senior Security Coordinator, the position will be responsible for full time and part time event security activities at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. While an emphasis will be placed on event security operations, there will be duties to provide supervision with the full-time security needs. Responsibilities include interacting and assisting the Staffing Office to schedule shifts for all events, dark day activities, and all outside fieldhouse activities. teamworkonline.com
 

Neiman Marcus Cuts less than 100 at HQ

PCI SSC's Enhanced Contactless Payment Standard

ICSC Webinar This Thursday: Consumer Holiday Shopping Habits


Quarterly Results
Maurices Q1 comp's up 7%, sales
Canadian Tire Q3 retail comp's up 2.7%, sales up 'marginally'
Ralph Lauren Q2 North America comp's up 2%, wholesale down 6%, total revenue up 1%
Quarate Retail (QxH, QVC, Zulily, Cornerstone) total revenue down 4%