'State of Standards' in the Security Tech Industry
ONVIF, SIA host joint webinar to discuss “State of Standards”

January 26, 2023 @ 10:00 a.m. EST

SAN RAMON, Calif. – ONVIF, the leading global standardization initiative for IP-based physical security products, and the Security Industry Association (SIA), the leading association for global security solution providers, will jointly host “The State of the Standards,” a webinar at 10:00-11:00 am EST (15:00-16:00 UTC) on January 26 to discuss the current and future outlook and market impact of technology standards on the evolving security technology industry.

Peter Boriskin, chair of the SIA Standards Committee and chief technology officer at ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions Americas, and Leo Levit, chairman of the ONVIF Steering Committee and director of systems integration at Axis Communications will offer their perspectives on how interoperability standards have accelerated the growth of the security industry and discuss current and future potential directions, impacts and areas of growth.

The webinar is free to attend (register here).
 

LPRC: Humans + AI three times more accurate

New research reveals humans assisted by face matching technology more likely to correctly identify a subject's face

ICYMI: Humans assisted by AI face matching technology are three times more likely to correctly identify a subject's face than without AI, according to new research.

The Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC) provides evidence-based solutions addressing retail loss, safety, and fraud prevention. Dr. Cory Lowe, LPRC senior research scientist, presented his research results October 4, 2022, during the annual IMPACT conference hosted at the University of Florida.

In a presentation titled "Face Off: Examining the Role of AI in Reducing Bias and Improving Decision-Making," Lowe explained how he pitted unaided research participants against those using AI face matching technology. LPRC selected FaceFirst software for the tests. Researchers installed the software in the LPRC lab and conducted the tests independently.

Lowe showed a diverse array of fictional offender faces to 155 research participants; 78 unassisted, 77 assisted. Among the unassisted group, 77 percent misidentified the fictional subjects in a photo lineup just minutes after seeing the fictional subject image. The assisted group got it right 63 percent of the time. "The assisted group did nearly three times better," Lowe said. "There was a 2.7 times improvement in accuracy when assisted by facial recognition."

For context: Humans were only correct on their own 23 percent of the time, even with a small sample of faces they had been shown just minutes earlier. No technology is 100 percent accurate in the wild, but humans alone are demonstrably prone to error. Lowe noted the participants were not told of the AI's accuracy alone (100 percent accurate in this study), so individuals may have discounted the solution's accuracy.

Watch for more details from the LPRC research, including how facial recognition can be used to reduce error and bias, and how it can narrow the LP focus to those individuals who are most likely to offend in retail locations.

FaceFirst considers use of AI with human oversight vital for retailers. Consider the risks of being caught unaware when a known offender enters your store. If you knew there was a proven solution to keep your valued customers and associates safer from violent offenders, would you implement it? The real risk is answering no. FaceFirst's solution is fast, accurate, and ethical-learn more today at facefirst.com.
 

Retail-Law Enforcement Collaboration is Key to Curbing ORC
Why Law Enforcement Should Be Retail’s Biggest Collab: ‘Losses Getting Larger’

How law enforcement, legislators and retailers can cooperate to fight the scourge of organized retail crime was the subject Monday afternoon at the NRF 2023 conference in New York.

Most of the disruptions and frustrations encountered by retailer are beyond their control. While the industry can’t do much about pandemics, recessions, climate change and geopolitical conflicts, one damaging aspect the industry can do something about is theft and shoplifting.

To that end, David Johnston, the National Retail Federation’s VP of loss prevention and retail operations, led a panel discussion with members of state and federal agencies as well as retail to discuss how all parties can partner to get a handle on the rash of increasingly violent and sophisticated organized crime rackets that are severely impacting retailers’ bottom lines.

The panel was part of Monday’s discussion sessions at the NRF 2023 Big Show convention at the Javits Center in New York City. Millie Kresevich, senior director-asset protection for EssilorLuxottica, represented the retail side of the issue, while a pair of government officials addressed the successes they’ve had at the state and local level.

The federal government further responded at the end of 2022 by passing the INFORM Act, which is intended to make it more difficult for retail thieves to re-sell their ill-gotten goods online, but Kresevich would like to see Congress do more.

“The INFORM Act is definitely a step in the right direction,” she said. “If we can put the Combatting Organized Retail Crime Act back on the docket for 2023—we’ve tried to do that a few times, but I think 2023 could be a good year for that.”

Johnston said that in the meantime, communication between retailers and with elected officials is the most vital thing the industry can do to contain this manageable epidemic.  sourcingjournal.com


'Shoplifting Epidemic' Fueled In Part By Unknowing Shoppers?
The recent spike in shoplifting is both overblown and real. And almost everyone is profiting from it (including you).
The NYPD says that retail-theft complaints have gone up 66 percent since 2019, and the problem isn’t confined to New York: 54 percent of small-business owners polled in a recent survey reported a rise in shoplifting with 23 percent claiming their stores were robbed on a daily basis. In April, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board declared that America was battling a “shoplifting epidemic.”

Big-box stores are also frequent marks. In November, Target’s CFO estimated the company would lose some $600 million in profits to theft by the end of the year. In December, Walmart’s CEO warned of store closings and higher prices thanks to shoplifting. And during a recent call with investors, Rite Aid’s chief retail officer said his chain was mulling “literally putting everything behind showcases.”

To New Yorkers at least, it may feel as if everything is behind showcases already. We know all too well the humiliating ritual of hailing a sales associate to retrieve a topical hair-regrowth treatment, lube, or ice cream from behind locked Plexiglas. The loss-prevention method reached high comedy when someone tweeted a photo of a tin of Spam protected by a translucent security box.

Whether the crisis is real or the continuation of a long-standing trend remains up for debate. Every generation goes through a shoplifting panic, and comprehensive data on this frequently unreported crime is nearly impossible to come by. But Rubinov’s crew offers a window into how the shoplifting industry has evolved over the past decade in ways that have made it more visible and more pervasive. Scratch the surface of an operation like his and you’ll find a criminal enterprise in which nearly everyone, from the world’s biggest corporations to the most oblivious online bargain hunters, plays a part.

We all have almost definitely trafficked in stolen goods. If you’re a New Yorker, you might have bought a cup of coffee from a midtown cart that brews exclusively stolen beans or have eaten an Italian sub from a bodega that uses pilfered salami. If you shop online, the likelihood that you’ve purchased stolen merchandise is even higher. Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and others have made it easier than ever to anonymously set up shops like Rubinov’s Treasure-Deals-USA. Fences have never had it so good.

To the extent that there has been a nationwide spike in shoplifting, it correlates to the growth of online retail. As one cop told the Journal, Amazon “may be the largest unregulated pawnshop on the face of the planet.” The problem likely got worse during the pandemic, as more people relied on online shopping and the number of sellers using online marketplaces grew. curbed.com

RELATED: Theft is fueling America's love of buying cheap cosmetics on Amazon


LP Tightrope: Balancing Theft Prevention & Shopper Experience
Retailers are upping theft prevention tactics at the expense of the shopping experience

Retailers’ big push towards combating in-store theft could be a step back for seamless shopping experiences.

Retailers like Walmart and CVS have been locking up more goods to fend off retail crime — even on lower-priced items like batteries, makeup and cleaning products — while others like Walgreens have closed locations due to theft.

“By adding these, let’s call them barriers or hurdles or checkpoints, it is going to create a slightly more bumpy, less convenient customer experience,” said Karthik Easwar, an associate teaching professor of marketing at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. Methods that allow retailers to offer convenience and protection can be very cost-prohibitive, he added. “Once you start saying we’re going to put band-aid [solutions] on, it’s going to create pain points, flaw points, things of that sort.”

Growing retailer outcry

“Along with other retailers, we’ve seen a significant increase in theft and organized retail crime across our business,” Brian Cornell, Target’s CEO, said during a call with investors and analysts in November. “As a result, we’re making significant investments in training and technology that can deter theft and keep our guests and store team members safe.”

No clear solution

Marc C. Heath, CEO and president of professional security services company MCH Security and Protective Services, said shutting down stores is a common tactic retailers have been using on stores that are often targeted. Heath said that stores where theft frequently happens are tagged as “shrink reduction stores.” He added that retailers “will label the store as a location that needs to have extra attention paid to it, whether it’s an increase in staffing, additional resources and training for the store staff to prevent thefts.” modernretail.co


NYC Mayor Adams Sounds the Alarm Over ORC
NYC mayor blames uptick in thefts on ‘organized crime’ & cash-only weed stores
Mayor Adams told Manhattan business leaders Thursday that “organized crime” is partially to blame for an uptick in retail thefts that have plagued the city since the beginning of the pandemic — and slammed those who frame the enforcement of anti-theft laws as “criminalizing the poor.”

“There is nothing acceptable about individuals walking into stores, taking what they want and walking out. And then, when they are arrested for the action, for people to state we’re criminalizing the poor — no, we’re not,” Adams said during remarks to the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. “Organized crime is participating in this action.”

It was not immediately clear whether Adams was referring to the mafia, other organized crime, or more loosely organized groups of thieves looking to take advantage of retailers.

For Adams, who spoke at a Manhattan Chamber of Commerce Anti-Crime Summit, the speech to the city’s business community was an opportunity to bring together two themes he’s focused much of his attention on during his first year in office: crime and New York City’s post-pandemic resurgence.

While Adams questioned the intent of progressives who criticize the enforcement of theft laws, he also acknowledged on Thursday that the city is factoring in the circumstances of suspects in shoplifting arrests.

“Those who are in need of care because they have addiction problems, or if they need food to eat — we are partnering with the district attorneys to state we can address this at the precinct level, have many of our social services organizations come in, interact with these individuals to give them the right care,” he said. “But we’re not going to accept individuals believing that they’re not going to follow the basic rules that ensure this city becomes a place where one wants to do business.”  nydailynews.com


New York Law Imposing Gun Safety Requirements on Retailers
Supreme Court turns down request to block parts of the law

Supreme Court Again Rejects Request to Block New York Gun Law

The latest emergency application came from several firearms dealers who said recent state laws violated the Second Amendment and conflicted with federal law.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down a request from firearms dealers in New York to block parts of recent state laws that they said violated their Second Amendment rights.

Judge Brenda K. Sannes of the Federal District Court in Syracuse rejected the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction, and a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit refused to enter its own injunction while an appeal moved forward.

The challenged measures include ones requiring security systems at gun stores, barring people under 18 from entering them unless they are with a parent or guardian, requiring workers to be at least 21 and requiring background checks for sales of ammunition.

In their own Supreme Court brief, state officials said that the Supreme Court has indicated that it did not intend to cast doubt on, in the words of Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion in 2008 in District of Columbia v. Heller, “laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”  nytimes.com


Fed up with rising crime, business owner leaves Memphis

‘They want notoriety’: Experts debunk myths pertaining to mass shootings
 

US: 103.8M Cases - 1.1M Dead - 100.7M Recovered
Worldwide: 672.5M Cases - 6.7M Dead - 643.9M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 362  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 828

Pandemic Restrictions Are Gone - But the Workplace is Forever Changed
Companies are rethinking office spaces amid the rise in remote work

While workers are slowly returning to the office after the pandemic forced many to work from home, companies are rethinking how they invest in their workspaces.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the jobs that were traditionally done in a physical office space have been done remotely. And while there are no longer pandemic restrictions limiting the ability to gather at work, many people have continued to work from home.

"We don't believe that's going anywhere," said S.R. Mills, chief executive officer of Bear Real Estate Group, a Kenosha-based developer that owns and manages real estate in Wisconsin and 13 other states. "We think that will continue — (though) certainly not to the same degree as it was during the pandemic."

The shift toward remote work has changed commercial development. In downtown Madison for example, only two of the over 70 current, recently completed and planned development projects were offices, according to the Downtown Madison Development Tracker website. Meanwhile, in the Milwaukee area, 73 out of 93 office leases from January through March 2022 were in the suburbs instead of the downtown area, according to Milwaukee Business Journal. wpr.org


Three Year Anniversary of America's 1st COVID Case - 102M Since
It's been three years since the first COVID case was confirmed in the U.S.
It's been three years since the first Covid-19 case was confirmed in the United States. And the World Health Organization says the virus still has not settled into a "predictable pattern." That first case back in 2020 was a man in Washington State who had recently visited Wuhan, China.

Since then, there have been more than 102-million cases in the United States, and more than one-million people have died. Covid was the leading cause of death in the U.S. in both 2020 and 2021. Data is not available for 2022 yet. foxsanantonio.com


China says critical COVID cases have peaked as holiday travel surges

South Korea to Lift Indoor Mask Mandate This Month

U.S. Power Grid Under Attack
Another North Carolina power substation was damaged by gunfire
A North Carolina power substation was damaged by gunfire early Tuesday in the third known power substation shooting in the state since early December.

The FBI and North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations were notified and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is conducting its own investigation, the sheriff's office said.

In early December, two power substations in neighboring Moore County were damaged by gunfire on the same night, knocking out power for tens of thousands of residents for multiple days.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at the time that the Moore County attack "raises a new level of threat," and said state and federal officials would work to "harden our infrastructure where that's necessary and work to prevent future damage."

Energy security experts say it's tough to stop attacks intended to knock out electricity, especially in rural areas.

"The grid is extremely large," said Errol Southers, professor of national and homeland security at the University of Southern California, speaking to NPR last month. "It has about 6,400 power plants across the country, some 55,000 substations and over 450,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines serviced by 3,000 companies. ... It's extremely challenging to monitor and protect. And many of these places are very remote, and so officers have to get there. And by the time they do, the attackers are already gone."

Four power substations in Washington state were damaged by attacks on Christmas Day. Between mid-November and Dec. 8, at least six other attacks occurred on substations in Oregon and Washington. npr.org


Target Security Screening Lawsuit
Target distribution center employees say they're owed money for security screenings
Target fails to compensate workers at its Illinois distribution centers for their time — and overtime — spent going through security screenings prior to clocking in and out of work, a new class action lawsuit alleges.

Plaintiff Luis Cortez claims Target’s alleged failure to compensate workers for their time going through mandatory security screenings ultimately led to workers’ not being paid proper overtime and other earned compensation.

Cortez argues Target also fails to compensate workers for their time spent walking from the security screenings through the distribution center in order to clock-in at or near their assigned work locations.

Cortez wants to represent an Illinois class of all current and former hourly paid Target employees who worked at a Target distribution center in Illinois for at least a week within the last three or ten years.

The time Target employees spent completing the security screenings and walking to their work areas to clock in — and then waiting in line to complete security screenings after clocking out — constitutes “hours worked” under Illinois law, the Target class action alleges. privateofficerbreakingnews.blogspot.com


Safety & Security: #1 Retail Spending Priorities
Retailers’ top technology spending priorities are...

A new survey reveals what technology solutions retailers plan to invest in, and why.

According to a new survey of more than 200 U.S.-based retail IT decision makers conducted by Coresight Research and commissioned by VMWare Inc., more than two-thirds (68%) of respondents plan to increase retail technology spending in the next several years, with close to 30% planning to increase spending by 10%.

When respondents were asked about investment plans for close to 20 different technologies, more than 85% reported they are currently deploying or plan to implement at least one in the near term.

Security/safety emerges as most significant pain point

Respondents indicated security and safety as the most significant potential pain point impacting net revenue. These areas include retail crime, such as e-commerce returns fraud, shoplifting, and cybersecurity breaches.

More than 50% of respondents currently use RFID/smart tags for tracking, making it the most popular currently deployed technology. Other top safety and security technologies indicated by the survey include digital video for loss prevention. chainstoreage.com


Starbucks could be forced to bargain with workers who rejected union
NLRB Claiming Unlawful Threats, Retaliation & Surveillance by Starbucks in Tampa

Managers were so severe that holding a new election at the store would be futile.

A U.S. labor board official is seeking a rare order requiring Starbucks to collectively bargain with workers at a Florida store, even after they voted against unionizing by a nearly two-to-one margin.

The regional director of the National Labor Relations Board's Tampa, Florida office filed a complaint on Tuesday claiming unlawful threats, retaliation and surveillance by Starbucks managers were so severe that holding a new election at the store would be futile.

The campaign, Starbucks Workers United, has won elections at more than 260 U.S. stores and has lost about 70 elections since late 2021. reuters.com


Is The Union Push Running Out of Steam?
Union membership hit record low in 2022

Even as the labor movement scored victories at high-profile companies such as Amazon and Starbucks, the share of the workforce in unions continued to decline

Union membership in the United States fell last year to a new low even as the labor movement scored a string of significant victories at high-profile companies that have long evaded unionization, such as Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, Chipotle and Trader Joe’s.

The share of the workforce in labor unions dropped to 10.1 percent, the lowest on record, the Labor Department said Thursday, even as the total number of union members in the United States grew by 273,000 last year. The labor movement could not keep up as the booming job market added 5.3 million jobs and nonunion jobs grew at a faster clip than union positions.

The disappointing numbers for the U.S. labor movement come at a time of unprecedented worker leverage because of the tight labor market — conditions that tend to favor unions and labor activism. American workers, particularly those in low-wage jobs, have been able to demand higher pay and better treatment from employers, as labor participation rates remain low and job openings remain high with close to two job openings for every job seeker over the past year. That trend is only beginning to ease. washingtonpost.com


Best of NRF 2023: Top 10 Takeaways

ASIS Publishes 13 Steps Organizations Can Take to Prepare for a Bomb Threat