Take action now against active shooter threats

How one retailer's proactive face matching led to ID, arrest without violence

Active shooter attacks spiked by 52.5 percent in 2021, according to the FBI. Most happened in "commerce" areas, such as shopping malls and grocery stores. In response, retailers are quickly adopting technologies, including face matching, that offer advance warning of threats.

Not all violence is preventable, but retailers can increase their chances of stopping attacks before they start. Here's how one retailer's fast, proactive reaction to a real-life threat led to an arrest with no violence or injuries-and most importantly, before the threatened attack happened.

The retailer became aware of a potential active shooter threat on a popular social media platform. An unknown and unverified individual made a direct threat of gun violence in his post, and he suggested that customers with children avoid the retailer's store.

Minutes after the threat was posted, the retailer ran the profile photo through the FaceFirst Visitor Search Investigation tool. Had the person of interest visited any of the retailer's stores in the past 45 days? Within seconds, the search revealed two face matches at two locations, one from two weeks back and another just one day prior.

The retailer's asset protection team reviewed the matched events and security camera video, then collaborated with local law enforcement. Officers confirmed the man was a known offender, with a record of violent crimes against another retailer and a history of mental illness. Using face matching technology, the retailer formed a threat profile for the man in less than two hours.

Eight days later, the man returned to the retailer's store. As he entered, the FaceFirst system matched his face and immediately generated a match notification. The store management team confirmed the notification and followed the retailer's policy on the notification: "Do not approach-call LE." Law enforcement officers responded quickly and arrested the man nearby. The incident was resolved without violence, and a restraining order was issued soon thereafter. The man has not returned to any of the retailer's stores since his arrest.

Calculate 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-take action today at facefirst.com.
 

Retailers Turning to Dogs to Tackle Brazen Theft?
Desperate NYC merchants turn to K-9 units to sniff out shoplifters

In New York City, one non-profit retail trade group has started using dogs to combat the problem.

Shoplifting has become so rampant that one of the Big Apple’s busiest commercial districts is turning to “man’s best friend” to sniff out thieves, The Post has learned.

The 34th Street Partnership — the trade group serving the neighborhood that includes Macy’s Herald Square, Penn Station and Madison Square Garden — is trying to take a bite out of crime by contracting with a firm that provides K-9 units.

The dogged pursuit was launched this month at the CVS at Eighth Avenue and West 34th Street in the heart of the district that has been plagued with thefts.

The program — which the trade group says costs in the “low-five figures monthly” — was a necessary investment amid a flood of shoplifting complaints and lax enforcement tied to the state’s soft-of-crime laws, according to Ward.

“We decided to have a very visible deterrent,” said Ward, a retired police officer who was chief of staff to former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton.

As part of the initiative with Stapleton Security Services — a firm led by a retired veteran of the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit — three K-9 units accompanied by handlers are posted in the vestibule of the store, and outside, working in shifts.

The partnership says the program still has teeth — noting there’s been success in thwarting sticky-fingered shoppers simply by having the dogs and guards stationed in the vestibule and outside the CVS. Initial reports over five days from Feb. 15-19 show that the K-9 unit prevented at least 25 thefts and deterred others, according to the trade group.

Reports of shoplifting have skyrocketed by nearly 60% in the Midtown South Precinct that encompasses the 34th Street business district — with an increase of 1,000 complaints last year from 2021, according to the most recent available NYPD data.  nypost.com


Over Half of Retailers Boosting LP Budgets Amid Crime Surge
As stores fight $100B in theft, some measures drive away shoppers

Organized retail crime is costing stores roughly $100 billion a year — but some measures to clamp down on the theft could be turning away shoppers.

Stores are having to invest more money in safety and security measures to protect employees, customers and merchandise. Over half of retailers say they boosted budgets for loss prevention capital and equipment. Retailers have also shouldered the cost of hiring additional security personnel to guard stores.

Technological tools to combat theft and fraud include artificial intelligence-driven video analytics at the point of sale, locked merchandise cases, shopping cart sensors and more. The variety of products now under lock and key has grown, too.

Locking up goods can backfire for the retailer. Encased merchandise, meant to deter thieves, can drive away shoppers who tire of waiting for a staffer to unlock items for them to buy. The inconvenience of summoning a clerk to unlock deodorant or razors has caused some customers to turn to online retailers for these kinds of everyday essentials, to save time shopping.

Fortunately, most customers are honest and pay for the goods they take home with them. Only about 2% of visitors to stores act in bad faith, she said.

A new law aims to crack down on organized criminal rings who steal goods for resale. The Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers Act, or the INFORM Consumers Act, goes into effect in June, and will require marketplaces to verify third-party sellers transacting a high volume of merchandise. cbsnews.com


Nike's Nationwide Theft Crisis in the News
Nike is battling theft in stores, warehouses, and even trains

Nike's outlet store in Portland, Oregon, remains closed because of ongoing theft.

Stores, warehouses, even trains. Pick a spot in the supply chain and Nike's probably had to deal with recent organized theft. The sportswear giant is among retailers nationwide dealing with an estimated $95 billion of annual retail theft, and it appears to be ratcheting up efforts with local governments to address the problem.

And while sneaker resell platforms have worked not to allow stolen products on their websites, the recent theft comes at a time when there's a defined, and easily accessible, secondary market for Nikes and other luxury goods.

The sportswear giant last fall closed a celebrated outlet store in its hometown of Portland because of ongoing theft.

Last week, boxes of Nike merchandise got stolen from a warehouse in Memphis, according to the local Fox affiliate. Memphis is a Nike logistics hub. Also in Memphis: Police arrested two suspects who they say stole about $60,000 of Nike merchandise from five rail cars, according to Sourcing Journal.

In Baton Rouge, thieves stole "several thousand dollars" of merchandise recently, a local news site reported.

On Tuesday, police in Napa arrested a man for attempting to steal from a local Nike store after police were made aware of a retail theft crew targeting Nike stores, according to local news reports.

Nike has 344 US stores, including outlet and Converse stores, according to its last annual report.

In Portland, the company is working more closely with city officials to address theft problems at its now-closed outlet store and full-price downtown location, which has remained open. The company hopes to reopen the outlet store.

The company wants the city to let Nike hire off-duty police officers who can arrest shoplifters at its Portland stores or it wants to work out a deal where Nike pays the city to hire more police officers. businessinsider.com


Safety is a Top Retail Priority as Store Shootings Become More Common
Tops markets shares security improvements following mass shooting
Ten people died and three were injured in a mass shooting May 14, 2022, at Tops Market in Buffalo, N.Y. When the store reopened July 15, in addition to store renovations, Tops made safety a priority, and measures implemented include:

• Increased professional security coverage inside and outside

• Collaboration with the City of Buffalo for installation of a Buffalo Safe Cam Surveillance Camera to oversee adjacent intersections

• Enhanced video and alarm monitoring systems

• Installation of an emergency evacuation alarm system designed to activate security measures and simultaneously notify local authorities

• Additional emergency exit above and beyond building code

• New and additional LED lighting in the parking lot and around the building’s perimeter

• Improved egress points and markings in the store

• Improved sight lines and openness of the sales floor winsightgrocerybusiness.com


More and More Mass Killings Linked to Extremism
'We live in an age of extremist mass killings'

US mass killings linked to extremism spiked over last decade
The number of U.S. mass killings linked to extremism over the past decade was at least three times higher than the total from any other 10-year period since the 1970s, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League.

The report, provided to The Associated Press ahead of its public release Thursday, also found that all extremist killings identified in 2022 were linked to right-wing extremism, with an especially high number linked to white supremacy. They include a racist mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 Black shoppers dead and a mass shooting that killed five people at an LGBT nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an age of extremist mass killings,” the report from the group’s Center on Extremism says.

Between two and seven domestic extremism-related mass killings occurred every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s, but in the 2010s that number skyrocketed to 21, the report found. The trend has since continued with five domestic extremist mass killings in 2021 and 2022, as many as there were during the first decade of the new millennium.

The number of victims has risen as well. Between 2010 and 2020, 164 people died in ideological extremist-related mass killings, according to the report. That’s much more than in any other decade except the 1990s, when the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people.

Extremist killings are those carried out by people with ties to extreme movements and ideologies. apnews.com


States Taking Action to Reduce Mass Shootings
States look to remove legal protections for gun industry amid mass shootings
Lawmakers in Colorado and at least six other states are considering changing that, proposing bills to roll back legal protections for gun manufacturers and dealers that have kept the industry at arm’s length from questions of blame.

California, New York, Delaware and New Jersey have passed similar legislation in the last three years.

A draft version of Colorado’s bill, expected to be introduced Thursday, not only repeals the state’s 2000 law — which broadly keeps firearm companies from being held liable for violence perpetrated with their products — but also outlines a code of conduct that, in part, targets how companies design and market firearms.

Colorado is joined by Hawaii, New Hampshire, Virginia, Washington, New Mexico and Maryland, which are considering similar bills.

While the firearm industry is still largely shielded from liability under federal law, the bill in Colorado would make it easier for victims of gun violence to file civil suits, such as the one lodged against Remington in 2015 — the company that made the rifle used in the the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut. pbs.org


Towson business owners hopeful increased police and other efforts will curb crime

Texas Governor Says Most Gun Crimes Involve Illegally Owned Weapons. That’s Not True for Mass Shootings.

Did Mask Mandates Make a Difference? New Analysis Says 'No'
Opinion: The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned?
The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses — including Covid-19 — was published late last month. Its conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist who is its lead author, were unambiguous.

“There is just no evidence that they” — masks — “make any difference,” he told the journalist Maryanne Demasi. “Full stop.”

But, wait, hold on. What about N-95 masks, as opposed to lower-quality surgical or cloth masks? “Makes no difference — none of it,” said Jefferson. What about the studies that initially persuaded policymakers to impose mask mandates? “They were convinced by nonrandomized studies, flawed observational studies.”

What about the utility of masks in conjunction with other preventive measures, such as hand hygiene, physical distancing or air filtration? “There’s no evidence that many of these things make any difference.”

These observations don’t come from just anywhere. Jefferson and 11 colleagues conducted the study for Cochrane, a British nonprofit that is widely considered the gold standard for its reviews of health care data.

When it comes to the population-level benefits of masking, the verdict is in: Mask mandates were a bust. Those skeptics who were furiously mocked as cranks and occasionally censored as “misinformers” for opposing mandates were right. The mainstream experts and pundits who supported mandates were wrong. nytimes.com


Vaccine Mandates Weren't Effective Either, Another Study Says
George Mason study finds 'no evidence' that vaccine mandates in major cities reduced COVID-19 cases
A new study from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University concluded that COVID-19 vaccine mandates in nine major cities did not appear to make a difference in terms of curbing cases deaths from the pandemic.

The study examined mandates and statistics from Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C.

"We find no evidence that the announcement or implementation of indoor vaccine mandate in the cities listed had any significant effect on vaccine uptake, COVID-19 cases, or COVID-19 deaths, and this is largely consistent for all US cities that implemented the mandate," said a working paper on the study, titled, "Indoor Vaccine Mandates in US Cities, Vaccination Behavior, and COVID-19 Outcomes."

The authors, Vitor Melo, Elijah Neilson, and Dorothy Kemboi, noted that vaccine mandates were among a number of measures used with the intention of reducing the spread of COVID-19 and deaths from the illness. As a result, they said, "[m]illions of people were prevented from entering restaurants, bars, gyms, theaters, sports arenas, and other public indoor areas without proof of COVID-19 vaccination," with people and businesses facing "large disruptions."

A key reason for why city-wide mandates were not effective, the study found, is that they are too easy to get around. foxnews.com


The Post-COVID Remote Work Market Has Stabilized
Work From Home: Will 25–30% Be New Normal?
First up this week: 30% of all working days in the U.S. are still at home. That’s down from its peak of 60% in mid-2020, but still way up from the pre-pandemic position of 5%. According to the academics at WFH Research and SWAA, the curve is flattening, approaching what looks like an equilibrium.

Analysis: Be careful what you wish for

Naturally, the proportion of dev work done remotely will be higher. But some of this is the home-working component of a hybrid arrangement—often put in place for no good reason. And the danger is that remote work is usually offshorable work.

“Logical conclusion: … No office at all”

Nearly 30 percent of all work happened at home in January, six times the rate in 2019. … In Washington and other large urban centers, the share of remote work is closer to half. In the nation’s biggest cities, entire office buildings sit empty.

Last spring, the back-to-the-office movement hit a wall, and the work-from-home population stabilized around 30 percent … Workers love it. Employers have learned to live with it.

Why so surprised? Tony Isaac isn’t:

There are a whole lot of jobs that, 30 years ago, could not be done from home, but now can be. It doesn’t seem so odd to me that many types of work don’t produce a physical thing. Technology has been making this transition possible for many decades now. devops.com


US ending extra help for groceries that started during COVID
Nearly 30 million Americans who got extra government help with grocery bills during the pandemic will soon see that aid shrink — and there’s a big push to make sure they’re not surprised.

Officials in 32 states and other jurisdictions have been using texts, voicemails, snail mail, flyers and social media posts — all in multiple languages — to let recipients know that their extra food stamps end after February’s payments. apnews.com


Remote Career Seekers Should Be Hopeful About The Future

How the travel industry explains the weird 2023 post-covid economy