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The Shifting LP Role Amid Retail's Crime Wave
Reassessing the role of loss prevention amid the ORC surge
With organized retail crime (ORC) on the rise between 2015 and 2020, according to the National Retail Foundation (NRF), and recent media attention of high-profile lootings and smash-and-grabs, perhaps the biggest challenge for loss prevention (LP) executives today is reducing loss and boosting asset recovery where applicable, while simultaneously focusing on safer workplaces.

“In retail, you’ve got to balance protecting inventory and safety of your people. With the violence of today, that safety component has taken a more forward role for the loss prevention executive now than in the past. You’ve got to balance procedures, policies and strategies around employee safety first. Everything else follows after that,” says Alan Saquella, Corporate Security Executive and Assistant Professor at Embry-Riddle.

While insider theft and threats were once the bigger focus, Saquella says retailers have had to shift that focus to a rise in external threats, such as organized retail crime and violent incidents. But before focusing on the generic, it’s imperative to research where the retailer’s loss originates and invest the appropriate time, resources or services to determine the likelihood of specific risks at specific locations.

For loss prevention leaders reassessing their organization’s response to ORC and looting or other potentially violent scenarios, Saquella says they should be willing to look beyond the traditional. For ORC mitigation, the focus should be on technology that can be used to both warn employees of a potential incident before it happens and help law enforcement apprehend such offenders.

While working for one retailer, Saquella’s team realized that for several of the organization’s locations, loss prevention needed to begin outside. “We deployed cameras outside of those stores with artificial intelligence (AI) license plate capture systems. We not only caught several groups this way, but we were also able to share this information, such as vehicle and people descriptions, with other organizations. Working together across retailers is really helpful because you need to catch these people before they ever come in, if you can,” he says. Security teams can also set up such technology to give staff early warning when a license plate is recognized from previous incidents or area crimes, prompting employees to lock doors and/or call the police.

Similarly, video surveillance and AI can help retailers with potential looting or violent crimes by alerting employees to a person holding a weapon or gun in the parking lot and giving them precious seconds to call the police, lock the store, or run and hide. securitymagazine.com

Illinois: New Organized Theft Epicenter?
Crime and budget are top of mind for Illinois lawmakers as session wraps up
“It should come as no surprise with this governor that crime is up across Illinois. Carjackings, armed robberies and murders are all reaching new heights,” House GOP leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs said at a news conference Wednesday. “That is what happens when the governor and his allies like (Cook County State’s Attorney) Kim Foxx push policies that create a consequence-free Illinois for criminals.”

The push by some Democrats for more traditional anti-crime policies comes as the majority party also fights the GOP narrative voiced by Durkin.

But addressing high-profile issues such as carjackings, electronic monitoring for criminal suspects and organized retail theft could be on the table for the final week of the legislative session, Slaughter acknowledged. Adding surveillance cameras on expressways could also be on the agenda, according to Democrats, as well as a plan to recruit more police officers at a time when there’s been a mass exodus in some departments.

Earlier in the week, Senate Democrats, in concert with the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, proposed a tougher approach to organized retail crime, which has garnered headlines through both smash-and-grab theft at high-end stores and large scale operations targeting railroad and trucking cargo.

The proposal, which has bipartisan support, would allow county prosecutors to pursue cases for crimes carried out in different counties; allow the Illinois attorney general’s office to pursue racketeering charges against groups accused of running a criminal enterprise; and require online third-party marketplaces to verify its users’ identities with bank account or other information to make sure they’re legitimate.

But in another example of Democratic differences, Peters, the Chicago Senate Democrat, asked the state to review a claim by the Illinois Retail Merchants Association that “Illinois has become the epicenter for these types of crimes, with organized retail theft growing over 60% in five years,” according to a memo from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority that was obtained by the Tribune.

In a statement issued Friday, the merchants association didn’t back off its previous claim but acknowledged that organized retail crimes have “not been properly tracked or documented,” which the group said is all the more reason to address the problem through legislation. chicagotribune.com

Turning a Blind Eye to Retail Criminals?
Walmart Greeter: I Wasn’t Paid Enough to "Care" About Baby Formula Theft
When Sam Walton wrote about the greeter positions in his autobiography, he knew exactly what he was doing when he created them. They served a dual purpose: to make "older" customers feel more welcomed in stores but to also help provide an extra layer of presumed security. If there was someone at the front of the store saying hello and making eye contact with people, maybe many would-be thieves would think twice before lifting some toothpaste or a few cans of beer from the grocery.

Fast forward to the present day and it's clear that the position isn't doing as much as Walmart would like in order to bolster its loss prevention initiatives. Its estimated that the mega-retailer loses a whopping $3 billion every single year due to theft. And while that may seem like a really, really high number (because it is) that's actually a small percentage of what the retailer grosses annually.

Walmart has implemented a number of anti-theft technologies in its stores, mainly around its self check-out areas. These spots are usually located near the front of the store, which has left many people wondering if the "greeter" position is even necessary anymore.

The efficacy of such a position and the expectation of employees to fulfill its intended purpose is further questioned when one considers how low Walmart's minimum pay is for its employees.

Brandon responded by saying that he would intentionally not hassle customers who had Pampers and Formula in their shopping carts/baskets, even if they didn't pay for it. "Every time I saw a customer, mostly a woman, and I checked the receipt, and I saw Pampers or baby formula that was not on the receipt, I just said, ‘Have a great day,'" Brandon said.

The other reason was because there really wasn't an incentive for employees who curbed thefts; it's not like Walmart was giving a "stopped theft" bonus for every greeter who halted someone from lifting items from the store. distractify.com

Police Shootings Surge 63% Since 2020
Report: 101 police officers shot in the line of duty, a 43% increase from 2021

The latest figure also marks a 63% increase compared to the number of officers shot during the same time period in 2020

The National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) has released a shocking new report: 101 police officers have been shot in the line of duty as of April 1, including 17 fatally, so far in 2022.

This statistic, FOX13.com reported, is a 43% increase compared to officers shot during the same time frame last year. Moreover, it's a 63% increase compared to the numbers in 2020.

"We are in the midst of a real crisis," National FOP president Patrick Yoes said. "Last year was one of the most dangerous years for law enforcement, with more officers being shot in the line of duty since the National Fraternal Order of Police began recording this data."

Yoes continued to say that the data indicates "we are outpacing last year's numbers of officers shot and killed in the line of duty. ... "It is important to remember that when we look at these numbers, they represent people who are fathers, mothers, sons and daughters."

The five states with the highest number of officers shot and killed in the line of duty this year are Arizona, Texas, New York, Georgia and Washington State. police1.com

34% Decrease in Law Enforcement Deaths - 90 Year-to-Date
20 Deaths in March: 3 COVID - 8 Gunfire - 7 Auto - 1 Heart Attack - 1 Fire
In March, 20 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty. The cause breakdown (March 2022 only) is: 3 COVID-related, 8 gunfire, 7 auto-related, 1 heart attack, and 1 fire. This means that the year-to-date total for line of duty deaths is at 90, a 34% decrease from the same time last year.

The Officer Down Memorial Page extends our deepest condolences to the families, friends, and agencies who lost a loved one to a line of duty death this past month. We encourage our supporters to read the memorials of each of the officers who died in the line of duty.   odmp.org

NYC Mayor Ushers In New Version of 'Broken Windows' Policing
Adams makes the case for a centrist approach to national crime wave

"This is my history of fighting against heavy-handed and abusive policing. You can have the justice that we deserve with the safety we need," Adams said.

Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday painted himself as a compassionate but tough-on-crime Democrat as he looks to build his national profile amid a rise in gun violence across American cities.

Adams, who joined the NYPD to reform the department from within before becoming a state senator, was elected mayor on the promise to improve quality-of-life issues and drive down violent crime.

Adams said the NYPD’s controversial new anti-crime unit has taken “20-something guns” off the streets. He called on the federal government to boost funding for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to improve coordination and better track guns flooding cities — a conversation Adams said he had with President Joe Biden and chief of staff Ron Klain on Saturday.

New York City reported the highest number of shootings in a decade, with a 40 percent spike in homicides over the last two years, according to “Face the Nation.” The rise in crime comes as the city is moving into the endemic phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, which killed more than 40,000 residents. The city is also confronting quality-of-life issues Adams described as people injecting heroin in the parks in front of children or going into stores, stealing “whatever they want” and jumping subway turnstiles.

Adams dismissed concerns from CBS’ Margaret Brennan, who asked whether his policies were dressed-up broken-windows policing — an approach used by former Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani that critics said unfairly targeted minorities.

Since taking office on Jan. 1, Adams has deployed hundreds of cops into the subway system to remove homeless people and tore down nearly 250 encampments across the city’s streets. politico.com

Baltimore streets shut down by drivers doing dangerous stunts as crime soars

US: 81.8M Cases - 1M Dead - 65.8M Recovered
Worldwide: 492.9M Cases - 6.1M Dead - 428.6M Recovered

Former Senior Loss Prevention Executive
Know of any fallen LP exec? Let's remember & recognize.

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 354  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 746
*Red indicates change in total deaths

COVID Cases Remain Low in All Regions of the U.S.

A Sign of What's to Come Nationwide?
New York renews mask wearing recommendation in 5 counties as COVID cases surge 17%
Health officials have renewed calls for indoor mask wearing in the Central New York region as COVID-19 cases surged 17% last week and parts of upstate faced some of the worst BA.2 subvariant outbreaks in the country.

New York reported 22,654 COVID cases in the week ending Sunday, up from 19,377 the previous week, and continuing the turnaround that began last month following a brief lull in the pandemic.

Amid the uptick in infections, the state Health Department on Friday issued an alert recommending mask wearing — regardless of vaccination status — in all public indoor spaces in Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga, and Oswego counties. Previously, New York ended its indoor mask mandates for public places and schools on Feb. 10 and March 2, respectively. lohud.com

The Pandemic's Retail Union Boom?
Covid upended labor market & workers are using leverage to push for unions

Warehouse and store employees seeking union membership feel they have no seat at the table.

The Covid pandemic pushed Americans to reconsider how and where they work, resulting in a tight labor market, rising wages and what’s been dubbed the Great Resignation. It also spurred workers, many of them younger, at big companies such as Amazon and Starbucks to flex their newfound leverage with union movements.

Warehouse and store employees seeking union membership feel they have no seat at the table. They’re looking for better pay and working conditions, and they want a say with management in day-to-day operations.

“Employees are feeling powerless, and this solidarity gives them some power,” said Catherine Creighton, director of Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations branch in Buffalo, New York.

Young workers like Harris taking part are driven by a desire to improve the workplace, even if they might not stick around to see the changes come to fruition like union laborers of the past did. Some have little to no experience with unions prior to getting involved in campaigns, but they recognize their power in the current labor environment. cnbc.com

Duty of Care
Workplace Safety More Important Than Ever for Employed Americans

Only half (55%) of working Americans feel their employer has made more of an effort to ensure their safety than in previous years.

Not surprisingly, 90% of American workers believe their organization has a duty of care—a legal and moral obligation—to protect employees from unnecessary risk of harm when working or traveling on their behalf.

This is according to a new study, State of Employee Safety Report, from AlertMedia details employees’ current perceptions of safety in the workplace. The study also found that 82% of employees stated employers’ obligation to keep employees safe extends to those working remotely

But employees are concerned with how well their companies are adhering to those expectations. Only half (55%) of working Americans feel their employer has made more of an effort to ensure their safety than in previous years.

What Worries Employees?

The study found that while the majority of employed Americans remain concerned about navigating public health crises (78%) at work, nearly as many are worried about other emergencies and disruptive events, including cyberattacks (64%), severe weather (65%), crime (61%), significant outages (59%), and workplace violence (54%). Additionally, 83% of U.S. workers say they have encountered at least one emergency situation while working across their careers. ehstoday.com

As employees return to the office, companies grapple with vaccine tensions
Employers may no longer have to worry about potential consequences from the OSHA mandate-or-testing rule, but challenges involving Covid-19 vaccines aren’t going away.

Now that more companies are returning to the office, employment law attorneys say businesses are grappling with new vaccine-related issues, such as friction between vaccinated and unvaccinated workers.

They are scenarios that are accompanied by risk of litigation, discrimination claims and morale issues at a time when businesses are grappling with a host of other challenges.

“Each person will be returning to work having potentially experienced loss, isolation, frustration, illness — you name it,” she said. “Each will also come with their own opinions about the virus, its transmissibility, vaccines, the CDC and probably many other controversial and hotly debated issues surrounding the pandemic.”

She said that makes it critical to have processes and policies clearly documented and widely available to employees. bizjournals.com

The summer of "revenge travel"
After two years of Covid cancellations, Americans are splurging on "revenge travel" to make up for lost time, treating themselves to premium airfares, nicer accommodations and longer stays.

Stop Employees from ‘Mask Shaming’ Colleagues

Medicare enrollees can get free COVID tests at more than a dozen retail pharmacies

McDonald's Sexual Harassment Lawsuit
Former McDonald’s workers win $1.5M in class-action sexual harassment lawsuit
Former workers of a McDonald’s restaurant in Mason, who are part of a class-action lawsuit alleging a culture of sexual harassment, will be eligible to claim awards averaging $10,000, depending on the extent of the harassment they suffered, under the terms of a proposed settlement sent for court approval Monday.

The suit was originally filed in November 2019 by former McDonald’s employee Jenna Ries. In December 2021, a federal judge ruled the lawsuit could proceed on behalf of a class of nearly 100 other women and teenage girls. The judge’s decision was based on evidence showing the “consistency, frequency, severity, and visibility” of the harassment they experienced at the hands of one store manager.

“No one should have to put up with sexual harassment to get a paycheck,” said Ries. “I filed this lawsuit because I didn’t want other women to go through what I did while working at McDonald’s. I hope those who were abused will get the compensation they deserve, but I also hope McDonald’s will listen to survivors, and do everything possible to prevent sexual harassment in its restaurants.”

Ries worked at the Mason McDonald’s for three years and alleged that a manager frequently propositioned her for sex while on the job, used degrading, offensive terms to describe her in front of other workers and the store’s general manager and that he frequently grabbed her in private areas of her body.

Later, three former employees joined Ries in bringing the case, with nearly 20 other women submitting sworn statements in support of the lawsuit. All confirmed similar conduct they experienced at the hands of the same manager.

“While this settlement is a win for dozens of Mason McDonald’s workers who claimed egregious harassment, it, unfortunately, doesn’t go as far as we would have hoped, because McDonald’s corporate wasn’t at the table,” said Gillian Thomas, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union Women’s Rights Project.

While the case originally was filed against McDonald’s as well as its Mason franchisee, the company was looking to be let out of the case, claiming that since it did not directly employ the harasser or the women which he targeted, it was not responsible for the abuse. wilx.com

Russia's Retail Wasteland
These photos show what shopping in Russia is like among closed stores and deserted malls

Russians have seen international firms halt operations and shut shops since the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia is full of closed store fronts and deserted shopping malls after firms have suspended operations in the weeks after the country's attack on Ukraine. A number of retail giants announced they would pause sales and close stores in Russia in the week after the invasion on February 24, including H&M Group, Disney, and IKEA.

Other companies had to abandon initial plans to keep stores open. Uniqlo's CEO promised to keep stores operational, but closed them only days later, citing "operational challenges and the worsening of the conflict situation."

Other big-name outlets are still doing business due to complex franchise agreements with third-party operators. Burger King's parent company, Restaurant Brands International, said it wanted to close stores but could not unilaterally suspend operations, which the main operator "refused" to do, according to a letter sent to staff.

Some McDonald's chains are also subject to franchise agreements. The fast food giant owns a majority of its Russian stores, meaning most have closed in line with the company's withdrawal from Russia. Starbucks also halted sales and closed stores in Russia on March 8. businessinsider.com

Gopuff laying off 3% of its global workforce
Instant delivery firm Gopuff is eliminating 3% of its global workforce of around 15,000 employees, according to reports in Bloomberg and The Information. A spokesperson for Gopuff confirmed the news on Thursday.

The layoffs are part of an internal "realignment" aimed at improving the company's financial performance, co-founders Rafael Ilishayev and Yakir Gola wrote in a letter to employees that Insider posted. "Our ethos has always been balancing scaling the business with fiscal responsibility and long-term value creation," the letter read.

The move underscores the difficulty e-commerce and technology firms face in scaling their businesses, especially as investors shy away from the space, and the capital-intensive nature of instant delivery. retaildive.com

How Walmart thwarted $4 million in elder gift card scams
Technology developed by Walmart helped the retail giant identify and freeze nearly $4 million in gift cards that had been bought by thousands of primarily elderly victims at the direction of con artists who duped them.

The U.S. Department of Justice, after being notified by Walmart, recently seized that money through a federal court action in Arkansas. Now the money can be claimed by victims of the frauds.

But federal authorities say the money that Walmart managed to save for those victims is just a small fraction of the millions of dollars annually lost in so-called imposter scams that rely on the purchases of gift cards. cnbc.com

Grocery Worker Strike Avoided
Supermarkets strike averted: grocery store workers reach tentative agreement
United Food and Commercial Workers International Union 770 announced that local grocery workers reached a tentative agreement Monday. The deal includes wage increases, guaranteed hours for part time workers, stronger health benefits, improved store safety and a secured pension. cbsnews.com

Virginia’s New Rules for Facial Recognition and What They Mean
Does Gov. sign most stringent law in the country regulating its use?

Schultz retakes helm of Starbucks; suspends share buybacks
Schultz announced that Starbucks is suspending its stock buyback program — effective immediately — to invest back into operations, including employees and stores.

Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Chelsea is the first to be unionized

JPMorgan CEO calls for minimum wage hike for cashiers, cooks, or bank tellers