Everon Earns 2 Industry Awards @ ISC West

SSI Announces 2024 SAMMY Award Winners

The SAMMY Awards, now in their 29th year, are among the most prestigious honors that a security systems company can earn.

LAS VEGAS — It’s ISC West week and that means it’s also time for SSI to announce the 2024 SAMMY Award winners.

Now in their 29th year, the SAMMYs — short for the Sales & Marketing Awards — are among the most prestigious honors that a security systems company can earn. When a dealer or an integrator wins a SAMMY Award, it attests to their exceptional expertise in creating sales and marketing materials, executing business best practices and delivering outstanding installations

A panel of judges selected the nominees in each of 11 categories among security dealers and integrators that exemplify professionalism in their sales, marketing and installation efforts. Winners of this award receive exposure in SSI’s magazine, website and electronic communications.

“The SAMMYs are among the most prestigious honors that a security systems company can earn,” says Dan Ferrisi, group editor, commercial and security at Emerald. “The SAMMY Awards that this year’s group of honorees have earned attest to their exceptional expertise in creating sales and marketing materials, executing business best practices and delivering outstanding installations.”

Best Display Advertisement (Print or Electronic): Everon

Integrated Installation of the Year: Everon

Click here to see more SAMMY award winners
 

'Californians Against Retail Crime' Day Recap
Retail Theft Day at the Capitol - Cal Retailers Testifies on Bills and Participates in Press Conference

Hearings and Press Conference Part of Assembly Leadership's "Californians Against Retail Crime" Day

CRA President and CEO Rachel Michelin participated in a press conference this morning, hosted by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and featuring Attorney General Rob Bonta, which focused on all of the Retail Theft bills in the Assembly's "Retail Theft Reduction Act" package heard today in Assembly Public Safety Committee. Rivas and Michelin were joined by the authors of the bills in the Assembly Retail Theft package and other stakeholders including Asssemblymembers Rick Chavez Zbur (Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Public Safety), Kevin McCarty (Chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee), Juan Alanis, Marc Berman, Jacqui Irwin, Reggie Jones-Sawyer, Esmeralda Soria and California Chamber of Commerce President Jennifer Barrera.

Michelin also gave lead testimony in Assembly Public Safety Committee on several Retail Theft bills that are part of the "Retail Theft Reduction Act" package. All of these bills passed out of committee.

CRA's Testimony in Assembly Public Safety |
CRA's Testimony in Senate Public Safety

The Prop 47 Debate Rages on in California

11th Hour Effort By Criminal Justice Advocates to Kill Retail Theft Bills
SEIU and Wealthy Donors Trying to Kill California’s Retail Theft Reform Bills

Doesn’t retail theft impact everyone in the state?

The SEIU has thrown down its cards and is now trying to kill retail theft reform bills – even the bills authored by Democrats. And they are joined by the wealthy spouses of real estate developers, tech billionaires and daughters of oil barons – people who live behind tall walls and secured gates. Their cars and homes aren’t broken into.

Yet because they don’t shop at Target, Walgreens, Home Depot, Walmart, or even Nordstrom and Macy’s, somehow the bills targeting repeat retail theft, organized retail theft, enhancing penalties for selling fentanyl, and making it easier to prosecute car thieves, just aren’t of interest to them – so much so that they are trying to kill them.

Doesn’t retail theft impact everyone in the state – not just the supporters who are collecting signatures to overturn parts of Proposition 47? Nearly 50% of the stores in San Francisco have closed and residents are fleeing the city.

Escalating crime throughout California’s cities and communities has taken its toll on the state’s residents and businesses. Because of Proposition 47, there is no accountability when it comes to these crimes, theft is underreported and some stores are even told not to report theft crimes. And we all are paying the price for the rampant thefts.

The proposed ballot initiative to amend Prop. 47 is currently collecting signatures for the November 2024 ballot. However, as Politico reports: “Criminal justice reform advocates are mobilizing to thwart a ballot initiative that would reverse California’s recent turn away from tougher criminal penalties.

The counteroffensive signals that those advocates fear the initiative to crack down drug and property crimes, backed by prosecutors and major retailers, has a strong chance of landing on the November ballot. If it does, it could unravel a series of recent political victories seeking to overhaul sentencing and incarceration. californiaglobe.com


Retailers Donate Millions for Campaign to Roll Back Prop 47
Campaign to Roll Back Prop 47 Criminal Justice Reforms Could Head to Voters
A campaign by prosecutors and retailers to roll back parts of Proposition 47, California’s landmark 2014 criminal justice reform, could soon move forward. Backers say they believe they have enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. The deadline for the group to submit the 546,651 signatures needed is April 23.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Sacramento are pushing forward on legislation that Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic leaders say would solve the problems critics see with Proposition 47, without a need to go back to voters. On Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas plans to introduce what he’s calling a “comprehensive, bipartisan legislative package,” to attack retail theft.

Proposition 47 reduced charges for personal drug possession and for theft of anything worth less than $950 from a felony to a misdemeanor. It also required that the money the state saved from keeping people out of prison and jail, about $800 million so far, be invested in rehabilitation programs.

But critics blame Proposition 47 for a host of issues, from an increase in drug use and homelessness to what they say is a spike in shoplifting and retail theft, even though state data doesn’t fully support that claim.

The proposed measure wouldn’t entirely repeal Proposition 47, but it would gut some of its key provisions, which were aimed at keeping lower level criminals and drug users out of jail and prison. The proposal would make it easier to charge repeat offenders with a felony and increase penalties for organized retail theft rings.

Backers have raised more than $7 million, mostly from large retailers like Walmart, which has donated $2.5 million, and Home Depot, which cut a $1 million check last month. And many prosecutors in California, who have long been critical of Proposition 47, helped write and are backing the ballot measure. kqed.org


Most Californians Want to Roll Back Prop 47
CA sheriff blasts Newsom's 'failed leadership' on crime, proposes solution

Polling shows the majority of Californians support changes to Prop 47

Riverside County, California, Sheriff Chad Bianco is helping lead an effort to reverse a 2012 ballot measure he says is directly contributing to the homelessness and crime crisis in the Golden State and is calling on Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to get on board.

Prop 47, passed in 2012, reclassified a number of felonies, including retail and property theft, as misdemeanors. Under Prop 47, petty theft of goods valued under $950 is classified as a misdemeanor, even for multiple offenses. It also took a broad swath of narcotics possession offenses that were previously felonies and converted them to misdemeanors.

The ballot measure Bianco is hoping will be on the ballot this November, which he calls the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, will undo the lowering of narcotics possession penalties from felonies to misdemeanors, will allow judges to recommend rehab for drug and substance abuse, and will allow prosecutors to add the value amount of multiple thefts together in order to meet the $950 threshold set by Prop 47 thus cracking down on serial thefts.  foxnews.com

Related Coverage of California's Retail Crime Debate

• Will California Assembly retail theft plan satisfy opponents?
• Commentary: Addressing Organized Retail Theft While Upholding Civil Liberties
• California Democrats bring down the hammer on crime — or try to


DHS Launches Task Force to Combat Chinese Organized Crime Gangs 
The gangs are engaging in “card draining,” in which thieves use stolen or altered card numbers to siphon off money before the owner can spend it

Chinese Organized Crime’s Latest U.S. Target: Gift Cards
Federal authorities are investigating the involvement of Chinese organized crime rings in gift card fraud schemes that have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars or more from American consumers.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has launched a task force, whose existence has not previously been reported, to combat a scheme known as “card draining,” in which thieves use stolen or altered card numbers to siphon off money before the owner can spend it. The initiative has been dubbed “Project Red Hook,” for the perpetrators’ ties to China and their exploitation of cards hung in store kiosks on “J-hooks.”

This marks the first time that federal authorities have focused on the role of Chinese organized crime in gift card fraud and devoted resources to fighting it. Homeland Security Investigations, a DHS agency, began prioritizing gift card fraud late last year in response to a flurry of consumer complaints and arrests connected to card draining.

Over the past 18 months, law enforcement across the country has arrested about 100 people for card draining, of whom 80 to 90 are Chinese nationals or Chinese Americans, according to Adam Parks, a Homeland Security assistant special agent in charge based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parks, who is leading the task force, estimates that another 1,000 people could be involved in card draining in the U.S., mostly as runners for the gangs.

Federal investigators believe multiple Chinese criminal organizations are involved in card draining and are using the proceeds to fund other illicit activities, from narcotics to human trafficking, according to Parks. ProPublica recently revealed Chinese organized crime’s involvement in the illegal U.S. cannabis industry and the laundering of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl profits. ProPublica has also exposed how Walmart and other retailers have facilitated the spread of gift card fraud and has revealed the role of Chinese fraud rings in gift card laundering.

Last November, they convened a two-day summit at DHS headquarters in Washington, D.C., attended by many of the country’s top retailers and gift card suppliers. Federal authorities pushed the industry to share information and help thwart the gangs. The agency then issued a bulletin in December alerting law enforcement across the country about the card-tampering tactics. Parks said about 15 Homeland Security agents are now spending most of their time on Project Red Hook. propublica.org


Is Illinois' SAFE-T Act Letting Criminals Slip Through the Cracks?
Lawmakers want changes to SAFE-T Act to avoid criminals ‘slipping through the cracks’
The SAFE-T Act is again making headlines in Illinois with the pretrial release of an individual accused of being under the influence and crashing his vehicle into a sheriff’s deputy's vehicle, killing her.

State Rep. Dennis Tipsword, R-Metamora, who also serves as the Woodford county chief deputy sheriff, said what Nathan Sweeney, 44, who was apprehended following the death of Dekalb County deputy Christina Musil, did was on the list of detainable offenses. Sweeney, however, was released with the judge citing the SAFE-T Act.

"Reckless homicide is a detainable offense. However, it is very clear in the SAFE-T act that every person is expected to be released unless there are clear and convincing reasons they should be held. Two of those are a danger to society or a flight risk,” Tipsword told The Center Square. “A person who is on that combination of narcotics is inherently a danger to society. If he’s already flagrantly violating the laws to where he's on that kind of a cocktail of drugs, how can we believe he’s not going to go out the day after and do the same thing. This was just a head shaker. This person should have been detained.”

"The SAFE-T act is not perfect but it can be perfected,” Buckner told The Center Square. “We have put together a few trailer bills that have changed some of the language [within the SAFE-T act] based on what we're seeing in the criminal justice space. If there are ways to strengthen this law and keep folks safer and make sure people aren't slipping through the cracks and we are maintaining the spirit of what we tried to do with this bill, now four years ago, then we should absolutely do it.”

Republican members of the TIPS working group have unveiled a flurry of bills like House Bill 5120, which would expand detainable offenses pending trial based on the severity of the offense and determination of whether the defendant poses a real threat to individuals or the community. Tipsword said all of the bills have fallen on deaf ears. thecentersquare.com


Hundreds of 'Burglary Tourists' Nationwide Stealing & Selling Stolen Goods
How so-called ‘burglary tourists’ use visa waivers to target luxury US homes
Prosecutors say the break-in is part of a larger issue in which so-called “burglary tourists” enter the United States from countries that qualify for visa waivers, allowing a visit of up to 90 days without a traditional tourist visa. When the suspects arrive – most often from South America, prosecutors say – they join sophisticated burglary rings that prey on luxury homes.

Spitzer said the stolen goods are often sold quickly and the money is sent back to the suspect’s home country. Most often, that’s Chile, he said, which is now the only remaining South American country that qualifies for the Department of Homeland Security’s waiver program, known as the “Electronic System for Travel Authorization,” or ESTA.

The problem extends beyond California. Last month police in Scottsdale, Arizona, reported they arrested three Chilean nationals in connection with what authorities called a “burglary series” in the city.

Within the last year, police in Baltimore, Maryland; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Nassau County, New York, were among those announcing arrests in cases of luxury home burglaries linked to Chilean nationals in the US on visa waivers.

While there is no formal tally of the number of crimes committed by “burglary tourists,” the number appears to be, at minimum, in the hundreds. Ventura County, California, alone attributed 175 residential burglaries to “transnational theft groups” between 2019 and mid-2023. cnn.com


Chicago crime: Assaults up 7% for year, as women targeted
Chicago’s total assaults during the past year through March increased from the previous 12 months, from 21,416 to 22,948 – a 7.15% increase.

This is as the city is experiencing an increase in seemingly random violence, primarily against women. Several women this year have reported being targeted on the sidewalk, a trend also occurring in other major cities such as New York. illinoispolicy.org
 

Public-safety bills from Memphis legislators make progress in Nashville