ADT Commercial Growth Moving Forward

ADT continues to execute on its commercial strategy with the introduction of the new ADT Commercial brand in the first quarter. ADT Commercial brings together the experience, capabilities, and offerings from acquisitions, with the goal of creating a best in class security and life safety provider.

Following its recent commercial acquisitions including Red Hawk Fire & Security, Aronson Security Group, and MSE Security, ADT has announced an asset purchase agreement with Design Systems Group (DSG), a commercial fire and life safety systems provider in Dallas. Headquartered in Grand Prairie, TX and founded in 1999, DSG specializes in the design, installation and maintenance of sophisticated fire and life safety systems for some of the most recognizable commercial clients in North Texas. DSG will join forces with Red Hawk Fire & Security.

For over 20 years, DSG has been providing complete, quality solutions to commercial and industrial customers for their fire and life safety system needs. From design and installation to certification and system maintenance, DSG brings experience, understanding and commitment to every customer location. globenewswire.com
 

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NIST Is Staging An Armed Robbery To Improve Video Surveillance
Before researchers can test the latest video analytics, they need a variety of footage from different angles, conditions and recording quality.

From ubiquitous cellphone cameras to high-end surveillance equipment, the U.S. is on the cusp of having an organic mass surveillance ecosystem. But with the range of recording quality and the limitations of analytics software, how reliable is video surveillance in protecting public safety?

Per their mission, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are keen to find out. In order to test the latest video analytics, NIST first needs a data set, and is soliciting for a contractor to stage and film armed robberies that can be used as a baseline for testing.

The scenario, as proposed by NIST, will be a simulated armed robbery of a convenience store. The staged robbery must include a concealed gun - either an exact replica or real, unloaded firearm - that the perpetrator brandishes as part of the scenario. While researchers are interested in a range of data, one of the central goals will be determining whether video surveillance can identify a weapon. nextgov.com

Analysis: Cannabis Shops Linked To Lower Crime, Increased Property Values
When your state legalizes cannabis, there’s no guarantee that a store will open near you. That depends on your local city or county council, which regulates if and where retails stores are allowed. As more municipal officials are faced with a decision to allow or ban cannabis dispensaries, a new study highlights those dispensaries’ links to lower crime, declining teen use, and increased property values.

According to a report by Leafly titled Debunking Dispensary Myths, the vast majority of current research suggests that allowing regulated cannabis stores actually improves community safety, health, and property values. The report identified, analyzed, and ranked all the major studies addressing this important topic.

Of the 16 studies on cannabis retail’s effect on crime, 12 studies, including ones in the journal Preventative Medicine, and the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization indicate licensed cannabis retail is associated with reductions in crime. benzinga.com

Huge Impact on Retail & LP
15 Retailers Start Accepting Cryptocurrency
Whole Foods, Bed Bath & Beyond and other major retailers are accepting bitcoin, ether and other forms of cryptocurrency for payment. 

Shoppers who sign up in a limited launch of Flexa's SPEDN app can use cryptocurrency to shop at 15 retailers.

Though cryptocurrency has yet to go mainstream, supporters argue that widespread use will make transactions less expensive, private and fraud-resistant.

Global payments network Flexa in its launch Monday announced partnerships with 15 retailers to accept cryptocurrency payments. Among the accepted currencies for shoppers who have the SPEDN app are bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether and Gemini dollars.

Other retailers accepting cryptocurrency-based payments include Barnes & Noble, Baskin Robbins, Crate & Barrel, Express, GameStop, Lowe's, Nordstrom, Regal Cinemas and Ulta. The SPEDN app is so far limited to attendees of the Consensus cryptocurrency conference, but it will become more widely available by invitation in Apple's App Store next week. 

Shoppers at participating retailers can load their digital assets into the SPEDN wallet and scan the app's barcode at checkout. Flexa converts the cryptocurrency to U.S. dollars for the merchant.  

"This is the first real instance of decentralized global retail payments, with the power to make commerce more efficient and accessible for billions of citizens globally."

However, a degree of caution from retailers seems to be lingering over the Spedn launch, and the press release announcing the news lists none of the major partners accepting payments through the app. A report in Forbes details how representatives from both Gemini and Flexa were unable to get their clients to confirm their partnerships over email or talk on the record about the news.

Retail brands might be careful in officially attaching their names to Spedn's launch because the viability and security of cryptocurrency payments have yet to be proven at scale. cbsnews.com

  Forbes: Starbucks, Nordstrom And Whole Foods Now Accept Bitcoin. Just Don’t Ask Them.

Biometrics Institute launches updated Privacy Guidelines to include GDPR & AI developments
The Biometrics Institute is observing Privacy Awareness Week by updating its Privacy Guidelines to provide universal direction on biometric privacy, including consideration of the implications of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In addition to GDPR, the update takes in new developments relating to the increasing collection of personal information by social media platforms, the growth of artificial intelligence, drones, and more sophisticated facial recognition systems, the widespread use of biometrics for border control, telecommunications, security, and food and medical distribution in displaced persons groups. It also addresses redress and complaints by people who have suffered negative outcomes related to biometric systems, and stronger privacy protections for data collection by automated systems, particularly for vulnerable people, provides advice on managing subcontractors, explores the role of audits and privacy impact assessments, managing data breaches, and the right of citizens to have biometric records amended or deleted.

The institute also launched its Ethical Principles for Biometrics at its annual U.S. Conference earlier this year. biometricupdate.com

1 in 4 Police Departments Now Using it
How facial recognition became a routine policing tool in America
The technology is proliferating amid concerns that it is prone to errors and allows the government to expand surveillance without much oversight.

The technology-driven revolution in policing is unfolding in big cities and small communities around the country, as more police departments purchase facial recognition software. The relative ease of operation allows officers to make the technology part of their daily work. Rather than reserve it for serious or high-profile cases, they are using it to solve routine crimes and to quickly identify people they see as suspicious.

Police praise the technology’s power to improve investigations, but many agencies also try to keep their methods secret. In New York, the police department has resisted attempts by defense attorneys and privacy advocates to reveal how its facial recognition system operates. In Jacksonville, Florida, authorities have refused to share details of their facial recognition searches with a man fighting his conviction for selling $50 of crack. Sometimes people arrested with the help of facial recognition aren’t aware that it was used against them.

Because police don’t treat facial recognition as evidence for presentation in court, the technique does not often turn up in public documents and has not been the subject of many judicial rulings. Its use, and spread, are difficult to track.  nbcnews.com

UK: Security standard for surveillance cameras set for launch
A long-overdue cyber security standard for the manufacturer of surveillance cameras is on track for an official launch in June.

Several of the biggest and best-known brands in the surveillance industry have collaborated with a team appointed by UK surveillance camera commissioner Tony Porter to draw up a baseline standard for manufacturers. computerweekly.com

The need for more science & less bias in the talent acquisition process
Employers that use prehire assessments to evaluate job candidates have always faced two significant hurdles: recruiters' perceptions that the tests can scare off top applicants if they are too lengthy or onerous, and doubts whether the tests accurately predict future job performance. But new technologies are slashing the time needed for candidate testing while also accurately scoring unstructured data—like video, audio or text—from candidates.

A 2018 study from Aptitude Research, a Boston-based advisory and research firm specializing in talent acquisition technologies, found that 71 percent of companies are now using at least one assessment provider and 57 percent are using two or more providers. The study's authors said the move is driven in part by recruiters' needs for more science and less bias in the talent acquisition process.

Candidates also are seeing new opportunities for using skill assessments. A recently added feature on Indeed, for example, allows job seekers to add results of assessments to their profiles to help improve their marketability to potential employers.

Employers are using assessments not just for leadership positions but also for customer-facing roles and positions requiring high-volume hiring. Some also have started using them to evaluate the ability of existing employees to assume new or expanded roles. shrm.org

76% of Retailers Believe Their Model Must Change to Survive
Only 3% of retailers believe their current model will remain sustainable in the next five years. “For retailers, a good business model is no longer enough: Being great achieves enviable success, but being average is punished hard.”

That’s according to a new report from OC&C Strategy Consultants and eShop World, released at this year’s World Retail Congress.

Crucial rules for winning in a high-velocity world revealed by the research are:

1. Winning retailers pick their battles: A considered strategic positioning remains vital, especially as the investment required to compete on all fronts is excessive.

2. Being at the frontier of speed is not always necessary: Retailers should be making clear trade-offs about where they operate at the frontier, and where they can afford to follow the leader.

3. Go beyond borders to build your tribe: As the demand for online shopping grows around the world, retailers need to consider their strategy for attracting cross-border consumers.

“Retail has been speeding up for a long time. But in the present high-velocity world, it is not just about speed, but about combining it with meaningful direction.” chainstoreage.com

Latest tariff list is ‘far too great a gamble for the U.S. economy,’ says NRF
A study commissioned by Tariffs Hurt the Heartland and prepared by Trade Partnership estimated that imposing tariffs of 25 percent on all remaining imports from China, combined with the impact of retaliation, would jeopardize more than 2 million American jobs, cost the average U.S. family of four $2,300 each year and reduce the value of U.S. GDP by 1 percent. nrf.com

UBS: Tariffs could put $40B in sales and 12K stores at risk
Tariffs could imperil retailers to the tune of $40 billion in sales and 12,000 stores in just one year, according to a UBS note from analyst Jay Sole.

The industry’s store count contracted 5.3% year over year in the first quarter, the highest rate in at least a decade, they said. Closures accelerated by 100 basis points or 3,125 stores from the fourth quarter of 2018.

Some retailers and stores could benefit by picking up share, but the disruption could reverberate through the industry through "inventory dislocations and discounting which would hurt almost all Softlines companies" and could "make some C malls unviable, which would have a knock-on effect on healthy retailers, not to mention an impact on jobs and the larger economy," analysts said.

As of late March, U.S. retailers had announced 5,399 store closures and 2,396 store openings, compared to 5,726 closures and 3,243 openings for all of 2018, according to a report from Coresight Research. The company's most recent report records 6,196 store closures in the U.S. and 2,724 openings.

The closures include many that are inevitable, but the analysts, who say that nearly 21,000 stores must close by 2026 anyway, warn that the acceleration could be extremely disruptive. "Tariffs could cause over half of this change in one year, rather than four."  retaildive.com

Jewel-Osco employees alleging age discrimination can pursue lawsuit as a group, judge rules
The seven current and former employees/plaintiffs, whose ages ranged from 56 to 61 when they filed their lawsuit in 2017, allege they were targeted because of their age and long tenure as the company consolidated its store management structure in 2011. All of the plaintiffs worked as store directors at different Chicago-area locations that were transitioning from having two directors per store to one who would oversee both the food and drug sections. Some were offered buyouts and declined. chicagotribune.com

Shimming - C-Stores New Threat After EMV
The Last Outpost for Skimming Nearing an End
As more convenience stores upgrade their gas terminals to accept chip cards and become EMV (Europay Mastercard Visa) compliant ahead of the October 2020 deadline, fewer gas pumps are requiring customers to swipe their cards.

Shimming — something of an update on skimming — is a process where fraudsters insert a “shim” into the card reader that allows them to copy the chip-card information. Now, they can’t use that information to create another chip card. But they can use it to make a magnetic stripe card to be used online or at c-store retailers that have not yet upgraded to be EMV compliant.

C-stores can take a number of steps to protect their forecourts from would-be skimmers and shimmers. Just the presence of security cameras can be one deterrent against would-be thieves. Operators should also have a store employee check the pumps each shift. Placing security seals at pump access points can make it obvious if tampering has occurred. Post signs to let customers know not to use the card reader — and to alert management — if a seal appears to be broken. cstoredecisions.com

Texas: Legislature can stop an injustice by redefining what constitutes ‘organized retail theft’
Which of these incidents would you describe as organized crime? A mother stealing a case of baby formula from the supermarket? Thrill-seeking teens swiping clothes and electronics? A mentally ill person walking out with groceries? The answer, of course, is none of them. Yet, under an ambiguously drafted section of the Texas Penal Code, police can charge shoplifters with organized retail theft (ORT). The Legislature has an opportunity to fix the code and protect petty thieves from being treated as organized crime masterminds. statesman.com

Visa: 80 Of 100 US Merchants Offer Contactless Checkout

Brands Testing Check-Out Free Pop-Ups

Is it lights out for Lord & Taylor?