Home Depot Rolls Out New Anti-Theft Technology
Home-improvement chain plans to foil shoplifters with power tools that won't work if they're stolen

Home Depot is introducing power tools that are activated at the cash register

The home-improvement chain is unveiling power tools that won't work unless they're properly scanned and activated at the register via Bluetooth technology. If a thief managed to smuggle a power drill out of the store without paying, the drill simply wouldn't turn on.

Scott Glenn, Home Depot's vice president of asset protection, told Insider about the company's fight against organized retail crime. He made a point to distinguish between "professional shoplifters" and disorganized solo thieves. The pros, he said, frequently are connected to a larger network that can, in some cases, function as a sophisticated "shadow business."

"There are very organized groups where the leaders at the top are recruiting people that are drug-dependent, homeless, or down on their luck and offering them incentives and providing shopping lists to go out and bring back certain products," Glenn said. "At the top levels of these hierarchies, there are absolutely good administrators that understand the return on their money."

Plastic cases that must be opened by a store associate have become a common solution to ward off thieves. But for Home Depot's asset-protection team, locking up all the valuable products seemed like a move that could "damage the brand," Glenn said.

"We certainly don't want to affect the 99.5% of our customers who are just there to pick up their hammers and nails," Glenn said. "We don't want to look like an armed encampment."

The new point-of-sale activation feature will allow the company to combat theft without significantly altering the shopping experience, Glenn said. After getting its suppliers, vendor partners, and internal IT team on board, Home Depot tested the feature at a handful of stores. It will now roll out to a broader assortment, with the goal of scaling to all of Home Depot's 1,988 US stores. businessinsider.com

Retail Body Cams Can Reduce In-Store Violence & Abuse
Protecting shop workers requires better in-store evidence gathering

Retailers can better protect shop workers from abuse and crime through correct evidence gathering.

Violence and abuse towards shop workers is becoming endemic in British society. Video-technology company Reveal CEO Alastair Field tells Retail Insight Network how retailers can better protect shop workers from abuse and crime through correct evidence gathering.

As Andy Marsh, chief constable of Avon and Somerset Police, explains, “One area where we haven’t yet seen widespread use of body worn cameras is the retail sector. It would be incredibly helpful for the police to have access to body worn footage of incidents towards retail staff and security guards in stores, giving us the evidence we need for prosecutions. Without it, the allegation that someone has been threatening, abusive or insulting is a public order offence that can be very difficult to prove.”

The value of desistance

Marsh is one of the police officers responsible for introducing body worn cameras to UK policing. As a result, he understands more than most about how technology can be used to de-escalate heated situations and encourage members of the public to moderate their behaviour.

What it comes down to is ‘desistance’. Marsh said: “The reason the majority of people don’t speed or drink-drive is because rational human beings weigh up the risk and consequences of breaking the law and getting caught. Body worn cameras help provide appropriate desistance, especially where there are forward-facing screens so the person interacting with the wearer can see themselves and their behaviour.”

This view is supported by the evidence, which shows that if the camera is switched on before the intervention becomes hostile, it will generally lead to a de-escalation or moderate the person’s behaviour.

Body worn cameras won’t be enough to de-escalate every situation, but they are proven to improve the efficiency of the police response and reduce the time taken to reach a resolution. Many police forces are looking at ways to make it easier for businesses and the public to collaborate on digital evidence investigations. retail-insight-network.com

Bay Area Retailers Applaud New ORC Task Forces
Retail task force coming to Bay Area amid spike in shoplifting

San Francisco is ranked number 5 out of the 10 top cities for organized crime

That is why the president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce welcomes the announcement of the CHP led organized retail task force coming to the Bay Area.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed the organized retail crime task force legislation, which sends a signal that help is on the way for Bay Area retailers overwhelmed by shoplifters.

That sense of urgency is coming from the president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Rodney Fong. He says the chamber has been active on the state level lobbying for safer streets as the city recovers economically from the pandemic

“For San Francisco to fully recover economically, 1/3 of San Francisco’s economy is tourism-based, so it is very important that we build that consumer confidence,” Fong said. “Also, the confidence of business owners and shopkeepers going to work and employees to feel safe to stand in front of that counter subjecting themselves potentially to harm. we want to make sure that is removed.”

Although the California Highway Patrol will be the lead agency for the organized retail theft task force, the president and CEO of the California Retailers Association, Rachel Michelin, says that doesn’t mean cup officers will patrolling shopping isles inside of retail stores

The task force will be set up regionally in three locations throughout the state, San Diego, Los Angeles, and the Golden Gate region in the Bay Area. kron4.com

Gunshot-Detecting Technology Facing Big City Backlash
Gunshot-Detecting Tech Is Summoning Armed Police to Black Neighborhoods

A Motherboard investigation found that ShotSpotter frequently generates false alerts—and it's deployed almost exclusively in non-white neighborhoods.

Chicago is not alone. Cities and police departments are loath to disclose the locations of their ShotSpotter sensors, but through public records requests Motherboard also obtained years of data from Kansas City, Missouri; Cleveland, Ohio; and Atlanta, Georgia showing where ShotSpotter sensors generated alerts—a proxy for the general location of the sensors.

In all four cities, the data shows that the sensors are also placed almost exclusively in majority Black and brown neighborhoods, based on population data from the U.S. Census.

In Chicago, the technology's reliability is coming under increasing scrutiny. Community members and civil rights activists say false ShotSpotter alerts bring a flood of unnecessary police into their neighborhoods, and even accurate alerts can create dangerous situations. In March, one such alert initiated a police response that eventually led to the killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, who was unarmed when Chicago police shot him.

ShotSpotter's Response

“In general, police department customers determine coverage areas with assistance from ShotSpotter by analyzing historical gunfire and homicide data to assess areas most in need of gunshot detection,” Sam Klepper, senior vice president for marketing and product strategy at ShotSpotter, wrote to Motherboard in response to questions.

“We believe all residents that live in communities experiencing persistent gunfire deserve a rapid police response that gunshot detection enables, regardless of race or geographic location,” the company added. “While gun violence can unfortunately happen anywhere at any time, cities lack sufficient funds to cover an entire city with gunshot detection technology, so they most commonly deploy sensors in neighborhoods with the highest levels of gun violence to make the greatest impact." vice.com

Clear Link Between Mass Shootings & Domestic Violence
Study: Domestic abusers committed 2 of 3 mass shootings from 2014-19
Perpetrators of domestic abuse represent a tiny subset of U.S. gun owners but pose the greatest threat when it comes to mass shootings, according to gun violence researchers who studied cases over a six-year period from 2014 to 2019.

This group is composed of people who have abused an intimate partner or who have a history of having done so, according to research from the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence published in the Injury Epidemiology journal.

Two out of every three mass shootings analyzed in that paper were linked to domestic violence, said Lisa Geller, the lead author of the paper and the state affairs manager for the nonprofit affiliate of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Her team looked at shootings where four or more people died, not including the shooter.

Not only was their a frequent intersection between domestic violence and mass shootings, Geller said, but when the two intersected, it typically raised the risk that someone would die. On average, her research team found, two out of six people will survive a mass shooting if it’s not related to domestic violence, but if it is, only one in six made it out alive.

This small subset of gun owners are taking a lot of lives, not only those of their partners and bystanders but also their own, Geller said. newburyportnews.com

Chicago's Gun Violence Crisis
Mayor Says Chicago ‘Can't Arrest Our Way' Out of Surge in Gun Violence

The mayor called for expanded investments in a variety of programs to help combat gun violence in the city

While Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says more federal cooperation will be required to tackle the problem of gun violence in the city, she also emphasized that other investments will be key, saying that the city “can’t arrest its way” out of the issue.

Lightfoot, speaking during a press availability on Thursday afternoon, said that city officials are exploring different ways to invest in communities, and said that Chicago will focus on the city’s West Side, which has been ravaged by gun violence.

Lightfoot’s comments come as the city saw three mass shootings on Wednesday alone. One teen was killed in North Lawndale, and at least 17 other people were injured in the three attacks, which occurred within a six-hour span of one another.

In all, nearly 30 people were shot on Wednesday alone, according to Chicago police.

Lightfoot says that focusing on issues like gun trafficking will be key, but continued investment in anti-violence programs and other initiatives designed to improve economic conditions in communities throughout the city will be equally as important, especially on the west side. nbcchicago.com

Drive-by shootings up 100% in Seattle; shootings at 5-year high in King County

Sacramento Needs to Increase Consequences of Crimes Say Fresno Law Officials
 

COVID Update

339.7M Vaccinations Given

Back-to-School Shopping Shortages a Warning for Holiday Season?
Scramble for back-to-school supplies offers preview of what's to come

Retailers are having difficulty getting all the pens, folders and other supplies they need for the all-important back-to-school season, amid shipping delays and price hikes.

Retailers are navigating a storm of challenges — higher production costs, cargo delays from China and other Asian countries, and sky-high shipping rates — as they gear up for the industry's second-biggest selling season.

"I'm hoping that when everything catches up, we get more stock," Rowe said at his store packed wall-to-wall with a colorful array of pens and markers. "Business has been really slow."

Following retailers' moves to prune inventories, shoppers may find fewer discounts, smaller markdowns and less merchandise in stores. Retailers "just don't know how much to stock," said Stacy DeBroff, founder of marketing data firm Influence Central, which works with retailers such as JCPenney, Dick's Sporting Goods and Skechers. "There continue to be lingering supply-side issues because manufacturing was done abroad," DeBroff said. JCPenney, Dick's Sporting Goods and Skechers declined to comment on inventory.

Experts say back-to-school may offer a preview of what to expect at Christmastime as retailers pare offerings to limit risk. nbcnews.com

The Great Debate: In-Person vs. Remote Work
Is Idea Generation a Reason to Spend Some Time in the Office? Yes and No

One expert says collaboration in person is key, while another says online collaboration is a better way to expand the pool of ideas.

Most companies are still deep in discussions about where employees will work. While some want employees showing up at a physical location daily, most seem to be endorsing a hybrid model where employees spend some days at the office and others at home.

One reason given for working face-to-face is that ideas flow from face-to-face interaction. In an article on Carnegie Mellon University’s website, Sunkee Lee, an assistant professor of organizational theory and strategy at the Tepper School of Business, offers a twist on this idea.

He said that his research has shown that physically bringing together people who don't typically interact with one another can spark new ideas.

But that’s not the last word on the subject. Darren Menabney, who leads global employee engagement at Ricoh, said in an article for Fast Company: “We don’t have to be less creative when working remotely, or even when working from home—we can be more creative. By leveraging what’s unique about remote work—work from home in particular—we can boost our creativity, both individually and collectively. ehstoday.com

How Retail Executives Recharge
4 retail executives on how to turn off work

Retail Gets Real 229: Execs from BJ’s, P&G, The Container Store and Carol’s Daughter share the importance of setting boundaries and following passions

It’s the time of year for out-of-office notifications. Although taking time off work is important, it can be a challenge for many professionals, and it’s something our friends at the NRF Foundation have been asking industry executives about in their “20 Questions” episodes in recent months. Listen to this week’s episode to learn how a variety of retail executives manage to turn off work and take a break.

Featured in this episode:

● Laura Felice, Executive VP & CFO, BJ’s Wholesale Club
● Damon Jones, Chief Communications Office, P&G
● Satish Malhotra, CEO & President, The Container Store
● Lisa Price, President &Founder, Carol’s Daughter nrf.com

Security Company Lawsuit
Freeman Security Services accused of not paying employees overtime wages
A Florida private security company has been accused of not paying employees proper wages. freeman Security Services is being sued by employees and by Florida Department of Labor.

The lawsuit has also named the company’s president, Darren Freeman. The four-page complaint alleges not paying overtime wages to numerous employees and violations of labor laws. privateofficerbreakingnews.blogspot.com

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