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Check out today's 'Vendor Spotlight' from Interface Systems directly beneath the 'Top News' column to learn how Interactive Remote Video Monitoring benefits retailers and restaurants.

In Case You Missed It

Prosecutors and Retailers Announce Partnership to Combat Retail Crime

Today, the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) and Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) announced a first-of-its-kind national partnership to combat retail crime. The launch of the national partnership follows a successful summit held on June 30, 2022 bringing together leading retailers and prosecutors' offices from around the country to establish open lines of communication between prosecutors and retailers, identify common challenges, share information on repeat offenders, and work together to identify criminal networks targeting local retailers.

"Retail theft is not a victimless crime. As prosecutors, we must protect the safety of retail employees and customers by holding the individuals who commit thefts, violence and other retail-related offenses accountable for their crimes. I look forward to continued discussions with the Retail Industry Leaders Association on how to uncover the criminals who profit from stolen merchandise, prevent thefts and enhance public safety for all who shop and work at our nation's retailers," said Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn, President of the National District Attorneys Association.

Bringing together prosecutors and retailers is essential to combatting organized retail crime and keeping our communities safe. Law enforcement agencies at multiple levels, including the federal government, have established the nexus between organized retail crime and violence, as well as broader criminal activity that includes human trafficking, cybercrimes, drug trafficking, domestic violence and sexual assault. By sharing information and working together to identify the organized criminal networks operating in our communities, we can focus our resources on cases that are vital to public safety.

   Read more in the D&D Daily's Special Report here
 

Crime Q&A: Mike Lamb, Kroger's VP of AP
Exclusive: Kroger targets crime with video technology

The Kroger Co. is utilizing real-time video monitoring to detect and prevent organized retail crime incidents in its stores.

Chain Store Age recently spoke with Mike Lamb, VP, asset protection & safety at Kroger, about why and how the Cincinnati-based grocery giant is leveraging live video and surveillance solutions from LiveView Technologies to combat the rising threat posed by organized retail crime.

What kind of issues was Kroger having with organized retail crime?

Theft has always been problematic for retailers, but organized retail crime (ORC) is a major contributing factor to the overall shrink challenges the industry faces today. In an inflationary environment and concerns regarding a recession, the demand for lower-priced goods accelerates—but so does the market for stolen goods.

What’s more, retailers are contending with “boosters,” or shoplifters with intent to resell, and ‘fences’ that purchase stolen items to repackage for sale online, or even back to the retailers themselves.

Why did Kroger decide to implement LiveView Technologies (LVT) live video and surveillance technology?

The overt, physical presence of LVT’s mobile security units and cameras in our parking lots provide the added benefit of deterrence—which has shown to help retailers to materially decrease parking lot incidents. Uniting LVT’s real-time surveillance technology with our broader ecosystem makes us all more effective when it comes to combating ORC.

How can live video/surveillance technology deter retail crimes before they occur?

It’s important to remember that retailers will never be able to eliminate ORC entirely—there will always be an element of risk and considerations to take into account that protect the customer experience. However, bad actors that encounter even a limited amount of resistance in the form of deterrence often turn away when they see a large surveillance security tower like LVT’s in our parking lots or store entrances.

Are there any future plans for this technology you can discuss?

If you think about the concept of a surveillance tower in a parking lot or at store entrances, and you combine it with other technologies—you have the potential to create an enhanced and more robust solution that also provides retailers with prosecutable evidence.

For example, a cart locking up at a store exit because merchandise hasn’t been paid for could trigger LVT cameras to zoom in on the door, and even follow bad actors through the parking lot to determine which way they went or the type of car they drove away in. Now imagine adding in video matching software to help identify habitual bad actors, and you have a well-packaged criminally evidenced case for law enforcement. chainstoreage.com

Tips for Retailers to Fight Surging ORC
Organized Retail Crime: A Growing Threat for All Retailers
This graphic presents selected insights from our report on organized retail crime (ORC), which discusses the challenges and costs of ORC and how retailers can combat the issue.

ORC has been in the spotlight due to an increasing number of thefts involving high-profile retailers. Retailers need to protect against ORC as it is not only costly but sometimes violent. coresight.com

Retailers Fighting Store Crime Across the Pond
UK: Police should do better in war on shop crime, says BRC

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) and 100+ chief retail execs have written to police and crime commissioners in England and Wales asking them to prioritise shop crime.

The letter is the latest move in a long-standing effort in the industry to cut retail crime, which has been marked by increasing levels of violence, abuse and theft.

The letter notes that the increase in crime “is partly linked to tackling shoplifting [which] pushes up the cost of operating and results in higher prices for everyone”.

The letter, which was copied to the Policing and Crime Minister, shop workers union Usdaw and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, also points out that retailers themselves spent more than £700m on crime prevention last year.

Shop crime became even worse in the pandemic, with retail workers subject to a big rise in violence and abuse, with incidents almost tripling from 455 per day in 2019/20 to 1,300 in 2020/21, according to the BRC crime survey.

The letter asks police and crime commissioners to do several specific things, including working with stores to make reporting crime simpler, monitoring how sentence guidelines are enforced and pushing local police forces to investigate all reports of violence and abuse.

Earlier this year the Government introduced an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act which created tougher sentencing for assaults committed against those “providing a public service or performing a public duty”. talkingretail.com

Tenderloin District Facing Out-of-Control Store Crime
Burglars repeatedly target SF Tenderloin's Asian-owned business
An Asian-owned sandwich shop in San Francisco's Tenderloin district is under siege as burglars have been targeting the business at least twice a week for the past several months. It has gotten so bad at Lee's Sandwiches that every window up front has been boarded up by plywood.

Inside, merchandise has been cleared off shelves for safe-keeping. The executive director of the Tenderloin Merchants Association says the burglars have stolen hundreds of dollars in merchandise in every break-in and caused major damage to property.

He says it is happening so often, the shop owners have stopped calling police. Other Asian-owned Tenderloin businesses have been hit too.

"Right now the sentiment in the community is that the Asian community is an easy target because it's safe to steal from them, because you're not going to get hurt and you're not going to get caught," said Rene Colorado with the Tenderloin Merchants Association.

Rene Colorado says the burglars have also figured out when the association's community ambassadors patrol the neighborhood. Break-ins are timed before ambassadors start their shifts. Those ambassadors have recently started wearing bulletproof vests after one was held up at gunpoint.

The group is now asking Mayor London Breed for more funding to expand the program, and calling on Supervisor Dean Preston's support. abc7news.com

Big Cities Grapple With Gun Violence
What Should Mayors Do After Mass Shootings?

In the wake of major acts of gun violence, city leaders must manage an emotionally grueling and politically charged civic crisis.

Responding to mass shootings has become a dismayingly familiar part of the job for modern American mayors. Since 2009, there have been 279 mass shootings nationwide, killing 1,576 and wounding 1,046, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. (Disclaimer: Everytown for Gun Safety is backed by Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP.)

In recent months, a harrowing spate of high-profile incidents erupted across the US: 10 killed at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York; 21 at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas; seven at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois.

“The list of potential venues is unlimited,” said Dyer. “You can say it won’t happen here, or you don’t want it to happen here, but the fact is, you have to be ready for something to happen. We’re having to prepare to respond to something that we think is unthinkable.”

The sheer prevalence, frequency and geographical diversity of mass shootings in the US has brought about a series of shifts and changes in how cities and municipalities respond to these crises. Indeed, there’s now a formal playbook for mayors to consult in the wake of a massacre. In 2021, the nonprofit UnitedOnGuns, an initiative of the Northeastern University School of Law, released a mass shooting protocol and playbook for municipal officials.

City leaders are also involved in efforts aimed to stop mass shootings before they occur. The National League of Cities said that local governments across the US have been focused on funding more crisis intervention teams, violence prevention, mental health and social services, co-responders, and after-school programs. Many cities have recently taken advantage of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to reduce gun violence. bloomberg.com
 
Click here to see the D&D Daily's collection of big city weekend gun violence

Law Enforcement on High Alert Nationwide Over Violent Threats
FBI, federal law enforcement on high alert due to online threats
Federal law enforcement is on high alert after an unprecedented number of threats against them after searching former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

A joint FBI and Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin sent to law enforcement across the country warned of "...a threat to place a so-called dirty bomb in front of FBI headquarters" and "..general calls for 'civil war' and 'armed rebellion"...and other threats.

The threats, circulating online, also included the name of two FBI agents who took part in the search. Former FBI agent and now criminal defense attorney Stuart Kaplan called the threats outrageous.

"The men and women throughout the 56 field offices across the United States, they're the reason why you and I can have this conversation this morning they keep us safe," he said. Kaplan explains the process the FBI is likely going through when sifting threats.

He told CBS 4, "I think the first thing the FBI is going to do is ensure that our personal safety is front and center. Meaning, that we are taking the necessary precautions to just be a little bit more mindful of our comings and goings. Our mode of transportation, our mode of travel."

Kaplan also said federal offices will likely have tighter security. cbsnews.com

Aurora police relaunches team dedicated to targeting violent crime

Op-Ed: Gun control is not the solution to gun violence in America

US: 94.7M Cases - 1M Dead - 90M Recovered
Worldwide: 596.2M Cases - 6.4M Dead - 570.3M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 362  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 793
*Red indicates change in total deaths

Ikea Shoppers in China Panic as Store Locked Down Over COVID Risk
Panicked shoppers at an Ikea store in China were locked inside for more than 4 hours because of a COVID-19 infection risk, report says

Shoppers reportedly ran to the exits, where security guards tried to close the doors, videos show.

Health authorities in Shanghai locked down an Ikea store for more than four hours Saturday after discovering a visitor had been in contact with a person infected with COVID-19, Bloomberg reported Monday.

The snap lockdown prompted panicked shoppers to scream and run for the exits before the store was forcibly closed, videos posted on social-media appear to show. One clip shows security guards trying to block the doors but dozens of shoppers manage to push past them and run off.

Another clip posted on social-media shows an announcement was made in-store saying authorities had asked for it to be shut immediately and to prevent people from coming in or leaving, per Bloomberg.

Bloomberg reported that the people who didn't make it out of the store had to stay there from 8 p.m. until after midnight. They were then sent to quarantine hotels, according to a shopper who posted about her experience on Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok. businessinsider.com

Companies Look to Post-COVID Remote Work to Save Money 
How much money employers can save when they switch to remote or hybrid work
Many companies are in cost-cutting mode amid rising inflation and recession concerns. Some, like Microsoft and Alphabet, have turned to hiring freezes, while Walmart, Netflix, Ford, and Oracle have announced more widespread layoffs. One underutilized method to lean out the business? Replacing fully in-person work with remote or hybrid models that allow companies to pull back on real estate costs.

Before the pandemic, real estate costs were between 3% to 9% of S&P 500 budgets in all industries besides energy. That might explain why in a recent survey by workplace software provider Robin, 83% of executives said they expect hybrid work to be a cost saver, while 60% said they plan to reduce office space by 50% or more. Companies have long used office space inefficiently, commercial real estate experts say, but the proliferation of hybrid and remote work has them reevaluating these expenses. Among Fortune 500 CEOs, 74% said they plan to reduce office space.

This then raises the question: Does switching to remote or hybrid work actually save money? And do the potential cost-savings outweigh the benefits of having space to accommodate all employees in person, such as mentorship, collaboration, and innovation? fortune.com

UK becomes the first country to approve a dual Covid vaccine targeting omicron

Why some people still haven't had COVID