Q1 Fatalities Up 63% Since 2016 - Most Ever Recorded



• 163 Fatalities – Up 63% Over 2016, Up 9% Over 2021
• 149 Incidents – Up 73% Over 2016, Up 16% Over 2021
• Most Q1 Fatalities & Incidents Ever Recorded


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Top 3 Violent Weekends in US: July 4th, Memorial Day & Labor Day Weekend
Three violent holiday weekends capped off a summer of big city bloodshed

1,807 Shootings - 557 Killed - 1,876 Injured in 15 Big Cities Past 15 Weekends
The D&D Daily's Big City Weekend Violence Study - Memorial Day to Labor Day

The Daily's study analyzed weekend shooting data in 15 major U.S. cities from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend 2022

Starting Memorial Day Weekend, the D&D Daily began compiling and analyzing data from 15 major U.S. cities to get a snapshot of summer gun violence.

This past holiday weekend, from September 2nd through September 5th, there were 149 shootings recorded in these same cities, resulting in 49 deaths and 136 injuries - ranking in the top 3 of most violent weekends this summer.

As the data shows, the most violent weekend this summer overall was the July 4th weekend, followed by Memorial Day weekend, and capped off by this past Labor Day weekend.

The chart below shows the totals for each of the past 15 weekends dating back to Memorial Day weekend.

The D&D Daily tracked this data throughout the summer to capture the weekend violence trend in our nation's big cities as warm weather typically brings about more crime and violence.

Click here to see the list of incidents per city from each weekend this summer. docs.google.com

Read more coverage about America's crime and gun violence epidemic in the section below
 

Organized Retail Flash Mobs Surging in New Jersey
Bramnick wants gang-related shoplifters to spend minimum of one year in jail

N.J. state senator wants to end ‘open stealing without fear of punishment’

In a bid to curb the increase in flash mobs organizing the looting of retail stores, a key New Jersey lawmaker wants gang members convicted of shoplifting to spend one year in a state prison.

State Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) is introducing legislation that would create a mandatory one-year minimum sentence for gang shoplifting, ending the presumption of non-imprisonment for certain offender.

“The open stealing without fear of punishment is an issue,” said Bramnick. Bramnick grew up in a family whose livelihood might have been threatened by gang shoplifting. The senator’s father, Herb Bramnick, owned a small retail stationary store in Plainfield.

Under Bramnick’s proposal, gang shoplifting would be a third degree crime with a prison sentence of 3 to 5 years and a fine of up to $15,000. There would be no eligibility for parole during the first year.

“We’re seeing more and more instances where flash mobs of shoplifters have run through clothing stores, pharmacies, and even a 7-Eleven recently where they smash and grab anything that isn’t bolted down,” Bramnick said. “If people want to do these crimes, they need to get the message that their next flash mob will be in jail.”

At the local level, an increase of shoplifting and auto thefts have become a top issue of concern for residents. According to the National Retail Federation, organized retail crime, sometimes known as smash-and-grab, has sometimes been tied to transnational crime rings.

CVS has reported a 300% increase in retail theft since the start of the pandemic, Axios has reported. newjerseyglobe.com
 
Security Officer Murders & Shootings
73 security officers murdered, 309 shot from January-August 2022
The violence that continues to overtake the private security industry leaving behind a trail of murdered security officers continues to go almost unnoticed by the media and surprisingly, even by the largest contract security services in the world including Allied Universal, now the largest global provider of contract security services.

Private Officer International reported that forty-six security officers were shot in August resulting in twelve homicides. From January through the end of August, three hundred and nine security officers have been shot and seventy-three have been victims of homicide.

In contrast, the National Fraternal Order of Police recently reported that at the end of August, there have been 234 officers shot so far in 2022. That is a 6% increase in numbers of officers shot from 2021 year-to-date (YTD) and a 7% increase over 2020 YTD. Of those shot this year, 45 were killed by gunfire

There have been 58 ambush-style attacks on law enforcement officers this year that have resulted in 86 officers shot, 22 of whom were killed.

“Make no mistake, we are experiencing a real crisis with the level of violence directed at law enforcement officers and private security personnel. This past year has been one of the most dangerous years for both security and law enforcement officers in recent history due to the increase of violence directed toward officers.

Rick McCann, Founder and President of Private Officer International, a private security and law enforcement organization said that each year, the number of security officers injured and murdered continues to increase and during the past four years, that increase has been in double digits. privateofficerbreakingnews.blogspot.com

Battling Theft with AI Tech
How can computer vision and AI aid retail loss prevention?
Reducing shrinkage is the primary objective of loss prevention systems. To keep an eye on goods and employees, many advancements in sales-floor surveillance have been achieved, including cameras, electronic article surveillance (EAS) warnings and radio frequency identification (RFID)-enabled loss prevention. However, they limit retailers' ability to react quickly.

Computer vision and AI can decrease checkout fraud and product loss

Retailers are investing in new technologies to combat retail shrink with stronger loss prevention strategies at the front of the store as a result of these growing issues. In order to help businesses fight shrink, lower theft, and improve inventory management, retail security professionals are utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision.

Integration of data from item-level tracking with computer vision and POS can help combat checkout fraud, including at manned registers and self-checkouts. Associates can spot fraud and take immediate action by comparing item-level counts to POS-generated counts. Retailers may improve checkout procedures by making them smarter with the aid of AI and computer vision, which lowers theft and enhances inventory control.

A system can be configured to send a dashboard, POS alert, or mobile alert to the staff member in charge as notification of potential theft or incorrect billing if the two numbers don't match. Before a transaction is processed, it allows store employees to step in and help, enabling the manager to process the transaction manually.

If an AI system flags a suspicious transaction, store staff can inform customers of the system error and give them the option to pay for the unscanned items. Ultimately, the process may help in behavioral change, resulting in reduced shrinkage and cost savings. securitymagazine.com

America's Gun Violence Epidemic
Mass shootings obscure daily U.S. gun toll
Homicide rates appear to be dropping in some major U.S. cities, such as New York and Chicago, but in others killings are on the rise, particularly from guns. In Portland, the homicide rate surged 207% since 2019 and there have been more than 800 shootings so far this year. In Phoenix, police Chief Jeri Williams said this week the gun violence was the worst she’d seen in 33 years on the job.

Last weekend’s rampages — which included a heavily armed assailant who stormed a central Oregon supermarket, random shootings on Detroit streets and a Phoenix man who opened fire while wearing body armor — were shocking and scary, but they aren’t representative of the broader toll gun violence is taking on American society, experts said.

Victims killed in mass shootings make up about 1% of all those killed in gun homicides nationwide, despite headlines that instill fear in many Americans, said James Fox, a professor at Northeastern University who has created a database of mass killings stretching back to 2006 with The Associated Press and USA Today.

The pandemic and the social unrest it caused has also played a role. Eight million Americans became first-time gun owners between 2019 and 2021, said Jeffrey Butts, director of the research and evaluation center for the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at City University of New York.

“We already had 400 million guns in circulation. So when you bump that up and include a lot of first-timers in the population, you get accidents, you get precipitous behavior, you get people reacting to small insults and conflicts with their guns because they’re in their pocket now,” he said. pbs.org

Violent Labor Day Weekend
Spate of violence across US mars Labor Day weekend
At least nine mass shootings have taken place nationwide so far during Labor Day weekend, leaving at least 10 people dead, according to Gun Violence Archive.

The mass shootings, which the organization defines as incidents in which four or more people were shot or killed, not including the shooter, took place in cities including Norfolk, Va., Charleston, S.C., and Chicago, among others.

The deadliest shooting of the weekend so far, according to the group, took place in Saint Paul, Minn., where three people died and two others were injured on Sunday in the city’s Payne-Phalen neighborhood.

“This unthinkable crime will not only affect the crime victims and their families, but it will affect the neighborhood where it occurred and our city as a whole,” police spokesperson Sgt. Mike Ernster told KARE, adding that authorities had been called to the house at least 17 times in the last year. thehill.com

‘Red flag’ laws get little use even as mass shootings, gun deaths soar
U.S. states barely use the red flag laws touted as the most powerful tool to stop gun violence before it happens, a trend blamed on a lack of awareness of the laws and resistance by some authorities to enforce them even as shootings and gun deaths soar.

Labor Day Weekend Mass Shootings in VA & SC Kill Two and Injure at Least 10

Settlement: Police in Calif. City, County Can't Fire Projectiles into Crowds

US: 96.6M Cases - 1M Dead - 92.6M Recovered
Worldwide: 610.9M Cases - 6.5M Dead - 588.4M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 362  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 795
*Red indicates change in total deaths

The Pandemic Triggered a Tidal Wave of Changes in the Workplace
Quiet quitting, real quitting, unionizing — what else are American workers up to?
How we work, when we work, how much we work – it's all shifting on a scale not seen in decades. The pandemic left workplaces reimagined and workers changed. The number of job openings right now outnumbers people looking for work by almost two-to-one.

Last year saw a record exodus of workers, and companies say they are still struggling to hire. Millions have re-evaluated what type of work they were willing to do for what type of pay or benefits and in what type of environment.

Despite inflation and economic slowdown, the labor market remains tight. Employers kept adding jobs all summer, particularly in food and retail. Layoffs have been confined to pockets of the economy – the tech sector, cryptocurrency, home buying – and to select companies, like the beleaguered Bed Bath & Beyond.

Office culture, too, has changed. Just over a third of workers were going to offices in person at the end of August in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, according to Kastle Systems, which tracks office card swipes. At Apple, J.P. Morgan, the Washington Post and other companies, workers have pushed back on the notion that they have to return to offices to be productive.

From baristas to warehouse staff to frontline nurses, more workers are filing charges of unfair labor practices against their employers or staging walkouts and strikes. They're demanding not just higher wages, but improvements to safety and wellbeing: longer breaks, more paid leave, more control over their schedules.

Labor organizers declared mid-2022 the #hotlaborsummer. Petitions to form a union are up almost 60% compared to last year, continuing to reverse a long-running decline in union interest. Many of these workers are in food and retail, coffee shops and non-profits, media and tech. Labor experts say more women and particularly women of color are leading the charge. npr.org

Pharmacy Chains Prepare for New COVID Booster Rollout
New COVID-19 boosters set for pharmacies, clinics nationwide
The updated COVID-19 boosters, signed off on by the FDA and CDC last week, are shipping out to pharmacies and clinics across the country. These boosters are designed to target the original strain of COVID-19, as well as the omicron subvariants.

The updated doses are known as “bivalent” vaccines. According to the FDA, they “contain two messenger RNA (mRNA) components of SARS-CoV-2 virus: one of the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and the other one in common between the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.”

Moderna’s updated booster is authorized for use in people ages 18 and older. Pfizer’s is for people ages 12 and older. According to CDC guidelines, a single booster dose can be administered at least two months after a person’s most recent COVID-19 vaccine. clickorlando.com

Wanted: Business leaders with soft skills like empathy in post-Covid workplace
Employees are increasingly seeking out bosses who show empathy and compassion in the workplace. Additionally, 61% say soft skills in the workplace are just as important as hard skills.

Walgreens Now Offering Appointments for Updated COVID-19 Boosters

Amid US retail gloom, Uniqlo shines on COVID-triggered revamp

The 10 most in-demand work-from-anywhere jobs companies are hiring for in 2022

Bed Bath & Beyond CFO Jumped From 18th Floor of His NYC Apartment
Bed Bath & Beyond CFO was subject of insider trading and fraud lawsuit just before death, documents show
The death of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.’s chief financial officer comes as the retailer has lost several members of its finance team and senior executives who could temporarily step into the role for the holiday season.

Shares of the company tumbled about 15% in premarket trading Tuesday after Gustavo Arnal’s death was ruled a suicide.

A Wall Street Journal article points out that the loss of its CFO, COO and CSO follows the departures of former CEO Mark Tritton and chief merchandising officer Joel Hartsig on June 29.

It’s clear that he was under a great deal of pressure, Business Insider reports. His death came less that two weeks after he was named in a federal class-action lawsuit for insider trading. The lawsuit claims he and activist investor and GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen "collaborated" in a “pump and dump” scheme to artificially inflate the price of Bed Bath & Beyond’s stock up before selling their shares in the company.

On August 18, both Mr. Arnal sold more than 42,000 shares with an estimated value of more than $1 million. Mr. Cohen announced plans to sell his entire 9.8 percent stake in Bed Bath & Beyond.

The suit, filed in United States District Court for the District of Columbia on August 23, claims that Cohen and Arnal provided "materially false statements regarding the financial condition and holding situation" of Bed Bath & Beyond for their financial benefit. The lead plaintiff is investor Pengcheng Si.

The lawsuit further notes Cohen's involvement in similar plans, such as elevating GameStop to "meme stock" status. businessinsider.com wsj.com

Read Bed Bath & Beyond's statement here

Bed Bath & Beyond names interim CFO following executive’s death

Governor Newsom Signs Major Fast Food Bill Into Law
California governor signs fast food bill into law that could raise minimum wage for workers in the state to $22 an hour by next year

An industry trade group says the bill could raise costs for fast food restaurants by $3 billion.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the FAST Recovery Act, unprecedented legislation that gives fast food workers a say on hourly pay and working conditions, including giving them the power to raise the minimum wage next year to $22 an hour.

AB 257 , which Newsom signed on Labor Day, creates a 10-member council of fast food workers, franchisees, franchisors, advocates for fast food employees, and representatives from the governor's office. The council will establish minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other working conditions related to the health and safety of workers. The law applies to food chains with more than 100 locations, including Starbucks, Wendy's, Burger King, and McDonald's.

The industry's trade organization, National Restaurant Association, and chains such as McDonald's, have denounced the bill. They maintain it will hurt small business owners, including fast food franchisees who own one or two restaurants.

The FAST Recovery Act impacts about 550,000 fast-food workers in California. Many have fought for years for increases in the state's minimum wage, which is currently $15 an hour for employers with 26 or more employees.

Mary Kay Henry, the president of the Service Employees International Union President, said she expects fast-food workers battling McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King for fair wages in other states to ask their lawmakers to propose similar legislation like AB 257. businessinsider.com

Read the D&D Daily's initial reporting about the legislation here

Labor Day Union Protests
Union organizers target Amazon and Starbucks execs in Labor Day rally
Labor activists rallied Monday afternoon in front of the Greenwich Village residence of Howard Schultz, the interim CEO of Starbucks, before marching up Fifth Avenue to gather outside the penthouse owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Amazon. They called on the executives to recognize and negotiate with the unions that have formed at their companies and to stop seeking to deter organizing efforts.

Starbucks and Amazon union organizers from across New York state and from other parts of the country were joined by supporters who came to show solidarity with them on Labor Day. Elected officials including State Sen. Jessica Ramos and Councilmember Tiffany Caban were also in attendance at the demonstration, which eventually made its way to Times Square.

Both companies have pushed back against the fresh wave of union organizing they have seen over the past couple of years. gothamist.com

New biometrics standards on the way

New standards related to biometrics and online transactions are coming from NIST

NIST is advancing towards the publication of a standard for the quality of images used in face biometrics. The standard is expected to be in place by the end of the year, and Idemia North America’s Donnie Scott says meeting it could end up becoming a requirement for government contracts.

The onset of the pandemic raised the question of how well facial recognition would work with masked faces. The latest answer is that even masks custom-made by Privacy International to defeat biometric algorithms may not be successful.

The CHIPS and Science Act, signed into American law, creates a new NSF directorate for machine learning and tasks NIST with establishing standards for identity verification and attribute validation. biometricupdaate.com

What Will Be The Impact Of 'Hot Desking' On The Security Marketplace?
With fewer employees working in the office, and more of them working from home, it is no longer necessary for each employee to have their ‘own’ desk. Rather, desks may be used by various people at different times, as needed on an ad hoc basis. This arrangement, known as ‘hot desking,’ maximises space efficiency and reduces unneeded office space.

The move to ‘hot desking’ and hybrid working in general will see a lot more movement of people, which has obvious implications for security. For example, the use of lockers and cabinets to store valuables and confidential materials will become even more important, which is an ideal application for wireless locks. Occupancy management is another security facet that is essential for this hybrid working environment.
It will also be essential that security and access control be fully integrated with the IT infrastructure (such as Active Directory) to ensure sign-on access to these systems as well as physical access to a facility. This is also where the use of smartphone credentials will be invaluable, as facilities become increasingly automated, and tokens/cards become less practical to deploy and use.

‘Hot desking’ requires that access control and occupancy be monitored more closely. Technology features of various security systems contribute to a successful approach to optimize utilization of physical and real estate assets. Full integration of security and access control systems with the IT infrastructure also enables a ‘hot desking’ approach. securityinformed.com

Top Reason (85%) For Higher Budget Increases - Wage War
2023 Salary Budgets Projected to Stay at 20-Year High but Trail Inflation

Total rewards professionals expect pay budgets to rise 4.1% on average

Salary increase budgets in the U.S. are projected to grow, on average, just over 4 percent for 2023, less than half of the current annual inflation rate of 8.5 percent, according to new survey data.

WorldatWork's Salary Budget Survey shows that salary increase budgets in the U.S. rose to an average of 4.1 percent in 2022, a 20-year high and much larger than the average 3.3 percent increase that last year's survey of total rewards professionals projected in August 2021.

Forecast for Merit Increases

Compensation survey and consulting firm Empsight's 2022 Policies, Practices & Merit Survey report, which includes 2023 forecasts, shows that of 259 U.S. companies reporting a merit increase forecast for 2023:

● Approximately 35 percent are budgeting 3 percent.
● Approximately 40 percent are forecasting 4 percent or higher.

The survey was conducted between April and July 2022.

"The rapid rise in salary increase budgets over the past couple years, combined with today's volatile economic environment, challenges HR pros to leverage data and think strategically as they formulate 2023 compensation budget recommendations and negotiate with CFOs." shrm.org

Retailers Added 44,000 Jobs in August
Labor market added 315,000 jobs in August, a bright spot in the economy
The U.S. labor market added 315,000 jobs last month, hitting a 20-month streak in strong job growth that’s powering an economy through ominously high inflation.

The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 3.7 percent, according to a monthly jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. Some 344,000 more people were unemployed than in July, partly because more workers rejoined the labor force, newly looking for work.

Employment in health care rose by 48,000 jobs, with notable additions in doctors’ offices, hospitals, and nursing and residential-care facilities. Retail trade added 44,000 jobs, and manufacturing continued to trend up by 22,000 positions. washingtonpost.com

LPF Announces LPC & LPQ Professionals for August
The Loss Prevention Foundation would like to recognize and congratulate the following individuals who successfully completed all of the requirements set forth by the board of directors to be LPQualified (LPQ) and/or LPCertified (LPC). View Full List Here

NYC sues Starbucks after company allegedly fired barista for union organizing
"Starbucks continues to wrongfully fire pro-union workers nationwide in retaliation for union organizing," the fired employee said in a statement.

Meijer to launch new store concept

Starbucks names former PepsiCo executive as new CEO