LP officers (from left to right): Nicole Bermúdez, Miguel González, Gracie Alma (supervisor), Carlos Martínez (Director of Security), Francisco Martínez, Jesed Díaz and Luis Montero

Schaumburg, IL: Terrorism charge against SUV driver in suburban Chicago mall
A man accused of driving an SUV through a suburban Chicago shopping mall was charged Sunday with a state terrorism and ordered held without bond. Police in Schaumburg said the Cook County state's attorney had authorized the charge against Javier Garcia, 22, of Palatine, Illinois. Garcia also was charged with felony criminal damage to property. Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Annalee McGlone said during the bond hearing that on Sept. 20, Garcia drove his SUV through a Sears entrance into the common area of Woodfield Mall, weaving in and out of kiosks as shoppers ran for cover. No one was struck by the vehicle.

Under Illinois law, the Class X felony of terrorism can apply if the suspect is believed to have caused more than $100,000 in damage to any building containing five or more businesses, according to a statement issued by Schaumburg Police Sgt. Karen McCarthy. No federal charges have been brought against Garcia. wthr.com

Editor's Note: Ongoing research being conducted. Follow-up article next Monday: 'The Current State of Bollards at America's Malls and Shopping Centers'

Boca Raton, FL: Background Check on Delivery Man
Would Have Averted Best Buy Customer's Hammer Death
The family of Evelyn Udell, who was killed by a man delivering a washer and dryer she bought from Best Buy, is seeking damages and a change to how employees are screened. On Friday, lawyers for Evelyn Udell proposed state and federal legislation requiring regular professional background checks, claiming such a check would have prevented the murder, although at time of the attack, Jorge Dupre Lachazo had worked for the delivery firm for 20 months without incident and his criminal record totaled one misdemeanor arrest for stealing a cellphone. Lachazo, 21, of Hialeah remains jailed, charged with first-degree murder, first-degree arson and armed burglary with battery. Police have said they haven’t determined what set off Dupre Lachazo, who confessed to attacking Udell. He has told police the stop at the Udell home was the third of the day and admitted he recently had used cocaine and had smoked marijuana through a vape pen. palmbeachpost.com

IN-DEPTH: At Home Depot and other retailers, a tug-of-war with shoplifters
Brick-and-mortar stores blame internet as police wrestle with calls
In one Home Depot surveillance video, three men pushing filled carts shove aside an employee who steps in their way as they walk out the door without paying.

In another, a man pushing a filled cart pulls out a gun and walks out the door without paying as an employee who tried to stop him lifts both arms and backs away.

“We want to make it more uncomfortable for criminals to come into the store, but when someone is that brazen, what can you do?” said Scott Glenn, Atlanta-based Home Depot’s vice president of asset protection, playing the videos for a reporter.

Despite a decades-long downturn in U.S. crime rates, retailers say they’re struggling to curb shoplifting even as they train more cameras on visitors. Fueling the theft, they say, are organized crime groups that can easily sell stolen goods online in relative anonymity.

Most incidents don’t involve physical confrontations and retailers often eschew armed guards to avoid escalation. Still, violent retail deaths in the U.S. rose by nearly a third between 2016 and 2018, to 488 last year, according to security newsletter D&D Daily. Atlanta was among the three hardest-hit cities in two of the last three years.

Local retailers are pressing police to crack down more on shoplifting. They’re also pushing an anti-racketeering bill at the Georgia legislature, HB 488, that would make it easier to arrest people involved in retail theft even if they’re not the ones walking out the door without paying. ajc.com

Editor's Note: Good, detailed article about the problem plaguing the industry and the quandary it poses given the decriminalization trend, budget frustrations local law enforcement is facing, and the pressure everyone's facing with the increase in violence and active shooters.

Filing Private Criminal Complaints - 46% Conviction Rate
Big-box stores take law into their own hands in fight against shoplifting
Retail stores in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, PA., several of them well-known big box places such as Walmart, Sears, Kohls and Gabriel Brothers, have decided to take the law into their own hands. They are requesting private criminal complaints and seeking charges against shoplifters without going through local police departments.

From Jan. 1, 2014 to March 31, 2019, more than 2,200 private criminal complaints were publicly filed in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties against people caught shoplifting. That’s almost half of the roughly 4,700 such complaints filed over that five-year period.

A sampling of private criminal complaints for shoplifting obtained by the Tribune-Review show that security personnel or employees of a store often directly observe people shoplifting or see them on surveillance video, prompting the request for criminal charges. The complaints bypass the police and head straight to the district attorney’s office.

According to the data, 46% of the retail theft cases filed by private criminal complaint resulted in a conviction. About 20% were withdrawn; 9% were dismissed; and 0.2% resulted in pleas of no contest.

Law experts say it is common for stores to do this, as police departments may not always be able to answer every shoplifting call.

Payton McCormick, a spokesman for Walmart, said local police do respond to retail thefts at their stores, but the stores also will initiate the filing of a private criminal complaint if necessary.

“We follow state and local regulations, and if we have to file a police report or private criminal complaint in a certain way then we will,” McCormick said. triblive.com

'Global food retailers join coalition to slash rate of food waste'
Biggest Food Loss & Waste Reduction Program in History
Grocery Industry's Top Shrink Source - Food Loss/Waste
Walmart, Kroger, Ahold Delhaize take part in 10x20x30 initiative

Last week, some of the world’s biggest food retailers announced their participation in 10x20x30, a global effort to halve food loss and waste by 2030.

Under the initiative, founding partners Walmart, Kroger, Ahold Delhaize, Metro AG, Tesco, Pick n Pay, The Savola Group, Sodexo, IKEA Food and Aeon will each engage with 20 of their top suppliers to cut down on food waste.

Participants include five of the globe’s 10 largest food retailers, the world’s second-largest foodservice provider, and leading food retailers in regions such as southern Africa and the Middle East. Combined, the participants operate in more than 80 countries.

“Food loss and waste is a massive global challenge. While addressing this challenge is a priority for us, 10x20x30 is built on the fact that no one company can address this challenge alone,” Laura Phillips, senior vice president of sustainability at Walmart, said in a statement. “With 10x20x30, retailers work to reduce in-store food loss and waste as well as support their upstream suppliers to reduce their own loss and waste.”

Launched by Champions 12.3, a coalition of industry executives and government and civic leaders, 10x20x30 is expected to advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 12.3, which seeks a 50% reduction in food loss and waste by 2030 worldwide, according the World Resources Institute (WRI), co-secretariat of the group.

Worldwide, an estimated one-third of food is lost or wasted, accounting for $940 billion annually as well as resulting in significant economic, environmental and food security impacts and 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, WRI reported. As more than 1 billion tons of food is lost or wasted, one in nine people are undernourished. supermarketnews.com

Editor's Note: Once again, Loss Prevention finds itself in an industry-leading role that has now become a worldwide imperative driven by the United Nations and supported by a global list of retailers and senior executives. For decades the grocery Loss Prevention leaders and teams have been fighting this food waste issue in the stores for the most part alone and with extremely limited resources. As it has been the #1 shrink issue for virtually every grocery store in the world. And now that it's been recognized, identified, and labeled as a "massive global challenge," progress will be made. But only if we can develop the store-level programs. Just a thought. -Gus Downing

DC is Heating Up for a Vote on Facial Recognition
Coalition of 39 Groups Urge Congress Not to Ban Facial Recognition Use By Law Enforcement Agencies
A coalition of 39 groups including the International Biometrics + Identity Association (IBIA) and non-profit public sector technology alliance IJIS Institute, meanwhile, has sent a letter to U.S. Congress arguing against bans on the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement agencies.

The letter is co-signed by many biometrics companies, including Aware, HID Global, NEC Corporation of America, and Vision-Box, as well as the Security Industry Association (SIA), and individuals from businesses, industry groups.

“Facial recognition technology significantly outperforms humans,“ said IBIA executive Director Tovah LaDier, and “does things unaided that humans cannot, including identifying exploited children in dark web pornography.
“Bans on facial recognition technology put improvements in community safety in a standstill, blocking advancements that would improve both public security and law enforcement oversight.”

A recent Pew Research survey that showed 56 percent of Americans trust law enforcement to use facial recognition is cited in the letter, and says that while oversight and accountability are important, alternatives to bans should be considered, such as expanded testing and performance standards, development of best practices and guidance for law enforcement, and additional training. biometricupdate.com

Editor's Note: FaceFirst, one of the premier providers to retailers, was in DC recently to speak with legislators and assure them that all of their privacy concerns are being addressed and are well integrated into the industry's operating best practices. And to educate them as well about the absolute benefits and necessity of using the technology in retail in order to help keep America's stores safe. Read about their recent visit.

Pictured Above:
Peter Trepp, CEO & President (red tie)
Dara Riordan, EVP of Sales & Chief Revenue Officer
Roger Angarita, VP of Product Management (striped tie)

How Uber’s investigations unit works to limit the company’s liability
Investigators say drivers get three “strikes” for bad behavior — and may just end up driving for Lyft.

Inside the 23-story Bank of America Tower in downtown Phoenix, a team of nearly 80 specialized workers grapples with some of the worst incidents that happen in Uber rides. Armed with little more than a phone headset and GPS ride data, these agents in the Special Investigations Unit have to figure out what went wrong.

But when they make a determination, the SIU investigators are coached by Uber to act in the company’s interest first, ahead of passenger safety, according to interviews with more than 20 current and former investigators. Uber has a three-strikes system, investigators said, but executives have made exceptions to keep drivers on the road. For instance, a New York-area driver allegedly made three separate sexual advances on riders, said an investigator assigned to the case. After an executive overruled the investigator, the driver was allowed to continue working until a fourth incident, when a rider claimed he raped her.

The agents are forbidden by Uber from routing allegations to police or from advising victims to seek legal counsel or make their own police reports, even when they get confessions of felonies, said Lilli Flores, a former investigator in Phoenix — a guideline corroborated in interviews with investigators, alleged victims and plaintiffs’ attorneys.

“Investigators are there first to protect Uber; and then next to protect the customer,” said Flores, who worked nearly two years for Uber as an investigator and investigations trainer before leaving in November. “Our job is to keep the tone of our conversations with customers and drivers so that Uber is not held liable.”

Uber’s investigative process is broken, according to people who have worked there, stymied by Uber’s insistence that its drivers are independent contractors and not employees — and therefore it isn’t responsible for their actions. washingtonpost.com

Mastercard Converged Physical & Cybersecurity Teams in 2015
In 2015, Mastercard changed the way its security team functioned to better address the evolving threat landscape. It decided—as some organizations are now just beginning to—to converge its physical and cybersecurity teams under one tent and report up through the chief security officer.

This took the company’s security team and roughly tripled its presence across various departments. It was a huge cultural change for the organization because two of the authors’ skill sets were built in the physical security world and utilized to protect Mastercard’s physical, tangible infrastructure.

While the overall presence of the security team has changed due to this convergence, its mission has remained the same: supporting Mastercard’s assets. These include the critical infrastructure that supports the business, like employees and their physical and logical access to the European campus. asisonline.org

'Retailers expand CBD sets as category 'EXPLODES'
LP's New High Shrink Category - Can't Wait to see the Numbers
New uses, product lines drive sales in fast-growing HBC category.

Retailers are reporting rapidly escalating consumer interest in health and beauty care products containing cannabidiol (CBD), and suppliers are responding with an expanding array of these products to choose from.

Editor's Note: This will be the category of the year the next few years for all retailers and it'll be the subject of articles, news, and journalist for some time to come. As we're talking a few billion a year in revenue for retailers.

The States Stole that Cartel Business - Or did they just give up the fight and finally see the tax revenue? You decide. And everybody wonders why the big increase in this new opioid drug, fentanyl. According to the journalists, the Cartels dumped fentanyl in all the major cities at super low prices in order to simply get people hooked quicker and to pick up some of those patients turned away during the prescription opioid crackdown. As prescriptions are down 20% if not more across the country, according to most reports.  supermarketnews.com

Hemp-derived CBD sales in the US are expected to reach $646 million in 2022

We're Almost at that Black-Out Period For Senior Jobs Being Filled
If you've been paying attention to all of the senior job postings being removed from websites and the slow up of new listings, just in the last two weeks, you'll see that we're reaching the time of year when senior jobs almost get frozen. Certainly they don't, but what top executive leaves in November or December.

Sure, plans continue to move forward and interviews slow down considerably and the process continues. But for the most part, 2019 senior appointments are done and we won't see the pace pick back up until mid to late February.

The rhythm is the same each year unless we get a last minute ninety-yarder, which is as probable as one in an NFL game. Just a thought. -Gus Downing

Amazon Go Stores Coming to the UK?

Holiday shopping season a full six days shorter this year

Pier 1 to close at least 70 stores as loss doubles

Fast Fashion's Pre-Madonna: Forever 21 Closing 350 of the 815 Stores & Restructuring
 

Introduction with Gus Downing

Science - Practice - Results
The Value - The Expectations - The Industry Impact

Filmed at the University of Florida in Gainesville at the Loss Prevention Research Council's 2018 IMPACT Conference, Gus Downing, Publisher & Editor of the D&D Daily, introduces LPNN's 2nd LPRC video series.

In Season 1, we focused on who and what the LPRC is all about, and how they drive a scientific model for the retail LP/AP industry that delivers actionable results.

In this 2nd series, we'll hear from its members - the LP executives and solution providers themselves - taking a look behind-the-scenes and learning how the LPRC is, in fact, driving real-world results and how they're using their membership to increase performance, develop their teams, drive technology/product improvements, and increase store safeness.

IMPACT is a two-day event designed to help participants better understand how they can use research approaches to help reduce crime and loss, and increase sales. Each session is designed to provide value, education and participation.
 

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