Keep Up the Momentum to Pass Retail Crime Legislation
NRF: Tell Congress to Take Action to Fight the Retail Crime Surge

Join with the National Retail Federation (NRF) in pushing for congressional action this fall on the retail industry's top two priorities to address organized retail crime and theft.

Taking action only takes one minute - add your voice along with thousands of retail professionals, and tell Congress to act on our top two priorities.

Click here to take action.

NRF's priorities include:

• INFORM Consumers Act (S.936/H.R. 5502): Requires online marketplaces to verify the identity of high-volume third-party sellers to help curb the sale of stolen and counterfeit merchandise. NRF supports inclusion of the INFORM Act in the pending Senate National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) manager's amendment.

• Combatting Organized Retail Crime Act (S.5046/H.R. 9177): Establishes a new Organized Retail Crime Coordination Center that will help federal, state and local law enforcements agencies better coordinate to effectively combat criminal activities. Recently introduced in both chambers of Congress, NRF is advocating for additional cosponsors.

We invite you to share this information widely with your colleagues and networks. Every voice counts.

Get Your LP/AP Executives to Support This Effort

Reach Out to Your Member of Congress Directly

Find Your Representative Here
 

Small Retailers Sound the Alarm Over Crime & Violence
In Case You Missed It: Retail crime hurts small retailers

Small retailers highlight need for action to address rising retail crime

Retail crime is on the rise. While high-profile incidents of smash-and-grab robberies are headline news across the country, small retailers are also feeling the effects of this dangerous trend. "Retail crime impacts all stores, both big and small," says Tiffany Williams, owner of the Luggage Shop of Lubbock in Texas. "Whether the bad guys are hitting big stores or small, it hurts store owners and consumers alike."

Heightened security measures

Small retailers are increasing security measures because of the increase in crime. "I close at 5 o'clock. I don't want to be here in the dark. I'm scared to walk to my car," says Tara Riceberg, owner of Tesoro with two locations in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, Calif. She has seen an increase in crime in her neighborhood including armed robberies, carjackings, and smash-and-grab heists at high-end stores down the street from her small business.

Increased brazen theft and violence

Violence and aggression associated with retail crime is also on the rise. According to the 2022 National Retail Security Survey, eight in 10 retailers report increased incidents of violence and aggression in the past year. "We have seen a steady increase in crime," says Kathleen Fuery, owner of Merle Norman Cosmetics in Minneapolis.

Legislative solutions that can help

"Our lawmakers have an opportunity to make a difference in this fight," says Williams, who recently discussed retail crime with her representative in Congress Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, on an NRF Store Tour. Retailers are calling on Congress to address the rise in retail crime by acting on two legislative measures - the INFORM Act will curb the sale of stolen goods online and the Combatting Organized Retail Crime Act will increase federal coordination to fight crime.

Join NRF in calling on Congress to address retail crime by participating in our grassroots campaign.

See more in yesterday's news alert from the D&D Daily

Will NYC Become the Next San Francisco?
'We'll never be San Francisco:' NY Gov Hochul combats criticism about NYC crime
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared in an interview over the weekend that the Big Apple will "never be San Francisco," pushing back against criticism that New Yorkers, feeling unsafe, feared their city was becoming like San Francisco.

Ruhle described walking into her local pharmacy and seeing everything under lock and key because of shoplifters - an experience many San Franciscans can relate to.

"People don't feel safe in this town. You may have done these things, but right now we're not feeling good. We're worried we could be San Francisco," Ruhle said.

Hochul shot back that New York would never be San Francisco, and when asked why, said the Big Apple was successfully fighting crime, with homicides and shootings down dramatically from last year.

So is it true, as Hochul implied, that New York City is doing better than San Francisco at getting a grip on crime? While the cities share a similar homicide rate, the data is a bit more mixed for violent crimes overall. The best source is usually the FBI, but New York City didn't report to the agency last year.

With the exception of robberies, violent crime in San Francisco is below average for large cities. In 2020, the city's murder rate was 55% lower than the average of 20 major cities while its aggravated assault rate was 45% lower.

San Francisco did have one of the highest property crime rates among major cities in 2020, with 4,437 incidents per 100,000 people compared to New York's 1,558. sfchronicle.com

The Great Debate: Progressive DAs, Crime & Bail Reform
How Bail Reform, Crime Surge Mix in an Angry Debate
Local prosecutors in cities like New York and San Francisco are also using their discretion to rein in cash bail. But there has been pushback from mayors and police officials who say that the result has been more crime, an assertion pushed heavily by Republican candidates for governor in the November elections. It's a debate, however, taking place without much data on the impact of relatively new policy shifts.

How have bail practices changed recently?

City and state lawmakers and prosecutors, who generally have discretion over whether to seek bail or not, have implemented changes to bail at the local level. Some efforts have narrowed the list of crimes for which cash bail can be imposed, while others have given judges new options or requirements for setting bail. Here are some examples:

New York State: In 2019, the state eliminated cash bail and mandated release for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, such as shoplifting, which make up roughly 90% of arrests.

Manhattan: District Attorney Alvin Bragg in January published new bail guidelines, urging prosecutors not to send people to jail while they await trial except in the cases of the most serious accusations.

Illinois: In 2021, the state passed a law eliminating cash bail for all arrests. A judge, however, can decide not to pursue bail at all and has more discretion over whether to detain people for certain crimes.

Houston: A 2019 federal decree forced the county to stop relying on cash bail for low-level misdemeanors.

San Francisco: In 2020, District Attorney Chesa Boudin told prosecutors to stop asking for cash bail for people who weren't viewed as public safety risks.

Critics say releasing people without cash bail leads to higher crime levels -- an issue that has grown in importance as violent crime rose in major U.S. cities during the pandemic. Lawmakers in New York have already rolled back some of the bail provisions, narrowing the types of crime that are ineligible for cash bail and making it easier for judges to hold people in jail. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked for a pause on the implementation of some parts of bail reform, saying that too many people let out of jail on electronic monitoring were "violent, dangerous offenders."  washingtonpost.com

Another City Grapples with Gun Violence
In wake of mass shooting, city leaders express doubts about need for new laws
Tallahassee city commissioners expressed grief over the mass shooting that left one person dead and eight injured during what was supposed to have been a celebratory weekend of football, homecoming and Halloween revelry.

But they stopped short of supporting new ordinances, including crowd-control measures - something some in the community have said are urgently needed in the wake of the recent bloodshed.

Several city commissioners expressed doubts about responding to the shooting with new laws. Many said it will take a community-wide push, not just city action, to make progress. tallahassee.com

Crime top of mind in hotly contested Alameda County District Attorney's race

After mass shooting, Philly leaders accused of not doing enough

US: 99.6M Cases - 1M Dead - 97.2M Recovered
Worldwide: 638.2M Cases - 6.6M Dead - 618M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 362  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 811

Retail Impact of China's COVID LOCK-IN
Apple: iPhone shipments delayed over China Covid lockdown

Apple has warned shoppers to expect delays in receiving its products after a strict Covid lockdown forced the world's largest iPhone factory to shut.

The tech giant said its assembly plant in Zhengzhou, China is now operating at a significantly reduced capacity. Officials locked down the district that is home to the factory, run by Foxconn, on 2 November for seven days. It comes as China continues to target "zero Covid", using lockdowns to tackle even minor outbreaks.

"As we have done throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, we are prioritising the health and safety of the workers in our supply chain," said a statement from Apple, which launched its new iPhone line in September.

"We continue to see strong demand for iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models. However, we now expect lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than we previously anticipated and customers will experience longer wait times to receive their new products."

The announcement will likely disappoint investors who were hoping China would lift its Covid restrictions in the near future. Chinese stock markets rose sharply on Friday on the back of rumours of an end to lockdowns. bbc.com

Behind the Scenes of iPhone Plant's Lockdown in China
Foxconn Effort to Ease Workers' Fears of Covid Led to Tighter Lockdown

Bid to continue iPhone production despite outbreak depended on lessening anxiety about a virus China's government portrays as deadly threat

When a small group of workers spent 27 hours in early October locked inside the world's biggest iPhone plant, it seemed little more than another temporary confinement in China's continuing war against Covid-19.

But the outbreak persisted, and on Monday, days after saying operations were stabilizing, Foxconn Technology Group cut its outlook for the current quarter. The company said it was locking down eight of the 11 dormitory blocks at the plant in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou as part of a government-directed plan to end the outbreak.

Apple Inc. warned of delays for some new iPhones, with shipments of higher-end models affected in what is usually a peak buying period for its smartphones. wsj.com

COVID Continues to Disrupt Business
Covid's Drag on the Workforce Proves Persistent. 'It Sets Us Back.'

Virus still keeping millions out of work while reducing productivity and hours of millions more, disrupting business operations and raising costs

Two-and-a-half years after Covid-19 emerged, reported infections are way down, pandemic restrictions are practically gone and life in many respects is approaching normal. The labor force, however, is not. Researchers say the virus is having a persistent effect, keeping millions out of work and reducing the productivity and hours of millions more, disrupting business operations and raising costs.

In the average month this year, nearly 630,000 more workers missed at least a week of work because of illness than in the years before the pandemic, according to Labor Department data. That is a reduction in workers equal to about 0.4 percent of the labor force, a significant amount in a tight labor market. That share is up about 0.1 percentage point from the same period last year, the data show.

Another half a million workers have dropped out of the labor force due to lingering effects from previous Covid infections, according to research by economists Gopi Shah Goda of Stanford University and Evan J. Soltas at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In a Census Bureau survey in October, 1.1 million people said they hadn't worked the week before because they were concerned about contracting or spreading the virus. wsj.com

Dallas Tourism shows Strong Recovery from COVID Pandemic

US flu season off to a fast start as other viruses spread

Hiring Top Talent is Key to Facial Recognition Accuracy
Research: Hire the right people to be in the facial recognition loop to dramatically raise accuracy
Choosing the right humans to be in the loop of facial recognition decisions, and utilizing them in the right workflow can dramatically improve the accuracy delivered by biometric algorithms alone, studies conducted in Australia show.

A webinar on 'Facial recognition in identity management: AI and humans working together for a secure Australian passport' was presented by a University of New South Wales researcher and hosted by the UNSW Institute for Cyber Security.

David White studies how people perceive faces, and has worked with the Australian Passport Office and NIST among other organizations. White reviewed how fraudulent passports can be obtained and how facial recognition can help prevent their issuance.

Like algorithms, not all human review equal

"Now this is a problem," the cognitive psychology expert explains, "because humans aren't particularly good at matching unfamiliar faces." Familiar faces, even in images with wider variance, pose much less of a challenge to most people.

In collaboration with the passport office, UNSW tested staff's ability to match faces, and found passport officers, like university students, are wrong about 20 percent of the time. When asked if an applicant face matches a potential imposter drawn from a gallery of faces with high similarity scores, the error rate of the human reviewers jumped to half.

Choosing the people with the most face matching talent, then, and using their ability in fusion with biometric algorithms, will yield the best results, according to White. The wisdom of crowds can also be utilized by aggregating responses, for accuracy gains as high as 20 percent. biometricupdate.com

Keeping Stores & Customers Safe with IoT
Exclusive Q&A: Rite Aid, Giant Eagle ensure product safety with IoT

Internet of Things (IoT) sensing technology automates compliance with regulations regarding environmentally sensitive products.

Chain Store Age recently spoke with Summer Kerley, VP of clinical services and business development for Rite Aid Corp., and Victor Vercammen, VP of risk and chief compliance officer of Giant Eagle Inc., about the benefits that IoT sensing solutions can provide pharmacy and grocery retailers.

Summer Kerley (Rite Aid)

How does Rite Aid use IoT sensing technology?

At Rite Aid, we deployed SmartSense's IoT technology in over 2,400 sites to monitor medication stability, ensure customer safety, and reduce product loss. We needed a digital solution to enable continuous monitoring of our medications and vaccines to meet or exceed FDA and Board of Pharmacy regulations.

Victor Vercammen (Giant Eagle)

How does Giant Eagle use IoT sensing technology?

At Giant Eagle, we leverage SmartSense's IoT sensing technology to protect our 215 in-store pharmacies, and rely on the technology to provide digital task management support across 175 of our 200-plus Giant Eagle and Market District supermarkets, as well as 92 of our more than 250 GetGo café and market store locations. We expect the number of active locations to grow in the coming months. chainstoreage.com

The Physical Security & Business Continuity Convergence
Convergence: Physical Security and Business Continuity Meet their Moment
The post-9/11 wars, the rapid advancement of technology, the explosion of Internet of Things devices, extreme stress on the supply chain, a lasting security workforce shortage, and the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to a change in perception that will usher in the moment for security convergence. That seems to be the finding in the most recent research on the topic, Security Convergence and Business Continuity: Reflecting on the Pandemic Experience, published in September 2022.

More than 60 percent of those respondents indicated that their organizations had now fully or partially converged their security functions (29.3 percent complete, 31.2 partially, and 39.5 percent not converged). Similar to the 2007 report, the foundation convergence research focused on the melding of cyber and physical security with business continuity planning.

"Most companies that reported partial convergence merged their physical security and business continuity practices," according to the report. "One of the reasons that convergence with cybersecurity appears to be lagging behind physical security and business continuity convergence may be due to differences in the skill sets required for oversight of each function."

In a follow-up interview to the survey, for instance, one respondent said that the specialization for cybersecurity and physical security makes it difficult to find someone who excels in both arenas-slowing the organization's ability to converge these functions.

For converged organizations, most survey respondents said a CSO-or equivalent position-was responsible for the enterprise security risk management function, and all aspects of the organization responsible for critical asset protection reported to that person. asisonline.org

Good Luck Returning Your Unwanted Clothes and Electronics

Many major retailers are shortening their return windows and adding restocking fees ahead of the holiday season. Their customers are far from pleased.

Retailers bent over backward to make returns easy so that people would keep shopping through Covid-19 shutdowns, says Erin Halka, a retail strategist at supply-chain consulting firm Blue Yonder. But that fed a pattern of buying and returning that grew costly for companies.

Now, as e-commerce remains healthy, retailers from Athleta to Zara are shortening refund and exchange windows and charging customers restocking fees.

Retailers expect their customers to send back about 17% of the total merchandise they purchased in 2021, adding up to $761 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. That is up from 11% in 2020. About 10% of these returns are fraudulent, says NRF, including returns of shoplifted merchandise and items purchased with the goal of using and then returning.

Returns are especially challenging for stores that already have too much stuff. With returns piled to the ceilings and clogging warehouse aisles, businesses are working hard to dissuade their customers from bringing items back. wsj.com

Maintaining Civility in the Workplace
Handling Election Angst in the Workplace
Election Day and the days that follow can bring both joy and tension to workplaces. This year's results could be particularly contentious, with some states presenting ballot measures on abortion, marijuana, minimum wage and unions.

A 2022 SHRM survey found that 20 percent of workers say they've been mistreated due to their political views. And 20 percent of HR professionals say there is greater political volatility at work than there was three years ago.

Maintaining Workplace Civility

Kimberly Lee Minor, founder and CEO of boutique firm Bumbershoot in Columbus, Ohio, said that organizations should consider an all-hands meeting before, during or immediately after the election, allowing senior leadership to express zero tolerance for hostility or harm policy to everyone.

Leadership and HR can foster a harmonious workplace by conveying the need for productivity, results, innovation and retention of talent. Discussing taboo subjects can occur in the workplace, and failing to manage them can create a politically charged climate and can diminish the importance of these priorities. shrm.org

Another Hurricane Headed Toward Florida?
State of Emergency, Hurricane Watch Issued in Florida
The National Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane watch for Florida's east coast from the Brevard-Volusia county line south to Hallandale Beach as Subtropical Storm Nicole formed Monday morning in the Atlantic Ocean with a projected path predicted to bring it toward the state by Wednesday night as hurricane.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has also issued a State of Emergency for 34 counties in the potential path of the storm including all of Central Florida.

"While this storm does not, at this time, appear that it will become much stronger, I urge all Floridians to be prepared and to listen to announcements from local emergency management officials," DeSantis said in a press release. govtech.com

No, Black Friday isn't here quite yet
A few retailers held splashy sales early in October. But so far discounting is down from last year despite reports of high inventories and wary consumers.

Retail credit card interest rate hits record high

A recession in the US is not a slam dunk, Goldman Sachs says
 

Senior LP & AP Jobs Market

Loss Prevention & Risk Director job posted in Addison, TX (confidential company)
The Director of Loss Prevention and Risk's role is to assist and support the Loss Prevention Department - by limiting losses from theft by discouraging criminal behavior and apprehending anyone attempting to steal products. Holding people accountable for the damage they cause to the company through vandalism or stolen products. Looking for patterns of suspicious behavior and closely observe shoppers, approaching them when they attempt to leave the store without paying for merchandise. Loss Prevention Officers collaborate with law enforcement and other Security Officers when necessary to prevent serial thefts at their store. indeed.com