US: Over 17.1M Cases - 311K Dead - 10M Recovered
Worldwide: Over 74M Cases - 1.6M Dead - 52M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 225  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 164
*Red indicates change in total deaths

How Full Are Hospital I.C.U.s Near You?

Click NY Times' interactive map below to zoom in around the country to see how the coronavirus pandemic has affected recent hospital capacity

Are retailers facing a no-win decision in mandating vaccines for workers?
Surveys continue to show that between 40 and 50 percent of Americans are reluctant to take the coronavirus vaccine, likely including many of retail’s frontline workers.

Black Americans, people living in rural areas and Republicans are being found to be more hesitant about getting the shots.

Unfortunately, experts say that until the country reaches herd immunity (minimum 70 percent vaccination rate), outbreaks remain a threat, masks and social distancing will be urged, and any economic recovery will be restrained.

One option employers are privately exploring to speed the inoculation process is making masks mandatory for employees. With exceptions for disabilities or religious beliefs in some cases, vaccinations can be required for employees for such a threat.

Writing for the New York Times, Andrew Ross Sorkin said, in addition to showing leadership in helping to end the deadly pandemic, establishing a fully-vaccinated staff could be a competitive advantage. He wrote, “A service like Uber, for example, would be more attractive to customers if the company said that all of its drivers were vaccinated. The same could be said for Walmart, Starbucks or any other store or restaurant.”

For employees, coming to work would feel safer if all co-workers were vaccinated.

Continue reading

McKinsey & Company Report
92% of Americans Have Concerns
How Americans report feeling about COVID-19 vaccinations
In McKinsey’s most recent consumer survey, more than half the respondents in the United States report they are likely to delay or decline vaccination despite regulatory approval, with safety concerns being the main driver of vaccine hesitancy.

The #1 concern is - side-effects with 39% of respondents. While 27% want to wait and see how it impacts others and 26% believe the development of the vaccine was rushed. mckinsey.com

Why would you be unlikely to get a COVID-19 vaccine?



Click to see full graph

LA County Hospitalizations 6 Times Higher Than Mid-October
L.A. County has fewer than 100 ICU beds available, and the worst is yet to come, officials say
Intensive care unit beds across Southern California are plummeting to critical levels, with capacity falling to 1% in Ventura County and 0% in Riverside County while Los Angeles County — home to 10 million people — had fewer than 100 beds available. On Sunday, there were 935 coronavirus patients in L.A. County’s limited supply of intensive care unit beds — more than quadruple the number from Nov. 1.

But the worst of the surge is still to come, experts say. L.A. County has more than 4,400 people hospitalized with COVID-19, and officials said that number could rise to 5,000 by the weekend.

The shortages come as the coronavirus continues to rage across the state. A Los Angeles Times county-by-county tally showed an unprecedented 42,129 cases reported Monday. That number breaks the single-day record set Dec. 8, when 35,400 coronavirus cases were recorded.

“The numbers are getting to be astronomical. People are going to die that don’t need to die,” Levin said Monday. latimes.com

CA Orders 5,000 Body Bags
California Preparing For Surge in COVID Deaths
According to the governor, the state has 60 53-foot refrigerated storage units on standby in various counties and at various hospitals, ready to receive bodies if necessary. The state has also ordered 5,000 additional body bags, which are being distributed in Los Angeles, San Diego and Inyo counties. Over the last week, an average of 164 Californians died from COVID-19 every day, roughly quadruple the level seen a month ago. latimes.com

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: Restaurants to remain open amid COVID-19
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that restaurants will remain fully open despite COVID-19 ravaging the state during the pandemic.

DeSantis also said the majority of COVID infections occur in people’s homes, citing a recent New York government report that found 1.4 percent of new cases have been traced back to restaurants and bars. Indoor dining in New York shut down again Monday after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the hefty restriction to curb the surge of the coronavirus in the state.

“The vast majority of infections are occurring in people’s homes, particularly if you have people getting together,” DeSantis said. “Closing a restaurant to indoor dining is going to lead to more people doing that in private homes anyways.”

Florida has seen more than 1,140,000 coronavirus cases as of Tuesday, according to the state’s COVID-19 data and surveillance dashboard. nypost.com

NYC restaurant owners protest in Times Square to reopen indoor dining
Hundreds of restaurant owners, workers and industry leaders held a rally in Times Square Tuesday morning to protest Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent closure of indoor dining and demand a bailout that’ll save their livelihoods.

“Save our restaurants! Save our jobs!” the protesters bellowed from Father Duffy Square before leading a march across town to Cuomo’s Midtown East office where they briefly blocked traffic.

“The situation continues to get more and more dire, and the shutting down of indoor dining during the holidays, when New York City restaurants are providing the safety measures, is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Jeffrey Garcia, president of the Latino Restaurant Bar and Lounge Association of New York State, railed to the crowd.

The protest comes a day after Big Apple eateries were forced to suspend indoor dining even though the state’s own contact tracing data shows restaurants and bars account for a mere 1.43 percent of recent known COVID-19 exposures.

Cuomo has been quick to point to outdoor dining as a half-baked panacea for the flailing industry but with temps continuing to dip below freezing — and a monster snowstorm that’ll close al fresco dining Wednesday — restaurant owners say it’s not enough. nypost.com

OSHA fines linked to COVID pandemic top $3.5 million
OSHA on Friday said that from March through Dec. 3, it had issued citations in 263 cases for various kinds of violations, including failures to record or report illnesses and fatalities and violations of the “general duty” under federal law to maintain safe workplaces. reuters.com

4th Cir.: ADA doesn't protect workers who can't comply with safety rules

SHRM: HR News: Answers to the Most Common COVID Questions & Vaccine FAQ's
 

Massachusetts bill banning facial recognition rejected by governor
A new police reform bill which calls for a state-wide ban on police and public authorities using facial recognition technology has been passed by lawmakers in Massachusetts, yet rejected by State Governor Charlie Baker. Baker has refused to sign the bill, maintaining that the use of facial recognition has helped to convict several criminals including a child sex offender and a double murderer, according to Tech Crunch. biometricupdate.com

Facial recognition deployed in convenience stores in Mexico, England, Singapore
New York City tightens retail biometrics rules
Convenience stores around the world are turning to facial recognition and computer vision to reduce theft and facilitate biometric payments, among other applications. A new Vsblty partnership and an existing Facewatch deployment particularly show momentum in the sector.

Businesses in New York City will be required to post a public notice if they use facial recognition after city council voted to enact new restrictions on retail biometrics, VentureBeat reports.

Violations of the public notice rule could face fines of $500, while selling customer’s biometric data is worth a fine of $5,000. The new law still has to be signed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to come into force on January 1, 2021.

Mexico to Deploy Facial Recognition in C-Stores

VSBLTY is partnering with Mexico-based Grupo Modelo and Retailigent Media to build an international network of in-store media installations in up to 50,000 Modelorama stores and independent bodegas in Mexico.

The planned network will integrate advertising, analytics, real-time point-of-sale reporting and real-time security, the companies say. The deployment will begin with 5,000 Modelorama stores and 15,000 neighbourhood bodegas. The companies plan to reach other countries in Central and South America by 2027, according to the announcement.

In the UK - In Singapore biometricupdate.com

How the Security Guard Industry Weathered 2020
COVID-19, Shutdowns and Unrest Cascade Across the Guarding World
In a typical year, guarding companies are focused on threats like active shooters, potential terrorism and natural disasters — and those concerns still remained in 2020. But the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, the resulting economic shutdown, and social and civil unrest surrounding the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, the 2020 U.S. election and more, were top of mind for guarding firms and impacted them in a wide variety of ways.

Pandemic and Shutdown

COVID-19 and stay-at-home mandates have meant that fewer employees are coming into office buildings and workspaces. Fewer, and in some cases zero, patrons are entering restaurants, bars, movie and music venues, and sports stadiums. In some verticals, that has meant the need for fewer guards in the first place.

But wherever people are entering buildings, for work or play, guards are often being called upon to handle unusual duties like temperature checks and enforcement of mask wearing, and they have needed protection against on-site exposure to COVID-19 themselves. All of this has meant the need for additional screening and PPE protocols, as well as in-depth training on these new procedures and technologies.

Social Unrest

While the economic shutdown may have reduced the need for guarding for some locations, the social unrest in the wake of street-level protests that ramped up earlier in the summer, likely has and will increase the need for private security.

The Detroit-Wayne Joint Building Authority has been geared up for the possibility of civil disturbances. “We’re seeing that all over the country in areas large and small,” says Gregg McDuffee, executive director of the DWJBA. “It creates further danger [beyond COVID-19] and stress in an urban area. Where people are working remotely, getting them to come back to the workplace when things improve is going to be exacerbated” due to fears of disturbances.

Tech Trends

Ofir Rosenblum, Global Head of Security Field Operations based in Israel, says he sees guarding units relying more than ever on technology such as access control and intrusion alarm systems, particularly with sites standing empty. An alarm going off in the middle of the day would receive far greater priority now than before, he notes. “We may also utilize technology to assist with things related to COVID-19, contract tracing and so forth,” he says. “In the case of a need to investigate close contacts, if the case is in the workplace, we will use site security technology to investigate that.”

In addition, companies like Hewlett Packard Enterprise have needed to provide training and awareness around cybersecurity for those working from home, using personal devices outside of corporate networks, to protect critical assets. Read more here: securitymagazine.com

View the 18th Annual Top Guarding Firms Listing

November Retail Sales Give Holiday Season Solid Start
November retail sales dipped from the month before but still showed the sixth consecutive monthly year-over-year gain by government calculations and set the stage for a healthy holiday shopping season compared with last year despite the pandemic, the National Retail Federation said today.

The U.S. Census Bureau said today that overall retail sales in November were down 1.1 percent seasonally adjusted from October but up 4.1 percent year-over-year. That compares with a monthly drop of 0.1 percent but a yearly gain of 5.5 percent in October.

NRF’s calculation of retail sales – which excludes automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants to focus on core retail – showed November was down 0.3 percent seasonally adjusted from October but up 8.8 percent unadjusted year-over-year. That compared with a decrease of 0.1 percent month-over-month and an increase of 10.5 percent year-over-year in October. NRF’s numbers were up 10.8 percent unadjusted year-over-year on a three-month moving average.

On a year-over-year basis, retail sales have increased each month since May under NRF’s calculation and since June under the Census Bureau calculation. Retail sales during the first 11 months of the year were up 6.6 percent, according to NRF’s calculation.

November saw year-over-year gains in seven out of nine retail categories, led by double-digit increases for online sales, building materials and sporting goods stores. nrf.com

Europol in Brief - 2019 Annual Review
It's mission, it's efforts, it's team and it's budget

Europol statistics and updates of year 2019.

Europol: the EU’s response to serious and organized crime and terrorism.
Europol is the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation. It is the place where European police work together.

Europol began as a small office working to stop drug trafficking and has grown to become the central point for criminal information in the EU. If a crime affects two or more EU countries, Europol can help police officers join the dots. There are 27 countries in the EU, with hundreds of police organizations. Europol brings them together to fight crime as one.

With 1,299 staff members located in 46 countries with an annual budget of $168.4M U.S.

There are more than 250 liaison officers at Europol’s headquarters from almost 50 different countries and agencies. Liaison officers meet and network daily, building strong international working relationships, coordinating operational cooperation, creating links, and securely sharing crime information and best practices. europa.eu

Grocery store worker crushed to death by illegally installed elevator in Manhattan supermarket
An employee was crushed by a freight elevator at a Midtown Manhattan supermarket on Tuesday afternoon, authorities and police sources said. The woman, 39, was found around 4:10 p.m. at the bottom of the elevator shaft inside the Food Emporium. The freight elevator that crushed the worker was illegally installed, according to officials. nypost.com

It’s a record! 11,000 closed stores and 40 retailer bankruptcies in 2020


Quarterly Results
H&M Q4 net sales down 10%, full year net sales down 18% - no comp's reported
Zara parent company Inditex Q3 sales down 14%, online sales up 76%