Retail Vandalism and Smash-and-Grab:
What We Know about Retail Perimeter Security

Interface’s Virtual Perimeter Guard delivers proactive outdoor defence by combining AI detection, automated deterrence, and live human intervention. Virtual Perimeter Guard extends Interface’s indoor Virtual Security Guard platform, giving retailers continuous coverage from curb to cash wrap.

Click here to read the full blog
 

  
Retail Crime is Fueling Big City Economic Losses
Opinion: Progressive cities face billions in economic losses as retail crime surges 93% since 2019

NYC tourism down $4B while San Francisco sees 34.8% commercial vacancy rate downtown

America’s great cities once stood as beacons of prosperity, culture and commerce. But today, many of them – especially those run by progressive, soft-on-crime leadership – are paying a staggering financial price for policies that put criminals ahead of communities.

It’s not just about feeling unsafe when you walk to dinner or shop downtown. Crime has a balance sheet. In poorly led cities, that balance sheet is bleeding red ink by the day.

The Retail Exodus

Let’s start with the retail sector. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), U.S. retailers lost $112 billion in 2022 due to theft, up from $94 billion the year before. In fact, in a recent study done by the NRF, retailers reported a 93% increase in the average number of shoplifting incidents per year in 2023 versus 2019 and a 90% increase in dollar loss due to shoplifting over the same time period.

That’s not just some rounding error – that’s the size of a medium country’s GDP wiped out because stores can’t keep merchandise on the shelves.

Big-box retailers aren’t standing still. Target alone projected $500 million in additional losses this year due to organized retail crime, much of it concentrated in blue-city hot spots like San Francisco, Portland and New York. Walgreens has closed dozens of stores in San Francisco. Nordstrom pulled out of downtown.

These aren’t "mom-and-pop" shops without resources. These are billion-dollar corporations deciding it’s better to retreat than to keep bleeding. Does it seem insane to you that so many of these retail stores have to lock up much of the merchandise in these cities so people don’t loot, knowing that they will never be arrested?

What follows the theft is a double hit: jobs vanish, and so does sales tax revenue. In San Francisco, commercial vacancies are now at a whopping 34.8% in downtown. Empty storefronts mean lost payrolls, lost foot traffic and declining city budgets. foxnews.com
 
 
Retailers Demand Protection for Workers
UK: Retailers turn to tech as in-store crime soars

Retailers such as H&M, Iceland, Poundland and Tesco are deploying tech in stores as a way of protecting themselves and their employees from rising shop crime

Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts, Wickes chief David Wood, and Fortnum & Mason boss Tom Athron were among the executives to sign an open letter in August calling on the government to legislate to better protect service workers.

Headline signatory Jo Causon, CEO of the Institute of Customer Service (ICS), and her co-signatories from retail, hospitality and adjacent sectors, want the Crime and Policing Bill currently moving through Parliament to protect all public-facing workers. It includes specific legislation relating to assault of retail workers, but the ICS is calling for it to go further to deter crime in all service sectors.

Why the clamour now? ICS data from January shows 42% of customer service staff across every sector experienced abuse in the prior six months, up 19% compared to a similar study the institute published in March 2024.

Some 37% of workers surveyed said they had considered leaving their role due to hostility, and a quarter of them have taken sick leave as a result. It’s not just a problem with personal consequences, it’s a business continuity issue as well.

And the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported in March nearly a quarter of UK consumers had witnessed shoplifting taking place in the previous 12 months, and 23% of customers had experienced physical or verbal abuse of staff, with some incidents involving weapons.

BRC’s annual crime survey, released in January, showed retail crime resulted in record losses of £2.2bn in 2024, with the 2,000-plus incidents of violence and abuse more than three times the level recorded in 2020.

Action – be it from central government, local authorities or the police – is required. In many circumstances, retailers themselves are taking matters into their own hands and deploying new technology in the name of protecting their workers and premises. computerweekly.com


New York Times Deep Dive on Policing & Surveillance
The N.Y.P.D. Is Teaching America How to Track Everyone Every Day Forever
The city’s police force has spent more than $3 billion amassing information that reveals where you have been, whom you have interacted with and what you have said, thought and believed. Unlike previous surveillance methods, new digital tools allow law enforcement agencies to conduct surveillance persistently, universally, at an unimaginable scale.

They can do so with no special permission, no oversight and no advance planning. The results amount to a digital time machine that not only makes our past constantly available to law enforcement officers but also can provide them with predictions about our futures.

Traces of this system have surfaced regularly in news reports for years. Journalists at multiple outlets have reported the N.Y.P.D.’s intrusive surveillance on peaceful protests, popular hip-hop shows and kids across the city, all in the name of fighting crime before it occurs.

If you commute by car, police algorithms can predict what time you’ll likely head home on any given Wednesday and what roads you’ll take to get there. The city’s computers are constantly passively compiling this information in case it is of use to them later, a version of the film “Minority Report” made real.

The surveillance has reached such a scale that it has begun to erode a large number of people’s basic civil rights.

New Yorkers who merely fit certain demographic categories or public profiles may be subjected to a higher number of police interactions, which can result in the loss of their property and peace of mind and endanger them physically. They may lose housing and job or educational opportunities. They may have to curtail the way they move through the city, express themselves and interact with others.

Information obtained in these interactions — from the seized cellphones and the seized children — gets added to the N.Y.P.D.’s databases, feeding the system of surveillance all over again. nytimes.com


The Great Debate Over Chicago Crime
Yes, Chicago Crime Really Is Down. Here’s What To Know About How It’s Tracked

While data shows crime is on the decline, experts say the city needs to invest more to stop violence.

Mayor Brandon Johnson tried to rebut the president’s claims last month via a fact sheet emphasizing dips this year in homicides and overall violent crime — while also noting that the city’s homicide clearance rate of more than 77 percent is the highest it’s been in more than a decade.

Yet Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st), a former police officer and firefighter, cast doubt on those positive trends with claims of his own on social media that “crime statistics can be shifted through reclassification,” adding that he had “every reason to believe this administration is skewing the numbers.”

So what does the data really say about crime in Chicago, and how should we be interpreting it?

Chicago has seen 288 homicides this year, down 30 percent from this time last year, according to the Police Department’s citywide crime statistics document, which is updated weekly.

Data included in the department’s annual report showed 580 homicides in Chicago in 2024, down 7 percent from 2023 and down about 27 percent from 2021, a year cities across the country saw major spikes in violent crime.

Despite data showing drops in most categories of crime, many Chicagoans still feel like crime is higher than what the numbers tell them. Fully addressing the crime problem in certain hot spot areas would take billions of dollars of reinvestment and a consistent funding source for community groups doing on-the-ground work. blockclubchicago.org


Property Crime Down 10% in Baltimore
As Trump pushes for National Guard troops in Baltimore, what crime data reveals about safety fears
Crime data shows Baltimore is safer than it has been in years. Homicides are down 27% year-to-date. 95 people had been killed as of Friday morning, compared to 131 homicides at the same time in 2024.

Nonfatal shootings are down 19.8%. There have been 227 victims this year compared to 283 at this time last year.

The CBS News data team found that overall violent crime is down 17.5%. That includes double-digit decreases in robberies (down 26%), sexual offenses (down 25%), aggravated assaults (down 10%), and overall property crime (down 10%). Those numbers are from January 1 to September 8. cbsnews.com


President Trump takes credit for reduced crime in Memphis

How Proposition 36 is bringing both success and challenges to Tulare County
 

Retailers are under more pressure than ever to prevent theft, ensure employee safety and maintain business continuity across stores. Criminal activities are on the rise, and they can severely disrupt operations, leading to financial losses and a tarnished reputation. Workplace security not only safeguards assets and sensitive information but also protects employees and visitors, fostering a safe and productive environment.

Hiring off-duty law enforcement is a proven way to level up your retail security strategy. Off-duty personnel are uniquely positioned to deter criminal activities, respond swiftly in emergencies and provide an added layer of protection. By integrating off-duty law enforcement into your security strategy, you can create a safer, more secure workplace environment.

Protos Security's workplace security blog explores ways that off-duty law enforcement can benefit retailers and increase workplace safety by:

• Creating Safer Store Environments: Law enforcement provides a strong visual deterrent and offers peace of mind to both employees and shoppers.

• Deterring Theft and Workplace Threats: Regular patrols, surveillance and expert situational awareness reduce the risk of crime before it starts.

• Responding Swiftly to Emergencies: Off-duty law enforcement react quickly to high-stress situations, minimizing harm and restoring order with calm precision.

When you need trained law enforcement, Protos Security offers second- to-none coverage through the nation’s largest off-duty law enforcement network. With 60,000 off-duty personnel and more than 1,400 agencies, we provide expertise when and where you need it.

Want to reduce shrink, strengthen operations and keep your workplace secure?

Manchester, CT: Update: Men charged with robbing $300K of Apple products from delivery truck in Manchester
Three men have been charged with allegedly robbing a delivery truck of Apple products at gunpoint, according to the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut and New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday. Jose Miguel Mercado, 32; Jean Gonzalez Paulino, 31; and Daury Rodriguez Contreras, 22, are facing federal charges related to the March incident. Officials said each resides in Lawrence, Massachusetts as lawful permanent residents. The charges stem from about 7 a.m. on March 25, when the group allegedly robbed the driver of a delivery truck when he stopped at a commuter lot in Manchester before a scheduled delivery shipment to an Apple store in South Windsor. They are accused of stealing about $316,753 in Apple phones, tablets and other accessories, along with about $1,000 in cash from the driver. Afterward, the trio allegedly fled to Wethersfield, where they threw clothing, a license plate, and other items into a dumpster. Then they brought the stolen items to the Bronx, New York. Documents shown in court showed many of the stolen items were subsequently registered and activated by New York residents. The trio were arrested on federal criminal complaints in August, and on Sept. 3, a federal grand jury in New Haven returned an indictment charging each defendant with conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery; Hobbs Act robbery; carrying, using, and brandishing a firearm during the relation to a crime of violence, and interstate transportation of stolen property. The first offenses carry a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years each.  wtnh.com


Oakland, CA: Oakland jewelry store thieves pepper-spray employees in Montclair smash-and-grab heist
A jewelry store in Oakland's Montclair neighborhood was the latest site of a Bay Area smash-and-grab jewelry theft on Sunday involving multiple suspects, who also pepper-sprayed employees during the heist, police said. The robbery happened at about 11:15 a.m. at Aster Jewelers on Mountain Boulevard between Moraga Avenue and La Salle Avenue just north of Highway 13. The jewelry store posted word about the incident on social media on Sunday. "Thankfully, while our team is shaken up, no one was seriously hurt," the post caption read. "We've got burning eyes from pepper spray, smashed cases, and stolen jewelry." The post also said that while store inventory was taken, no customer repairs or personal jewelry was stolen. The Oakland Police Department said the robbery involved multiple people who entered the store armed with hammers. After breaking display cases, the thieves took merchandise before leaving the area in a vehicle.  cbsnews.com


Portland, OR: $200,000 Fencing Operation Raided
In July 2025, the Neighborhood Response Team (NRT) assigned to the Portland Police Bureau’s East Precinct became aware of a fencing operation impacting numerous retailers. After a thorough investigation, NRT obtained judicial approval to serve search warrants at a residence in the 13000 block of Southeast Powell Boulevard and a business in the 16000 block of Southeast Stark Street. On Sunday, September 14, 2025, NRT, in collaboration with the Gresham Police Department, Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, and the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office, recovered an estimated $200,000 in stolen merchandise and seized an estimated $32,000 in cash. The suspect, identified as Alawi Said, 57, of Portland, was taken into custody without incident. He was transported to the Multnomah County Detention Center and lodged on numerous charges including Organized Retail Theft, Aggravated Theft, and Unlawful Racketeering.   1190kex.iheart.com


Norwood, OH: Comic book store owner arrested for allegedly reselling $150K of stolen LEGO sets
A local comic book store owner, James Bird, and his former employee, Travis Daniels, have been arrested and charged with multiple offenses, including theft, receiving stolen property and telecommunications fraud. The pair has been accused of reselling stolen LEGO sets and over-the-counter medicines at the Paper Street Trading Company since 2021. "These guys were ripping all of us off," said Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich. "Because we shop at these stores, these big box stores, and if prices had to go up to cover those losses, we're paying for that, and that's not right." Court records revealed that Bird and Daniels allegedly accepted stolen LEGO sets from retailers such as Kroger and Walmart, altering barcodes on the packaging to prevent tracing back to the original stores. The stolen merchandise was valued at more than $150,000.  local12.com


Queens, NY: Three arrested at Roosevelt Avenue boutique in Corona for possessing stolen merchandise
The owner of a Corona boutique and two of his employees were arrested and charged with criminal possession of stolen property for their alleged roles in a fencing operation. More than $50,000 in merchandise was allegedly stolen from major retailers, including Macy’s, Lululemon, Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle, which were offered for sale at a steep discount at the Elegant Fashion boutique, were recovered during a raid at the store at 104-10 Roosevelt Ave. Cesar Castillo, 55, of 195th Place in Hollis, the owner of record of the business, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Sept. 11 on a charge of criminal possession of stolen merchandise in the second degree. Maria Sirena Quiroz, 56, of Martense Avenue, and Soraya Vargas, 56, of 42nd Avenue, both in Corona, were arraigned on Sept. 10 on a charge of criminal possession of stolen property in the second degree.  qns.com


Lawrence, KS: Police arrest 2 women with nearly $2,000 of allegedly stolen merchandise

Winnipeg, Canada: 'Prolific shoplifter' faces 77 charges after arrest in Winnipeg