How many busts do you LP guys average a day/week?

[capurato]

If you only watch people who wear red shirts, you will only catch people in red shirts.

[Jaeger]

The retail site I do or rather used to do most frequently was a site which usually has a different officer on duty every day for 12 hours. Therefore each officer has a very specific, individual code of conduct during his or her shift when it comes to catching and observing the lifters and the like. The site does not feature a monitoring room or cameras, so it is just you, your eyes and a pair legs.

It is a sad fact in that specific site, though, that when you take a suspect into custody matching the "hobo"-category, then they are most often than not the shoplifters after beer and alcoholic drinks than anybody else. When you look at the daily shift reports, then when an apprehension of a suspect has been made, then the physical description of the fellow is always "a scruffy-looking, bad smelling hobo or drug addict with cases of beer hidden under his clothes".

It is a good point, though, that when you begin to just observe certain sorts of individuals in the store you may miss the regular-looking average joe-type of a shoplifter. However, I would still like to point out that the site in question is located in what is basically called "meth head central", so you'll have your hands full there just observing and throwing out the most obvious cases of violent drug-addicts and beer-stealing hobos more than doing anything else.

Actually from my experience, I think that the said site features so many obvious troublemakers constantly challenging the officer that as I said before, you'll instantly know who to get "involved with".

[capurato]

If you know an element is targeting your site, what are you doing to prevent that? Obviously catching them isn't working. I know you are contract, but I'm saying this for discussion sake. You take inventory and know what items are missing.

Target the merchandise flow from the time it arrives (if it arrives) to the time it leaves. You will then solve your shortage issue.

Funny thing, my guys make a ton of cases. 65% of those 900 cases aren't from the top 25 shortage depts. what does that tell you?

[rpmacmurphy]

LP was my first job in the security field. The site I worked would vary. We'd have a week go by with maybe one or two apprehensions. The next we'd catch an ORC ring, and the subsequent arrests made could count as our "busts" for that week. By the time I'd quit working there we might have 1 a week.

We had a teams of 4 that would work every shift, with 3 on the ground and 1 in the TOC. 1 of the guys on the ground was in plainclothes, while the other two were in full SO gear. I feel that the presence of SOs, as well as the chance of being caught by the undercover SO (word got around we had them), contributed to our store being blackballed by ORC and experienced shoplifters.

[Prodefend]

Do you start getting antsy if you are having a dry spell, and do LP guys get "the axe" if they "don't produce"?

YES and aventually, YES.

In all my decades of shopping I don't think I've ever noticed a fellow shopper hiding items(not that I've been really watching) nor have I ever seen a LP 'bust'(accept for one guy tackled after trying to run in a mall, but all after the fact).

Even the most obvious thieves make SOME effort to not be seen at least by fellow shoppers so thats not too surprising you say that.

Are you guys all Jedi Knights that pull off what I'd think would be "confrontational" without anyone noticing and without "spooking the herd"(of shoppers)?

YES and keep in mind this is actually exactly how LP's are trained, to keep everything non confrontational, calm, and professional, when possible.

Are the busts done at the door, in the parking lot/sidewalk or on the sales floor?

Depends, but usually most stores will do them at the door. One retailer I worked with allowed you to apprehend someone who concealed items before they entered a bathroom or elevator, or exited the store.