Physical Security to LP and lots of questions

[HospitalOfc.]

I’m looking for a little bit of help with some questions I have on retail loss prevention. In my current position I deal mainly with physical security management and only rarely get involved in any aspect of retail loss prevention.

Recently I’ve been looking to further my career and applied for a position as the Director of Security at our local Macy’s store. I’m now engaged in the final stages of negotiations, which will hopefully lead to me accepting the position and I have a number of questions about the transition from physical security management to loss prevention that some one here can hopefully help me out with.

I apologize if this gets a little long, but I’m beginning to realize the limitedness of my knowledge in this new arena, so bear with me.

For some of you who have been in the industry for some time what would you recommend as required reading for someone like me to get my career off to a running start?

I’m currently a member of ASIS and have been working toward my Physical Security Professional (PSP) certification and was wondering what Retail Loss Prevention associations or organizations I should look into joining, and if there are any widely recognized professional certifications that would benefit me?

Does anyone have any experience with LP management at Macy’s? If so can you give me some insight into company philosophy in regard to LP and general impressions of how Macy’s is to work for?

I’m also going to be engaging in salary negotiations and was wondering if anyone can give me a general idea of what the starting salary for the LP manager of a single smaller Macy’s store should be? I have a general idea based on some market research of my own as well as my impressions from preliminary salary talks, but would like some independent verification to be sure I’m not completely out of the ballpark on either the high or low ends of the spectrum.

I would also appreciate any other suggestions or words of advice from those with more experience than me in this area.

Thanks for any help you can give, and expect to see a lot of me in this section of the forums in the near future.

[Curtis Baillie]

You may want to sign up with the NRF Investigator's Network. Take a serious look at attending W-Z intrviewing.

As fas as ASIS goes - I no longer belong to them. When it comes to retail loss prevention, they have very little to offer me. Reading material varies greatly, but some of the "must read" books I own are:

Shoplifting, Managing the Problem
Effective Security Management
Shoplifters vs. Retailers - The Rights of Both and
Retail Crime, Security, and Loss Prevention - An Encyclopedic Reference I'll admit some bias towards this publication as I'm a contributing author.

[HospitalOfc.]

Curtis, thanks for some very good information.