Pro's/repeat offender's

[sneakyg]

Guy's what your take on burning pro's? In my store we do about 23 mil in sales. We are close to the city so lot's of lifter activiy. I am a LP supervisor for my company. I have limited staffing ( myself and 60 hours of coverage). My store mgr expect me to be part of floor coverage. I have identified a few different groups that come in repeatedly. Myself and staff are usually on alone so the pro's are tough to nail. We do not have camera's or ports for externals. So if you don't nail these guy's the first time. You run the risk of being picked off on their return trips. I alway's favor the app but am learning with these crews, our best bet is to let them know we are watching. What are some methods you guys use to let these shmo's know your on to them. We favor security pages, standing at the front door's with radio's out etc...
A good one is to customer service them to death. On their way out let them know you will be looking for them in the future.

[HotelSecurity]

I mentioned what we used to do in hotels in another post. In the days when prostitutes used to work in the hotel bar (as opposed to today when 90% work for escort agencies) we used to do the following. When we were sure she was one 2 Officers would walk into the bar. We'd clip our badges to our jacket pockets, take seats at the bar on either side of her & put our walkie-talkies out on the bar in plain site. It was very hard to get business that way. They would get up & leave.

[ACP01]

Guy's what your take on burning pro's? In my store we do about 23 mil in sales. We are close to the city so lot's of lifter activiy. I am a LP supervisor for my company. I have limited staffing ( myself and 60 hours of coverage). My store mgr expect me to be part of floor coverage. I have identified a few different groups that come in repeatedly. Myself and staff are usually on alone so the pro's are tough to nail. We do not have camera's or ports for externals. So if you don't nail these guy's the first time. You run the risk of being picked off on their return trips. I alway's favor the app but am learning with these crews, our best bet is to let them know we are watching. What are some methods you guys use to let these shmo's know your on to them. We favor security pages, standing at the front door's with radio's out etc...
A good one is to customer service them to death. On their way out let them know you will be looking for them in the future.

Most of security is deterrent anyway so keeping the BGs from doing their deeds is mission accomplished. Sure they will keep prodding and testing but that too is part of it all so you have to stay ahead of them.
If you do get the chance to arrest/detain one it will send the message to the rest that you are serious.

[N. A. Corbier]

I think the problem with a lot of loss prevention outfits at corporate level is that they're not interested in prevention. They're interested in "amount in dollars of merchandise recovered," "number of shoplifters arrested," and "number of shoplifters successfully prosecuted."

These are "easier to understand" metrics, since you have positives that mid-level corporate can prove to human resources and other areas. If these metrics fall, then you can be "deterring" all you want, it won't prove your worth to the higher ups.

[bigshotceo]

Easiest way to get rid of repeat offenders is to get the police after them. If you feel confident (based upon what you've seen) that an individual is shoplifting, contact the police. Tell them what you've seen, give them the guy's name, address and show them a picture of him/her (you probably already have this info from the prior arrest) and ask them to make a "home visit". What you saw, while not sufficient proof to perform a citizen's arrest/detention, would most likely provide the "reasonable doubt" the police would need to arrest the shoplifter.

[N. A. Corbier]

Police in America need probable cause to make an arrest, and it must be for a felony unless in presence. If you did this in just about every state, the Police could do nothing. "Home Visits" are intimidation.

[Mr. Security]

Get a "No Trespass Warning" issued to the offender(s) by the police. If it's private property, management has the right to decide whom they want in the store. If they set foot in the store again, you can have the police arrest them.

[N. A. Corbier]

I don't know about other states, but the responding police officer has to physically witness the trespasser on property before he can issue a trespass warning in Florida. This isn't a matter of law, since Florida law doesn't even require a LEO present to issue a warning, its just that police agencies won't accept a warning issued unless they issue it. They also like to add things like, "This expires in 30 days," which also has no basis in statute.

[scops8273]

What we have done at Kroger in Savannah, GA is post security officers at the door and approach anyone that may set off the inventory control alarms or was spotted trying to pass by the registers without paying. Within a few months our shrinkage was around 5% down from 30%+ or maybe even higher, I don't remember. We were especially effective at the store that was down town with the bad side of town behind the store and the nice side of town in front of the store. We had a very diverse customer base. With the increased security presence at the doors and efforts been seen by customers of apprehending shoplifters we were also able to assist in the increase of the client base. Standing at the door is the way to go I think as long as the officer's are diligent. Usually we only had one officer at the exit door of 7 stores in Savannah. We have used undercover shoppers as well as officer's at the door. We had some great success.

JC

Guy's what your take on burning pro's? In my store we do about 23 mil in sales. We are close to the city so lot's of lifter activiy. I am a LP supervisor for my company. I have limited staffing ( myself and 60 hours of coverage). My store mgr expect me to be part of floor coverage. I have identified a few different groups that come in repeatedly. Myself and staff are usually on alone so the pro's are tough to nail. We do not have camera's or ports for externals. So if you don't nail these guy's the first time. You run the risk of being picked off on their return trips. I alway's favor the app but am learning with these crews, our best bet is to let them know we are watching. What are some methods you guys use to let these shmo's know your on to them. We favor security pages, standing at the front door's with radio's out etc...
A good one is to customer service them to death. On their way out let them know you will be looking for them in the future.

[ozsecuritychic]

when we get the regulars in I normally walk past and watch them with the lpo from the store hiding somewhere so then if they are going to steal they wait till I walk away and will generally pocket stuff while they think they are not being watched. We get alot of people stealing hair dyes, they pick them up and walk around the store,open the box and chuck the contents in their bag then walk past the bag checker and show the bag everything blends in so they get away with it unless seen doing it.