The skill set of a private sector Loss Prevention Investigator can be deployed in the retail sector or for that matter in any type of business. The skills acquired are unique but seamlessly and effortlessly cross over industries.
A Loss Prevention Investigator may handle employee theft or embezzlement cases as well as business fraud and vendor fraud issues – to name just a few.
Why pay for an investigator? Why wouldn’t you just call the police? Police Departments are notoriously understaffed in this area since violent crime always takes priority over other criminal matters. And with the budgetary constraints policy departments are also affected by having to cut staff.
A typical law enforcement investigator may be assigned upward of 25 cases a month. How many of those are going to get the attention they deserve. Yours case may just be added to the pile. If you do not submit a finished case that is wrapped up in a bow that is exactly what will happen. We are typically told that it will take three months up to one year before law enforcement may file any charges.
A private sector loss prevention investigator will typically do the work with higher quality and can be dedicated to that one investigation at a time. Again it is the difference between the public and private sector.
Should you possibly hire an off duty police officer? Again, the difference between the public and private sector is that not only will the lpi generally have a higher skill level but someone who is a lpi will also be a business person and not only a law enforcement officer. We understand business needs and are not only concerned with putting someone in jail.
Atlanta is a very dynamic city with a vast and diverse business community. Law enforcement in the metro are is stretched to the limit. Don’t let your case be put in “the pile”
Contact us or in the Atlanta area call 770.426.7593
The role of a Loss Prevention Agent entails identifying, observing and apprehending shoplifters. A Loss Prevention Agent may work in the retail sector or any other sector of industry. He/she is well trained and works for the benefit of a retailer, restaurant or business owner.
The primary function of a Loss Prevention Agent is a task that takes a special skill that is honed over years and results in catching shoplifters. The Loss Prevention Agent spends countless hours on the sales floor observing customers, mingling with the every day shoppers who visit your store, pushing shopping carts around continuously observing and watching one’s surroundings.
I remember doing just this job focusing my efforts on the “hard hit” areas of the store with the highest losses or more hidden parts of the store. I was going to show the business owners that shoplifters visited the store and I was going to keep them from peddling their trade.
Sooner or later a shoplifter would arrive. I could feel the adrenaline kick in and try to remain calm. He selects 2 bottles of liquor and stuffs them into a backpack he has placed on the floor. Wow, I thought to myself, right in front of me. He stands up, as I read the label of the liquor bottle I’m holding, and heads down the aisle to the front of the store. I keep my distance, trying not to lose sight of him. He passes the opened and manned register and makes no attempt to pay for the merchandise. I gain on him. He exits, I follow. “Excuse me sir”, I say. I have succeeded in catching another thief!
It is said that roughly 30% of losses can be directly related to shoplifting activity. If it goes unchecked it can ruin a business leading to employee layoffs and business closures. Business closure sounds like a dire step but if you don’t keep shoplifting in check, it may be the final step that is available to a business owner.
And that is where I enter the picture. I am hired to detect and catch shoplifters – my job: Loss Prevention Agent.
For more information contact us at loss prevention agent or call 1.770.426.0547
As a Loss Prevention professional and a former Director of LP for several major businesses I found out pretty fast that if my only solution to shoplifting was apprehension that I would not be employed for long.
Why is this? Go back to the old saying: “Once the horse is out of the barn…” Prevention is always the solution in any anti shoplifting program. To get there we have to look at what is the most cost effective approach. Training, training and still more training. By training you and your employees you will deter shoplifting no mater which way you take in any anti shoplifting effort.
Retail theft as in the form of shoplifting will always be dependent on your ability to convince the shoplifter to go elsewhere. Training your employees in the art of using customer service as an anti shoplifting weapon is a cost effective approach. Shoplifters despise attention so let’s give them more than they can handle. Once an employee is trained to actually spot a shoplifter they can go into the customer service attack mode. Customer service them to death!
Of course people who are shoplifting are all different and come in many types. Training will help even the newest employee to become your retail theft weapon very quickly. Then once you have a core of people trained they can then train others.
What should make up a top shelf anti shoplifting training program? There should be amongst other topics training on: Identifying a person who is trying shoplifting in your store. How shoplifters steal, how to shut down the shoplifter and actually drive them crazy (that way they go some where else, maybe even your competitor) and apprehension (if it becomes necessary).
Train your staff and reinforce the training in a positive manner and you will see retail theft drop like a stone.
For more information: anti shoplifting training in Atlanta or call 1.770.426.0547
If you are looking for an immediate impact for retail theft shoplifting problems attack it by using anti theft devices in an aggressive manner. To do this you must understand the difference between active and passive systems.
For an example of a passive system lets look at Closed Circuit TV (CCTV). Retailers will install a CCTV camera system throughout the store. But because of the cost it is nearly impossible to cover the entire sales floor. Cameras record on a DVR. The manager could even have a monitor screen in their office. However, unless the cameras are being watched at all times the system is “passive”. It is for looking at an event after the fact.
Some one who is shoplifting in your store will know this. They will even test it by concealing an item, going to another location in the store and dumping the item to see if anyone reacts. If not, the next time they come in then let the shoplifting begin!
Popular types of active anti theft devices are Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) systems such as Checkpoint security systems. Store staff place Checkpoint tags on merchandise and when a person that is shoplifting tries to steal the tagged merchandise the Checkpoint security systems located at the customer doors alarm. The other benefit of this is that when someone who thinks about shoplifting in your store sees an EAS system they most likely will go elsewhere like your unprotected competition.
Why? It is because an EAS system is active and “watching” all the time. Checkpoint security tags attached to merchandise are always working 24/7. They cannot be taken off without staff intervention. As long as the retailer maintains their Checkpoint security systems they are always guarding the merchandise that is tagged.
Different anti theft devices could include cabinets or other devices to lock down merchandise. This is not as desirable from a customer perspective as it does not allow customers to handle the merchandise and make decisions on their own. Another problem with this is that customers can become frustrated rather quickly when store staff is not right there to unlock merchandise.
The retail theft problem is tough enough to control without having the correct tools to fight it. Your merchandise tagged with Checkpoint tags keeps your profits on your bottom line.
For more information contact us: retail theft you can also call us at 1.770.426.0547
During my thirty years of Loss Prevention Investigations into what many refer to as white collar crime (employee theft or internal theft) I have come across some pretty bizarre reasons told to me by the employee thieves that I have caught.
There have been several cases where the employee thief stated that the reason that they stole from the business was that they were not given enough time off for job interviews at other business. OMG! This is weird on many levels. Number 1, I had serious problems connecting the two. How did you get from not getting time off to stealing thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise? It must be because the company is just one of those very “evil employers” that we hear about in the news all the time. Of course, the employee criminal kind of forgot to mention that the employer was the one to hire them in the first place, train them and pay them faithfully. It couldn’t be the employee’s fault…could it?
Another one that I always get a laugh (or headache) out of is the “I needed the money for my pharmaceutical problem” (not the kind you get from your Pharmacy). OK, let’s be fair and look at it from their point of view:
“I have an illegal (insert drug du jour here) habit that I have to feed sometimes hourly. I need the money. Holding up a bank seems like a lot of effort. Plus you have all those pesky exploding dye packs and gunfire associated with bank robberies. I know! I will just steal it from my employer. Can’t get shot doing that.” (some countries you can, oh well)
Another one on my top ten hit list is the “You didn’t give me my raise on time” excuse. So they decide to take it out on their evil employer. In the follow-up on those cases I can remember with this excuse, I recall that most of them were not even going to get a raise because they were not a very good employee. Maybe if they put more effort into their job? What a concept, work hard, get paid and go home, not jail.
And yes the majority of these people went to jail and got sued. Some of them we even let the IRS know about since they “forgot” to by taxes on their stolen gains. Maybe with all that, white collar crime is not a profitable idea.
For more information: white collar crime
