Despite this, many businesses are still not taking the basic precautions to reduce their losses. Recent studies have found that up to 25% of UK retailers don't even have an alarm system in place that conforms to the latest police standards, while around 50% do not employ any form of manned security presence.
Increasing use of asset control measures and electronic surveillance hasn't significantly reduced theft by staff, and this remains at unacceptably high levels. Again, the latest studies suggest that staff theft increases in those companies where there's a high employee turnover, or a high proportion of temporary or part-time workers on the books.
Incidences of violence against employees in the retail arena will undoubtedly increase, much of it fuelled by alcohol and drug-related addictions. Retailers should also be aware that there has been a significant shift from opportunistic and individual occurrences of crime to more organised bouts of criminality perpetrated by dedicated gangs.
The retailers' response
Advances in security technology, particularly in the areas of CCTV and asset tagging, have a significant role to play in deterring and preventing theft. However, technology will never in itself be an answer to the problem of theft perpetrated by staff and customers alike. The role of manned, uniformed security will continue to be important, both in terms of deterring crime and reassuring customers that they can shop in safety.
Not only that, but the role of security staff as 'meeters and greeters' helps create a secure, and at the same time welcoming environment.
In responding to the problem of staff theft, leading retailers will extend employee integrity screening measures across the whole range of their staff. Usually associated with plain clothes store detectives, covert security is an effective measure that may be employed against would-be shop floor thieves. It can also be applied to deal with the problem of internal theft (with the covert 'agent' presenting him or herself as a member of staff).
How to respond to increasing violence against staff is a good question. In truth, retailers will be looking to provide specialist training in conflict management techniques to all customer-facing employees, and not just their security operatives.
The police response
A number of police forces in the UK are now working with private sector security providers to develop pioneering crime prevention initiatives. These include issuing special warrants such that security officers have certain powers of arrest that will reduce the need for the police to attend every store arrest. Another idea being proposed is for security officers to be certified to use specialist equipment such as handcuffs if deemed absolutely necessary.
With less police required to attend the scene, it's expected that more retailers will use the powers of civil recovery ('On the road to recovery', SMT, June 2002, pp22-24). This would offset the cost of losses and security provision resulting from offenders not being charged and convicted by the Courts. The provision of training in investigative interviewing skills will assume an ncreasing importance as retail security staff become less reliant on support from the police and take on more responsibility for dealing with offenders.
Fraud is being tackled both by the Home Office and the banking community. Indeed, a dedicated police unit is currently being set up to combat the increases in cheque and credit card fraud committed by organised gangs. It's anticipated that retailers will see a stabilisation – if not a reduction – in levels of this type of crime. Longer term, the phased introduction of 'chip and PIN' technology over the next few years should significantly reduce credit card abuses. Similar technology with embedded microchips and individual PIN number authentication has been deployed very successfully in France for a number of years.
There's expected to be an increase in the number of crime reduction initiatives, with the police taking an increasingly active role in working with other organisations including local authorities, retailers and private security providers ('Under Raid-control', SMT, April 2002, pp31-32). This joined-up approach to crime reduction is already evident in the 250 Retail Crime Partnerships that have been established throughout the UK.
However, such schemes tend to vary in both their quality and effectiveness, and there's room for improvement in the sharing of Best Practice and the provision of real-time intelligence sharing. Initiatives such as 'Safer Shopping' Awards and 'Secure Car Park' schemes also have an important role to play in tackling crime and reassuring the public that they can shop in a safe environment.
Raising standards through legislation
Concern about the quality of staff throughout the private security industry has of course been a deciding factor in the establishment of the Security Industry Authority (SIA). The SIA's licensing and regulatory strands will have a significant impact on the retail sector in terms of the cost of providing manned security, and attracting and retaining quality security operatives that meet the SIA's standards.
There’s expected to be an increase in the number of crime reduction initiatives, with the police taking an active role in working with other organisations including local authorities, retailers and security providers. This joined-up approach to crime redu
The soon-to-be-introduced Working Time Directive will combine with the strict requirements of the SIA to create a 'double whammy' for the retail industry, making it increasingly difficult to provide manned security at current levels without incurring escalating wage costs. This is likely to be a particular problem in outlets with extended opening hours where security staff work long shifts and long working weeks to provide adequate security cover.
The combined impact of the SIA's standards and the Working Time Directive has been estimated to (potentially) increase security costs by 16-30% over the next few years.
Although top security providers are already implementing a number of initiatives, additional changes have been proposed which, over the next two years, will raise the standard of guarding across the industry as a whole.
The SIA is planning the introduction of mandatory licenses for all security officers, of course, available only after five days of accredited training and the successful completion of a number of bespoke test modules. Applicants for licenses will be screened for a criminal record within the previous two years, or up to five years for any serious offences. The cost of each licence is estimated at between £150 and £200 per officer. With fines for non-licence holders expected to be in the region of £5,000 (and maybe entailing a six-month spell behind bars), less scrupulous private security firms will have to raise their vetting standards.
These licensing requirements will improve the level of training offered to security officers, which in turn should help raise standards across the industry. Although a significant number of licence applicants will fail to meet the SIA's standards, overall these changes should enhance the status of private security as a profession. A similar approach in Holland has created a far more professional private security industry that attracts high quality employees, has low staff turnover and offers genuine career progression.
Old problems... new solutions
The impact of legislation on the cost of security provision is likely to accelerate the adoption of electronic security solutions that partially replace or enhance manned security. The integration of new technology, such as rapid advances in digital CCTV and RFID (radio frequency identification) tagging, along with more traditional security measures can produce solutions that provide security staff with automatic alerts of incidents in real time.
Increasingly, retailers will work in partnership with security providers to develop bespoke solutions to security requirements. Securicor's relationship with supermarket chain Safeway is one such example of where the 'new role' of security manager has been created to afford the security team direct contact with store management, and to offer advice on all security-related incidents. The security manager is able to highlight all areas of potential and real loss to the store management. Loss reduction actions can be agreed and implemented in a timely manner.
Biometrics is a fast-developing technology that's used to automatically identify individuals by their physical characteristics, the most popular being fingerprints, the iris and facial recognition. Biometrics may be used in one of two ways: to verify an individuals' identity (for example to control access to a secure area) or to pick out suspect individuals in a crowd (ie known troublemakers in a town centre).
Facial biometrics and CCTV
An exciting retail security innovation comes with the integration of facial biometrics and CCTV systems. Retail Crime Partnerships formed by local councils, the police, retailers and shopping centre management companies are using facial biometrics to identify and exclude known or suspected thieves.
Given that as much as 65% of retail crime has been attributed to thieves stealing in order to finance a drug habit – and that one addict needs to steal around £30,000 to £40,000 worth of goods each year to fund that habit – it's clear that such initiatives have the potential to make a major impact when it comes to reducing retail theft.
Retailers must prepare for the full impact of new legislation that will increase the cost of security provision so that retail crime can be contained at an acceptable level.
Retailers, security suppliers, police and local authorities will need to work more closely in the future to address the whole issue of retail crime. Security suppliers will need to develop new solutions in response to the increased costs attributed to wage rises, reduced working hours and the cost of new security industry and employment legislation.
When choosing a security package, retailers should work in partnership with leading private security providers to develop innovative security solutions that are cost-effective and have the potential to make a significant impact on reducing losses.
Source
SMT
Postscript
Doug Hewitson is managing director of Securicor Security
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