Retailers lose a lot of money each year to different forms of theft, but there are measures local retail owners and employees can take to minimize risks.
In 2015, the National Retail Federation reported theft by employees alone cost U.S. retailers $16 billion each year. This total did not include losses from shoplifting, robbery, payment with counterfeit currency, or other kinds of theft on the part of customers or other non-employees.
The Jefferson City Police Department reported 268 shoplifting incidents and 348 thefts from businesses in 2016, for a total of 616 such incidents, said Doug Shoemaker, JCPD's public information officer. In 2015, that total was 683 - 351 shoplifting incidents and 332 thefts from businesses.
Shoemaker said the difference between "shoplifting" and "theft from business" in a police report is how the officer who takes the report codes the incident. He didn't want to guess at how many times shoplifting or other thefts from businesses go unreported.
Have a policy in place
In some respects, the appropriate response to a robbery is more straightforward than for shoplifting or other kinds of theft: If someone is robbing you, just give them what they want.
"Don't put yourself in harm's way," said Kevin Kempker, JCPD's crime prevention officer. "Money and items can be replaced; you can't."
When it comes to advice for retailers' response to shoplifting, "my typical universal response to that is to follow your policy," he said.
Policies vary from retailer to retailer, and big box stores in particular probably discourage their employees from actively intervening in what they suspect is a shoplifting attempt. In those cases, employees who do intervene - against store policy - could risk getting fired, said Timothy Maher, undergraduate director and outreach program coordinator for the Criminology and Criminal Justice Department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Before he took his position with UMSL in 1997, Maher was a police officer in Ladue. He now teaches a crime-prevention course.
In previous decades, any employee could more or less operate as an untrained security officer and look after merchandise, Maher said. But that's changed with how companies think about liability issues. Management often doesn't want people to risk getting hurt by involving themselves in altercations, particularly without professional training.
"How many lawsuits does it take to offset a few million dollars of saved merchandise?" he said, describing the mentality common throughout the retail industry.
Some stores don't have a policy, Kempker said, but employees need to know what to do or not to do in the event of shoplifting or other incidents.
"Some are getting better about it. Sometimes it's just trained into (employees) verbally," he said. "It ought to be in writing. In writing, it holds more credibility and some more accountability."
Be educated
Kempker recommends managers and employees be educated in shoplifting techniques, counterfeit currency and consumer protection measures when it comes to identity theft.
He recognizes, though, with large numbers of minimum wage workers in retail, turnover is high and it can be difficult to justify investing in training for people who typically won't be around for long.
"Educate yourself so that you can educate them," Kempker said of creating a core set of knowledge in management.
"I will go out typically and offer a shoplifting prevention program that I provide," he said of outreach efforts in the community.
He offers one class for employees on what to look for - techniques used by shoplifters, and practices they can engage in to make their store a more risky and less attractive environment for would-be thieves. He offers a separate class for management that addresses ways employees can steal from them.
Kempker said employers will contact him to schedule classes when they feel the need to do so, particularly once turnover has reached a point where the knowledge base in the pool of employees needs to be rebuilt.
"We'll try to (train) as many employees at a time as they can," he said.
Know your weaknesses
Kempker said most stores "do a very good job of watching the customers, (and) being very customer-oriented as a means to deter some of this." He does see common vulnerabilities when it comes to return policies and points-of-sale, though.
He explained lax return policies can allow people to steal items off a sales floor, then get money for those items with by claiming they received the item as a gift from another store or lost their receipt - or even by providing a different receipt.
At points-of-sale, he explained, embossing equipment can be used to make counterfeit credit cards using gift cards and stolen credit card numbers. All it takes to counter that threat is for employees to visually inspect cards and check customers' identification to make sure even a legitimate credit card is theirs to use, he said.
Electronic security measures and added security officers can help deter thieves, too, but these are not absolute guarantees of protection.
Even if a store has cameras, Maher said, someone has to monitor the closed circuit TV feeds at all times for it be to maximally effective. Then, even if they see something and are allowed to intervene, security staff has to be able to get to thieves before they walk out of the store with merchandise.
Kempker said one advantage of cameras is they hold employees accountable. He also recommends to "have signage that indicates no hesitancy to prosecute."
He cited Case.Net as a free resource to do background checks on employees, something employers "really need to do."
A store can hire more security officers, especially police officers to work second jobs. Even then, there might be only one or two officers for a whole store, Maher said, and they can't be everywhere at all times.
Electronic tags on merchandise that set off alarms if the items leave the store without being scanned at checkout are another option. But that's almost impossible to implement at some places, like hardware stores stocked with lots of small, individual pieces of merchandise like nuts and bolts.
Say hello to your neighbors
Capt. John Hotz, division director of the public information and education division of Missouri Highway Patrol, recommends retailers connect with the Missouri Organized Retail Crimes Association (MORCA).
He said MORCA's main goal is to provide intelligence about known, active thieves operating in an area. Its services provide a "sharing of information with (retailers) about retail crime incidents, as well as any trends that may be going on."
"If they join the program, there will be other information shared as far as challenges and things they can do to combat the problems that they're seeing there," he said.
Maher said organized theft rings are more likely to target larger merchandise items like cars that are difficult to move. Plus, why work for someone else when you can go it alone or just have to split profits with an accomplice who's a friend or romantic partner?
"I get a sense it's more individualized," he said of most retail thieves.
Even if a retailer just has to deal with the prospect of a lone wolf thief instead of a ring of organized criminals, don't become complacent.
"We stay plenty busy with shoplifting reports," Kempker said. He noted employee theft is a bigger portion of stores' losses nationally, but in the Jefferson City area, "I would say our retailers say shoplifting is the biggest (source of) loss."
"I don't think it's targeting just the big box stores," he said. "I think it's all over."
He recommended to "create a business association, and network and communicate with your retailers that are your neighbors" on a regular basis, especially if a retailer is in a strip mall or downtown area. Collaborative efforts like these can provide opportunities to share information about issues and basically establish a business watch, akin to a neighborhood watch.
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Given his retirement is approaching, Kempker said people interested in his training classes for employees and managers can contact Sgt. Joe Matherne or ask for the community action team at 573-634-6400.
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MORCA can be contacted at Retail Crimes, C/O Missouri Information Analysis Center, Missouri State Highway Patrol, P.O. Box 568, Jefferson City MO 65102; by phone at 1-866-362-6422; or by email at [email protected].
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