According to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), residential homes are seeing fewer and fewer burglaries. That’s good news, right? Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of retail stores and other commercial spaces, such as offices. Both the incidence rate and the average loss value of commercial burglaries increased in 2016. New kinds of risk—such as threats from organized gangs and the ongoing opioid crisis—have emerged, but security tools and technologies have also evolved to keep pace. So, what does successful burglary prevention look like today?
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Contributing Writer Garett Seivold spoke with a number of loss prevention leaders on this subject for his feature article in the July–August 2018 issue of LP Magazine. It turns out that case studies and real-life stories offer the best kind of instruction when it comes to balancing the bounds of your store’s available resources and the need to protect against burglaries and raids. In the article, Seivold shares some of the top tips of industry leaders:
Digital PartnersHow products are merchandised in stores continues to be a major risk factor of overnight raids, according to several LP leaders interviewed by LP Magazine, including Mike Keenan, CPP, CFI, LPC, who has led LP at Macy’s, Ross, and Gap and is now president of Mike Keenan and Associates, a retail loss prevention consulting company. “It seems like a simple thing, but defense starts with not tempting people, like not putting the most expensive stuff in windows,” he said.
As such, Keenan and other retail security experts believe that robust burglary prevention needs, at its foundation, for LP to understand their business and items that are most likely to entice thieves after hours. Then, LP can erect barriers between thieves and their targets, added asset protection consultant Sean Ahrens, CPP, security market group leader at AEI. “It’s been true in the past, and it’s still the case, that the goal is to delay an aggressor’s access as long as possible, ideally to the point of response,” he said.
Read the full article, “Safely into the Night,” to discover vital intel from today’s LP execs (at Food Lion, Brinker International, Academy Sports + Outdooors, and more) on top burglary prevention tips and the best ways to protect stores after hours.
For more great LP content, visit the Table of Contents for the July–August 2018 issue or register for a FREE print or digital subscription to the magazine. [Note: if you’re already a logged-in subscriber, the previous link will take you to the current issue instead.]
