The Jewelers’ Security Alliance (JSA) has recently released its 21-page 2017 annual crime report covering crime against the jewelry industry in the United States. Total dollar losses decreased from $72.4 million in 2016 to $72.1 million in 2017, a decrease of 0.4 percent, while the total number of crimes against the industry increased from 1,245 in 2016 to 1,394 in 2017, an increase of 12.0 percent.
John Kennedy, president of JSA said, “This report summarizes the information on when, where and how these crimes occurred. Knowing the information in this report can help you keep your jewelry business safe from crime. JSA urges all jewelry firm owners and their employees to spend time reading and discussing this report and examining the serious risks that your jewelry business faces.”
Highlights of the report include:
- Reports of smash and grab robberies increased from 62 in 2016 to 71 in 2017, an increase of 14.5 percent. Over 50 percent of smash and grab robberies occurred in mall locations.
- Grab-and-run thefts increased from 420 in 2016 to 556 in 2017, an increase of 32.4 percent.
- Off-premises crimes, including traveling salesperson losses, fell to 39 in 2017, the lowest total in over 20 years.
- In 201,7 JSA recorded a large dollar increase in cyber-enabled thefts by deception and impersonation. The average loss from this type of crime was over $1.2 million.
- There were five homicides of jewelers in 2017, compared to six homicides in 2016. In the ten-year period from 1996 to 2006, 82 jewelers were killed, while in the ten-year period from 2007 to 2017, 41 jewelers were killed, which represented a 50 percent decline from the previous decade.
“While overall dollar losses were flat, JSA is particularly concerned about the upsurge in smash-and-grab robberies, a big jump in grab and run thefts, and some very large losses in cyber-enabled crimes, which involved deception, impersonation and the internet,” said Kennedy. “The average dollar loss from a series of cyber-enabled crimes was $1.2 million, which highlights this dangerous and growing crime trend that the industry increasingly faces.”
The full report is available on the JSA website at jewelerssecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2017-JSA-Annual-Crime-Report.pdf.