ALTO and ThinkLP recently announced that they are now partnering to better help retailers combat retail crime. In this exclusive conversation with LPM’s Stefanie Hoover, ALTO’s Rhett Asher and ThinkLP’s Tony Sheppard discuss how this partnership gets better data from retailers and helps them react quickly to increase store safety.
Stefanie Hoover: Tell me what inspired this new partnership between ALTO and ThinkLP.
Rhett Asher: One of the reasons this relationship is so cool is that ThinkLP is a comprehensive platform that brings a lot of data from their customers into one place, for one version of the truth. So this is a marriage that’s perfect because we work very well together and each of us helps do something that we can’t do on our own.
Tony Sheppard: I’ve been in the industry for a long time. So I’m familiar with what ALTO does, and certainly from working with Rhett I believe in what they are doing. I lived in that space, dealing with the repeat offenders of the ORC world for a long time, and I know where the gap is when it comes to the last few yards—I’ll reference Rhett’s NFL analogy there. What better way to help our customers than to allow them to easily follow through on that with ALTO? We want to make sure that we integrate with those that do for the benefit of our customers. At the end of the day, I lived in that world, I know Rhett lived in that world a long time ago as well, and it’s a lot to manage, a lot of stuff to sift through, a lot of data. We want to make things as easy as possible. And whatever we can provide that makes it seamless for users to get the information to ALTO to do what they need to do for their customers or our joint customers, I think that’s a win-win. And I know many of our customers are super excited about this.
SH: You talked about data, and retailers always kind of worry about data overload. How exactly would this integration lead to the reduction of incident resolution times?
RA: We’re focused on achieving results more quickly. Tony and I have attended many meetings at retail headquarters where the discussion centered on strengthening the vendor ecosystem. While working in silos with different solution providers can bring a singular focus to a problem, leaders in the industry like Mike Lamb and Jennie Anderson at AutoZone have excelled at uniting their solution providers. They’ve challenged them to collaborate and identify ways to work together more effectively. I believe this integration stems from those kinds of conversations. It’s designed to enhance collaboration by enabling an almost end-to-end solution. We’re simplifying the process—providing one place to enter data and one seamless flow of information—while still leveraging multiple solution providers. The result is a more efficient and effective outcome.
SH: Tony, what do you think? How is this going to decrease resolution times?
TS: Our customers are already using ThinkLP, so they have an app at their locations and can use any device to input information. The idea is that information’s in there, and they must get it to ALTO. So why not have it set up so that, when they submit data, it can then get pushed all the way through to ALTO, to get it to them quicker? We’re working on advancements at ThinkLP that will help with this from an ALTO standpoint when we have our advanced crime linking. Some of that data may be linked before it even arrives at ALTO. I know that’s part of what ALTO does—trying to ensure people are held accountable for all the crimes they committed—not just one or two incidents, but every incident. That way, they’re not getting the proverbial slap on the wrist in court when they’ve impacted a company seven times versus the two times we might know about. We want to make it easy for that end user to submit information and ensure that it gets to where it needs to go quickly so that these things are addressed as rapidly as possible.
SH: How exactly does the integration work on your platform?
TS: It’s a push now to ALTO, but we’re working on some of our future enhancements where we have that secondary two-way integration, meaning the disposition of those cases feeds back into ThinkLP for that—why would I have to go somewhere else if I could just have it fed out and then fed back in? So that’s phase two of the integration, but that coincides with some of the other developments that we’re working on.
RA: I agree—it’s very much a crawl, walk, run approach, but phase two is important. Once we receive the data, we can take action on it to secure prosecutions or favorable outcomes. The addition of the pull feature, however, will further enhance collaboration, strengthen relationships, and improve overall efficiency. For instance, if restitution is awarded through the system, it can be set up automatically, streamlining the process. That means funds go directly into the restitution workflow without any extra steps. Similarly, if there’s another type of activity—such as a stay-away order from the store—the retailer will have instant access to that information. This integration will simplify the entire process from start to finish, enabling retailers to send their data and trust that the system will handle everything seamlessly.
SH: ALTO does such a great job with their staff attorneys out in the field and other team members with their boots-on-the-ground, and they’re looking at all these different cases and making connections. Is there a time in the future when the ThinkLP platform could share that information among the different retailers so we could start to really make some connections among cases?
TS: You’re giving away our secrets now! That’s what I was referring to. We do have some big releases coming out early next year. We have customers in a pilot now, coincidentally, on that very topic in reference to crime linking across retailers and then also more to come next year. I worked at fighting ORC for many, many years. When you go to these court proceedings, it’s a very different conversation when you can articulate multiple instances of someone committing a crime. And I think it would be great to, in the future, be able to do that across retailers because that also adds value as they have multiple brands that were impacted. So that’s coming, and I think that will benefit all of our customers and certainly the customers that we have jointly without question. It will allow for much more compelling case-building.
SH: How will your solutions combined help affect safety?
RA: Securing outcomes in bigger cases and resulting in longer sentences directly contributes to safer stores by reducing the time offenders spend in them. Once a court case is resolved with a favorable outcome for the retailer, it ensures that the individual is unlikely to return. We’re already seeing a significant reduction in recidivism, but with ThinkLP’s integration, we anticipate an even greater impact in driving down repeat offenses and enhancing store safety.
TS: Yeah, I agree 100 percent, and I’ve lived in that world for many years. And I think that because retailers are constantly challenged with how they articulate the return on investment for whatever they do when it comes to the external theft piece, that’s always a challenge. But part of it is what would have happened had you not done something? So, if you’ve got somebody who’s repeatedly hitting you, now, system-wise, everything runs smooth, the information gets to the right parties (in this case ALTO), they represent the retailer, and now that person is incarcerated maybe for 90 days, or whatever the case may be, but I think there’s value in that future. We’re super excited.
SH: If I’m out in the field, is there a way for me to, with ThinkLP’s software, not only note that there was a theft incident but also violence involved? And is that highlighted so it’s brought to you?
TS: Yeah, that’s the beauty of ThinkLP—the ability to customize. We have folks that use us for all types of different reporting. If it’s a violent incident, certainly that can be noted. We have the ability to collect whatever information you want and however you want to collect it to ensure it goes to the right folks. And it’s not just about the theft. Retailers are dealing with this, and I know ALTO addresses it a lot, but there are other disruptions to business that aren’t necessarily theft-related.
SH: For those folks that maybe aren’t as familiar with ALTO or ThinkLP, walk me through a scenario where a retailer would use ALTO, now integrated with ThinkLP. Let’s say there’s a violent incident and something happens in the store. Rhett, how would your team get involved with a retailer who’s got your services on board?
RA: Typically, incidents are entered into the case management platform—ThinkLP—which then pushes the details directly to our team in the field. When there is a violent incident, part of the beauty of ALTO is that we have a relationship with the store team as well. So, in many cases, if it’s not just a typical shoplifting incident and something that affects the team’s safety, they will follow their company’s procedure and call 911. Typically, though, that second call is to our team that’s in the field, and we will get over there, ensure there’s a police presence, and make sure the details of the incident are correctly documented. And so that gets pushed through ThinkLP, but it also immediately marries all that data so that as we’re working, that incident has been connected to multiple incidents, so that integration is going to allow there to be a lot more data flow from the incident and connect it to either other stores in the area that the two of us are working on or other companies that we’re working with that are part of that alliance. Then, our legal team gets to work doing offender searches. They start working that case legally; they ensure there’s a detective assigned to the case and a court date set, and they literally provide the retailer—through ThinkLP and the court system—complete visibility. We talk about the football analogy of the red zone, and how the incident doesn’t stop at an arrest. We all know that the court system and all the other stakeholders within the community are just as under-resourced, overtaxed, and as busy as everybody else. Now, with this integration, they can show complete visibility from that point to the adjudication. There will be that whole collection of data, which will make that red zone to end zone process so much more visible to the client. Now, the retailers are going to be able to see exactly what happens after an arrest.
SH: That’s a great breakdown. Tony, anything you want to add?
TS: We have back-end workflows built in, so when something does happen, based on the criteria of what happens, certain people are notified, and certain people are assigned tasks to ensure they follow-up. And then, ALTO just takes it into the end zone, ensuring that happens. That’s near and dear to my heart because, like I said, I dealt with ORC for many, many years. And I know that when no one goes to court, nothing happens. I believe in what ALTO is doing, and for us to be able to assist our customers and get that information to them quicker and in a very digestible manner is just huge, and it’s a big win for our customers. And I think we’re seeing some improvements, but we still have a really long way to go in the justice system to make sure that these things are taken across the goal line. It all starts with packaging things up into a nice, neat case and making sure it gets reported to the police, and then having someone like ALTO or the retailer follow up on it, making sure that we go to the court case and that subpoenas are issued.
SH: I think this is awesome, and I’m so happy your companies have gotten together. This is just going to make the retailers’ lives so much easier. I hope we continue to see this grow. Do you have any final parting words you want to share?
RA: I believe these types of relationships are critical for driving real change in our industry. While we’ve made significant progress over the past 20-plus years, there’s still a lack of collaboration among solution providers. I’m super excited about working with ThinkLP. This relationship is going to allow us to explore a lot of different ways to help the retailer.
Listen to our podcast with Rhett and Tony here.
