Research has exposed glaring omissions in retail security systems as well as staff training. Liz Hamson finds out just how easy it is for shoplifters to get away with it
The last thing Sharon feels like after a heavy night is a morning trawling around the supermarket. But needs must and the 23-year old rustles through a drawer to locate the regular shopping list before heading off to her local store.
The store is the usual assault course and annoyingly it is totally out of beef joints and the brand of coffee she is after, but half an hour later she is slumped in her seat at the boozer, downing a pint with her mate, with the job done.
Now, finally Sharon can turn her attention to more pressing matters: where to score the crack she craves with the cash that her “mate” - a local fence she meets every week - has given her for the goods she’s just stolen.
Hers is a sorry tale and one that retailers need to get to get to grips with if they are to successfully tackle the growing “customer” theft problem, according to the former shoplifters who agreed to be filmed in the act for a ground-breaking research project.
Earlier this year, the reformed shoplifters were sent into supermarkets, department stores and high street shops to test the security measures of some of the UK’s biggest retailers. The resulting footage, clips of which were presented to 150 delegates at a recent conference on retail crime in Leicester, reveals the shocking ease with which thieves steal not only “hot items” like Gillette Mach3 razor blades - but also bulky electrical items such as DVD players and even TVs. It also shows how determined they are not to leave empty-handed.
Dispatched by Martin Gill’s team at the Scarman Institute, University of Leicester, the thieves’ remit was to find out why, despite an annual £500m spend on hi-tech security measures, including CCTV cameras, electronic security tags and staff training, the number of customer thefts per 100 outlets has spiralled from 2,597 in 2001 to 3,066 in 2002 [Retail Crime Survey 2003].
The thieves expose endemic problems with instore security as they go about their business, some doing the bare minimum to conceal their actions. The way CCTV cameras are used is one of the biggest. In one case, the cameras are trained on the drinks aisle. But the shoplifter just puts a bottle of spirits in his basket and then goes to an aisle that is not monitored to conceal it under his coat.
Other tricks of the “trade” the shoplifters deploy include dropping products into a magic bag - usually a sports bag - lined with foil in the hope it will confuse any alarms, and peeling off electronic security tags and getting a friend to distract attention by setting off the security alarm “accidentally” while the real thief leaves with stolen items.
One thief brazenly walks out of the store with the stolen goods in the hope he can outrun any pursuers. There are none.
Gill says: “There were weaknesses everywhere. We’ve subsequently gone back to test security and most of the time the shoplifters have been able to pull it off again.”
Jerry Hart, research consultant at security consultant PRCI, who delivered the presentation, says that the real problem is not the systems but the retailers who do not understand the mindset of the shoplifter.
Many shoplifters are stealing to order for the black market, the grey market, pubs, clubs, other retailers or the local housing estate. The vast majority of thieves are motivated by drug addiction - 65% of those caught and tested are found to have class A drugs in their system - and they will always find ways of circumventing even the most sophisticated security measures, says Hart. “They don’t care. Professionals need to generate about £180 to £200 a day - they’ll do whatever is necessary,” he adds.
At the top of the shoplifter’s shopping list are high value items such as meat, cheese, batteries, spirits, razor blades and coffee. “If it’s Craved - concealable, removable,
available, valuable, enjoyable and disposable - it’s stealable,” comments Hart wryly.
Professional thieves will stop at nothing to get their hands on the lucrative booty. But retailers could do more to optimise their security measures, he says. “Companies are bad at analysing their own shrinkage. They need to understand it better.”
CCTV cameras are one case in point. In any store, there will always be blind spots, but even when located in the right parts of the store, he says, cameras are often ineffectual. “Stores have to think more comprehensively about surveillance. If the camera is just recording rather than being monitored, it is no deterrent to the shoplifter.”
However, if it is monitored and located in the less obvious aisles - where a thief would be more likely to conceal the booty - staff stand a better chance of spotting and detaining the criminal before they leave the store.
The role that staff play is critical, Hart says. “Offenders don’t like being noticed. If a shoplifter is approached by a friendly member of staff early, they might be deterred from committing the offence. If the interaction occurs after the offender has committed the crime, the propensity for violence against staff increases. Retailers need to understand this model.”
Keeping up to date with the latest technology and then deploying it in the right way is important.
But for Hart, the single biggest issue is staff training. His view is that retailers need to radically improve their staff training if they want to contain the problem.“Security is seen as a dirty raincoat activity, but it is integral. Most security managers have had no training while ordinary staff are not properly trained in how to recognise suspicious behaviour in a customer or how to act when they do.”
The good news for retailers is that although the number of incidents is rising, instore shrinkage has fallen to 0.9% of retail turnover compared to 1.7% in 1994. Unless the government tackles the underlying problem of drug addiction, however, customer theft is going to continue to be a serious issue, warns the British Retail Consortium’s assistant director retail crime policy, Mike Schuck.
And whatever sympathy the plight of people like Sharon evokes, retailers need to wage war on theft, Schuck says.
“Thieves are constantly pushing to find the weaknesses in security systems. Things do work but they need to be made to work. The skill is to ensure the thieves are only half a step ahead rather than two steps ahead. The price of profitability is vigilance.”
1 Put cameras in areas the thieves won’t expect them - in the salad or toilet roll aisles, for instance.
2 Invest in staff training. Teach them how to recognise suspicious behaviour and how to deal with it.
3 Continue to invest in the latest technology but make sure it is used properly. If they can, thieves will peel off electronic security tags. Make sure they’re difficult to remove by placing them between the outer cellophane and the packaging or in the product itself.
4 Keep up to speed with the latest methods used by thieves in your store. Thieves are innovators; they are business people.
5 Share intelligence with retailers and emphasise deterrence. Retailers should let potential thieves know they’ve been rumbled. It’s cheaper than prosecution.
The last thing Sharon feels like after a heavy night is a morning trawling around the supermarket. But needs must and the 23-year old rustles through a drawer to locate the regular shopping list before heading off to her local store.
The store is the usual assault course and annoyingly it is totally out of beef joints and the brand of coffee she is after, but half an hour later she is slumped in her seat at the boozer, downing a pint with her mate, with the job done.
Now, finally Sharon can turn her attention to more pressing matters: where to score the crack she craves with the cash that her “mate” - a local fence she meets every week - has given her for the goods she’s just stolen.
Hers is a sorry tale and one that retailers need to get to get to grips with if they are to successfully tackle the growing “customer” theft problem, according to the former shoplifters who agreed to be filmed in the act for a ground-breaking research project.
Earlier this year, the reformed shoplifters were sent into supermarkets, department stores and high street shops to test the security measures of some of the UK’s biggest retailers. The resulting footage, clips of which were presented to 150 delegates at a recent conference on retail crime in Leicester, reveals the shocking ease with which thieves steal not only “hot items” like Gillette Mach3 razor blades - but also bulky electrical items such as DVD players and even TVs. It also shows how determined they are not to leave empty-handed.
Dispatched by Martin Gill’s team at the Scarman Institute, University of Leicester, the thieves’ remit was to find out why, despite an annual £500m spend on hi-tech security measures, including CCTV cameras, electronic security tags and staff training, the number of customer thefts per 100 outlets has spiralled from 2,597 in 2001 to 3,066 in 2002 [Retail Crime Survey 2003].
The thieves expose endemic problems with instore security as they go about their business, some doing the bare minimum to conceal their actions. The way CCTV cameras are used is one of the biggest. In one case, the cameras are trained on the drinks aisle. But the shoplifter just puts a bottle of spirits in his basket and then goes to an aisle that is not monitored to conceal it under his coat.
Other tricks of the “trade” the shoplifters deploy include dropping products into a magic bag - usually a sports bag - lined with foil in the hope it will confuse any alarms, and peeling off electronic security tags and getting a friend to distract attention by setting off the security alarm “accidentally” while the real thief leaves with stolen items.
One thief brazenly walks out of the store with the stolen goods in the hope he can outrun any pursuers. There are none.
Gill says: “There were weaknesses everywhere. We’ve subsequently gone back to test security and most of the time the shoplifters have been able to pull it off again.”
Jerry Hart, research consultant at security consultant PRCI, who delivered the presentation, says that the real problem is not the systems but the retailers who do not understand the mindset of the shoplifter.
Many shoplifters are stealing to order for the black market, the grey market, pubs, clubs, other retailers or the local housing estate. The vast majority of thieves are motivated by drug addiction - 65% of those caught and tested are found to have class A drugs in their system - and they will always find ways of circumventing even the most sophisticated security measures, says Hart. “They don’t care. Professionals need to generate about £180 to £200 a day - they’ll do whatever is necessary,” he adds.
At the top of the shoplifter’s shopping list are high value items such as meat, cheese, batteries, spirits, razor blades and coffee. “If it’s Craved - concealable, removable,
available, valuable, enjoyable and disposable - it’s stealable,” comments Hart wryly.
Professional thieves will stop at nothing to get their hands on the lucrative booty. But retailers could do more to optimise their security measures, he says. “Companies are bad at analysing their own shrinkage. They need to understand it better.”
CCTV cameras are one case in point. In any store, there will always be blind spots, but even when located in the right parts of the store, he says, cameras are often ineffectual. “Stores have to think more comprehensively about surveillance. If the camera is just recording rather than being monitored, it is no deterrent to the shoplifter.”
However, if it is monitored and located in the less obvious aisles - where a thief would be more likely to conceal the booty - staff stand a better chance of spotting and detaining the criminal before they leave the store.
The role that staff play is critical, Hart says. “Offenders don’t like being noticed. If a shoplifter is approached by a friendly member of staff early, they might be deterred from committing the offence. If the interaction occurs after the offender has committed the crime, the propensity for violence against staff increases. Retailers need to understand this model.”
Keeping up to date with the latest technology and then deploying it in the right way is important.
But for Hart, the single biggest issue is staff training. His view is that retailers need to radically improve their staff training if they want to contain the problem.“Security is seen as a dirty raincoat activity, but it is integral. Most security managers have had no training while ordinary staff are not properly trained in how to recognise suspicious behaviour in a customer or how to act when they do.”
The good news for retailers is that although the number of incidents is rising, instore shrinkage has fallen to 0.9% of retail turnover compared to 1.7% in 1994. Unless the government tackles the underlying problem of drug addiction, however, customer theft is going to continue to be a serious issue, warns the British Retail Consortium’s assistant director retail crime policy, Mike Schuck.
And whatever sympathy the plight of people like Sharon evokes, retailers need to wage war on theft, Schuck says.
“Thieves are constantly pushing to find the weaknesses in security systems. Things do work but they need to be made to work. The skill is to ensure the thieves are only half a step ahead rather than two steps ahead. The price of profitability is vigilance.”
1 Put cameras in areas the thieves won’t expect them - in the salad or toilet roll aisles, for instance.
2 Invest in staff training. Teach them how to recognise suspicious behaviour and how to deal with it.
3 Continue to invest in the latest technology but make sure it is used properly. If they can, thieves will peel off electronic security tags. Make sure they’re difficult to remove by placing them between the outer cellophane and the packaging or in the product itself.
4 Keep up to speed with the latest methods used by thieves in your store. Thieves are innovators; they are business people.
5 Share intelligence with retailers and emphasise deterrence. Retailers should let potential thieves know they’ve been rumbled. It’s cheaper than prosecution.
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