RiskUKAugust2017

Security Services: Best Practice Casebook
Last year, the Crime Survey for England and
Wales recorded the highest level of
shoplifting for 13 years and, indeed, a 3%
uplift on the prior 12 months. With a much
higher percentage of shopping now being
transacted online, perhaps in-store shoplifting
is a more attractive way for a ‘professional’
criminal to avoid leaving a digital footprint?
Security professionals are responsible for
continuously analysing the loss prevention
equation and identifying triggers, signals and
barriers to communication, all of which can be
logged, tracked and pattern-analysed for better
outcomes. In terms of retail security, things
have changed quite substantially and, in
addition to the accepted ASCONE (Approach,
Selection, Concealment, Observation, Non-
Payment and Exit) method, the importance of
intelligence analysis and planning cannot be
overstated as part of the loss prevention mix.
The powers of retail security professionals
are among the most poorly understood by the
casual observer. Does anyone outside of the
profession really understand the limited
parameters within which a retail security
professional is often required to work?
What about the ‘rock and a hard place’ legal
situations which can mean that loss prevention
specialists have to take decisions that could
lead to shoplifters being allowed to walk away
from the premises with products for which they
haven’t paid?
Not surprisingly, this doesn’t make them feel
good as practising professionals. Security
officers have come into this business to be a
force for good, but it’s little wonder that the
general public harbours negative perceptions of
these officers when the former doesn’t have an
understanding of the limited options at the
latter’s disposal when it comes to chasing after,
detaining or restraining a suspected shoplifter.
A high-profile example happened in one of
the larger supermarket chains and involved
stolen glass bottles that resulted in a fatal
injury during the detention situation. More
recently, a security officer was suspended from
working for a well-known High Street retailer as
a result of being deemed to have used
excessive force in detaining a shoplifter who,
unbeknown to the officer involved, was
pregnant. The female was given a six-week jail
term having pleaded guilty to her crime.
Even searching a suspect can pose problems,
with the risk factor stretching from negative PR
to allegations of sexual assault being made.
Mobile technology
Set against this backdrop, what’s the on-duty
security officer supposed to do? It’s not yet
Addressing Modern Challenges
Recent high-profile security incidents have served to remind
us all of the need for constantly questioning our security
focus and addressing the balance between expenditure
versus public safety in a period where we’re experiencing
peaks in threat levels. Assuming that public safety is in hand,
organisations also need to look at ways in which loss
prevention is managed, as Jon Felix observes in detail
widely implemented, but mobile technology
simply must be embraced to allow our
professionals to document evidence in the
fastest and most accurate way possible.
Recently, we carried out an analysis exercise
to look at the barriers to loss prevention
procedures which can serve to prevent the
accurate and timely documentation of evidence.
It was clearly evident that the deployment of
staff with mobile technology had the potential
to eradicate a number of time-consuming tasks
from the overall process.
Taking time-stamped photos on the shop
floor, for example, eradicates the need for a
security officer to find someone to cover his or
her station, go to the back office and accurately
recall and document time, dates, description
and methods. This ‘digitisation’ of evidence
facilitates easy information sharing with
neighbouring security teams for collaboration,
pattern analysis and effective case building for
litigation purposes once the offender has left a
clear trail of digital evidence behind them.
Indeed, a given offender could well be lulled
into a false sense of security in their mission,
reassured that the security officers on the
premises are otherwise engaged with mobile
Jon Felix BSc (Hons) MDIP
MBCI MSyl: Security
Consultant at CIS Security
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