After installing security cameras, remind customers that they are being watched using signage throughout the store. Mention that you can and will prosecute shoplifters. These reminders may spark a fear of being caught strong enough to deter potential criminals.

Loss Preventionjobs

Barry Friedman (excerpted): “There was a group of us that were just concerned that as well as we could design this, and if designed well, as much as we believed it was something the world could benefit from, we couldn’t trust the overall variance in policing to make this a commercially viable product.”

Simply being aware that all of these crimes could be occurring can help companies prepare and protect themselves from theft and fraud.

Using a case management system to track your loss prevention investigations and incidents helps you spot trends and hot spots. Create graphs and charts or overlay reports on maps to instantly visualize incident patterns. Whether you are experiencing issues with employee theft, fraud, shoplifting or supply chain losses, loss prevention software offers valuable insight into your company's vulnerabilities so you can focus your program.

Messy or cluttered shelves, displays and aisles make it harder to notice if merchandise is missing. Keep shelves well-stocked and pull items to the front, making a solid wall of product. The more organized your displays are, the easier it is to keep track of your inventory.

Check incoming merchandise against invoices and outgoing products against shipping documents or other sales data. Doing this every day can boost your loss prevention efforts, as things gone missing won't go undetected for long.

Loss PreventionServices

Encourage tips by setting up a secure, private loss prevention hotline that offers employees a range of reporting options. Include a dedicated email address, phone number and webform and allow whistleblowers to remain anonymous. Emphasize that tips will be kept in confidence and that your company is committed to avoiding retaliation.

Case IQ staff is available 24-7 for customer support and technical assistance. For other inquiries our regular office hours are from 9am to 5pm EST, Monday to Friday.

Temple-Raston: Now, I should say here that Friedman is also the faculty director of the Policing Project at NYU Law. So he’s studied this a lot. And he said that the board just ended up thinking that the entire concept of weaponized drones was a little too dystopian.

If you suspect employee theft is responsible for losses in your organization, download this cheat sheet. You'll learn six things you need to do when you have reasonable grounds to suspect an employee of stealing.

CEOs and senior management should follow the same rules as the lowest-level employees at the company. If you don't want people to steal money or supplies, don't let the C-suite take things for free, either.

The basics of loss prevention involve implementing various measures such as developing policies, using security cameras, conducting surprise audits, encouraging hotline tips, and establishing checks and balances to detect and prevent theft and fraud in the workplace.

Brancaccio: Now, the ideas seemed to fall out of the headlines last year. Do you have any indication it might be gaining traction here in 2023?

There’s a real debate over the ethics of putting tasers on small, maneuverable, flying objects to be able to subdue dangerous people — and then trying to use these drones to protect schools.

With Axon’s public safety convention — dubbed Tasercon — going on this week, Marketplace’s David Brancaccio checked in with investigative journalist Dina Temple-Raston, host of the podcast “Click Here” about the world of tech security. She obtained new details about the original ethics reports.

When scheduling employees, be strategic. Never let anyone work alone, especially those performing money-handling tasks including running the cash registers. Employees who are tempted to steal will have fewer opportunities to do it if someone else is there to hold them accountable. Potential shoplifters will also be under better surveillance if there are multiple employees in the store.

A few years ago, a law enforcement tech company called Axon asked its own artificial intelligence ethics board for input on the project. The board spent a year studying a prototype program and decided putting a taser on a drone was not a good idea. Some weeks later, after the mass shooting at the school in Uvalde, Texas, Axon decided to keep what some call the “shock drone” alive.

Loss preventionexamples

Register for our webinar with Meric Bloch to learn how to handle and prevent retaliation claims after workplace incidents.

Tips from other employees are the number-one way that employers find out about internal fraud and theft. Most employees are honest and loyal to their workplace and would not appreciate other employees committing theft or fraud.

Temple-Raston: And the surveillance question is something that kept coming up as the board talked about this as well. These drones would require a host of cameras and other surveillance tools that a lot of people say don’t belong in schools and are an incredible invasion of privacy.

Installing security cameras is a good deterrent for employees who may be considering fraud and theft. Knowing they are being filmed makes these individuals less likely to steal. Set up the cameras in areas where thieves might commit their crimes, such as stockrooms, break rooms or storage areas. Be sure to avoid putting them in bathrooms, dressing rooms or other areas with reasonable expectations of privacy, as this is illegal. Review your CCTV footage regularly to spot unusual activity and boost loss prevention efforts.

David Brancaccio: You got ahold of a document, an internal report from this Axon ethics board. Why was this board so concerned in this report, so concerned about this Taser drone operation?

Each year, inventory shrinkage costs the U.S. retail industry over $45 billion. The largest contributors to this loss are shoplifting and other external theft (36 per cent) and internal theft and fraud (33 per cent).

Loss preventionin retail

A poorly organized store makes it easy for thieves to make off with your merchandise. The store layout should force customers to pass the checkout in order to leave, making it harder for them to slip out with stolen products undetected. Eliminate hiding spots for thieves by replacing tall displays with lower fixtures.

One of the easiest forms of loss prevention is not hiring thieves in the first place. Pre-screen applicants when hiring by conducting criminal records checks, checking references and, if it's legal in your state, performing credit checks. If any red flags pop up during this process, investigate further or take that applicant out of the pool.

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Mecole Jordan-McBride (excerpted): “So now we’re talking about literally putting a drone in every single school across America. I thought about the amount of money that would be, I thought about the over-surveillance of that.”

Loss Preventionsalary

Bring in an accountant from the outside to analyze your company's financial records. A fresh set of eyes (and an objective perspective) may be able to catch inconsistencies an internal accountant missed. Have them examine bank statements, ledgers and checks, including verifying that vendor payments match inventory receipts.

A system of checks and balances keeps employees accountable and reduces the chance that they will successfully pull off fraud. Make sure that one employee is never tasked with sales and reconciling the till.

Another way to eliminate low-visibility areas is to post staff members around the store, from the main aisles to dark corners. They should greet customers and offer help as well as keep an eye out for shady behavior. Not only will this improve your customer service, it may also deter potential thieves by reminding them that the store has eyes everywhere.

Create and post policies outlining acceptable use of company property. This informs employees with good intentions and may deter those who might be tempted to commit theft or fraud. Make sure the policy plainly describes the disciplinary actions that will occur if an employee is caught stealing from the company.

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Dina Temple-Raston: Well, Axon hosted a conference in Las Vegas this week, they call it something called Tasercon. And the CEO helped lead a presentation on drones during this conference. And he said that Axon had partnered with a number of drone companies. And then separately, they’ve announced that they’ve been engaging teachers and school administrators on the idea. Now we should mention that Axon didn’t agree to an interview with us. But they did say in a statement that “school drones” is still just an idea and not a product yet, and that it’s a ways away. But based on the company’s announcements and public posture the idea of Taser drones certainly isn’t dead yet.

Conducting regularly scheduled audits can help you find anomalies in your books, but also give employees time to prepare. Carry out some random checks of financial records and supply inventory at different times of day on different days of the week. You may catch a fraud or theft scheme you never would have noticed.

If raises aren't an option, boost employee morale in other ways, such as recognizing achievements, offering workplace perks and providing mentoring and feedback. Employees who are happy at their jobs are less likely to risk losing them over criminal behavior.

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Loss preventionsecurity

A long-term method for loss prevention is to ask customers for a piece of identification when they make a return or exchange. This helps you spot patterns of frequent or unusual return behavior. You're less likely to fall victim to a return fraud scheme and you can alert other locations of your store about suspicious individuals.

Dina Temple-Raston: Well, at the root of it is they weren’t sure that officers could be trusted to use a Taser drone properly. There are 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. And the concern was that there wouldn’t be enough of a check. Here’s the former chair of that ethics board, Barry Friedman.

The biggest deterrent to loss is creating a work environment where employees feel valued, supported, and adequately compensated, as this reduces the likelihood of employees resorting to theft or fraud to address financial gaps or grievances.

Loss PreventionOfficer

A loss prevention example is implementing security cameras in a retail store to deter theft and fraud by employees and customers alike.

Print out this loss prevention tips cheat sheet and hang it in the break room to remind employees to do their part to stop theft.

Security tools are some of the most common and effective loss prevention methods. Cameras, mirrors, security tags, sensors and guards both detect shoplifting and deter criminals. Lock up small, expensive or frequently stolen items. Lock dressing rooms and require large bags to be left at the checkout counter to obstruct common ways that thieves hide their stolen goods.

For anything higher in value than regular office supplies, installing inventory controls can boost your loss prevention efforts. Lock up cash, electronics and other expensive supplies and only give access as needed. Carefully monitor and track the inventory of these items. Industries that work with especially dangerous or pricey items, such as the technology and medical fields, should take extra precautions.

Losses due to return fraud, including returning stolen merchandise, merchandise purchased with counterfeit money or used merchandise, may creep up on you throughout the year. Require customers seeking a return for cash to produce a receipt for the item(s). If they don't have a receipt, offer store credit or an exchange instead. Be sure to enforce this policy 100 per cent of the time to reduce return fraud.

Why do people steal? Whether it's an employee or a customer, the reasons that people commit fraud and theft are the same. Reasons for theft fall into three main categories:

Businesses need to take loss prevention measures in order to thrive. By making a few easy changes to your workplace, you can considerably reduce your risk of theft.

Employers can show that they value their employees by paying them an adequate wage. Underpaid employees may turn to stealing to fill financial gaps or because they feel they deserve to be paid more. In fact, higher wages are actually tied to lower employee theft.

Temple-Raston: It has. I mean, this is something that Axon CEO Rick Smith first brought up in the aftermath of Uvalde. And we spoke to another AI ethics board member about this — she’s a community organizer in Chicago, and her name is Mecole Jordan-McBride. And she said that when you looked at it closely, even the idea of putting drones in schools just didn’t make sense. Here’s what she said.