The recession kept cropping up at the annual British Retail Consortium crime conference, but talk at the Portman Square, London event was not of doom but of opportunity, Mark Rowe writes.
The difficult economic times were the very first topic for the day’s chairman, Prof Martin Gill. "It’s interesting times," he said, "because we don’t know what’s going to happen. Crime forecasts go out of the window in difficult economic times." Another theme was partnerships – put another way, that retailers (alone or through the trade body) cannot do everything to tackle crime and loss prevention. Andy Pope, The Co-operative national business crime partnership manager, spoke of what the Co-op is doing with the country’s 370 crime and disorder reduction partnerships (CDRPs). Briefly, as set out in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, police, councils and others work to tackle crime and disorder such as anti-social behaviour. Andy Pope featured in the June issue of Professional Security magazine, for playing Mozart and other classical music around convenience and other stores faced with youths hanging around and putting off customers. As that work showed, while the Co-op is in business to make a profit like any other retailer, its co-operative principles lead it to work with the public sector on the ‘Safer and Stronger Communities’ agenda. As Andy Pope put it, while his job is to talk to police and others, the aim is to give the Co-op a ‘competitive edge’. Hence this year and into next, Andy Pope is running regional events for CDRPs to understand retail needs, through the Government Offices for the regions. In a word, the aim is to show these CDRPs that there is more to retail than moans and funds. At the south-east event in October, the Co-op invited other retailers to make presentations too, and Iceland and Argos did.
Similarly, Andy Pope ended by suggesting that retailers join forces, to put their case across. As he put it, a chief constable will give Andrew Pope an hour; but he will not give an hour to Iceland, Tesco, and so on. "What we are desperately missing is some sort of engagement at regional and county level [with public bodies]; we must work together to try to get retail crime on the map, on the agenda of CDRPs." From the floor, notably Alan Brown, Group Security Director, himself a former senior Met Police officer, asked what is good practice. Andy Pope replied that nationally the BRC is good at engaging with the authorities; as are individuals in town and city centres; but there is a gap in the middle. Eloise Hassall, manager of Folkestone Area Partnership Against Crime (FAPAC), made the point that her town’s members did not feel supported by their head offices.
Andy Pope spoke again, on partnerships, alongside Met Police Insp Tara Ghatauray, and John Roberts, a former police officer now a civilian head of Cheshire Police’s safer and stronger communities unit. In Warrington, Cheshire, Gary Newlove was kicked to death by drunken youths outside his home in August 2007. The Co-op gave £30,000 towards a project, ArcAngel, whose patron is the widow, Helen Newlove. As Andy Pope bluntly put it, retailers are particularly to blame for alcohol crime because retailers sell the alcohol. Insp Ghatauray meanwhile spoke of a ‘reassurance gap’ between the fall in recorded volume crime, and yet people’s fear of crime has risen. Hence, in London, Safer Neighbourhood teams, of a police sergeant and constables, and community support officers, seeking to visibly tackle low-level crime. Insp Ghatauray praised the Employer Supported Policing (ESP, www.shopwatch.info) as a success across London. Briefly, a shop worker or other member of staff trains at employer expense to become a special constable, and is paid to patrol about a day a fortnight. "Businesses have found where they have a special constable on the payroll it has, as well as contributing to reducing crime in the area, it has reduced stock loss within that firm, because the other employees know there is a police officer on the payroll." Richard Quinn of the Co-op queried the Met man about statistical proof. Paul Riordan, business crime prevention manager at Kingston Business Against Crime Partnership, praised the specials in his part of west London; as did Peter Kaye, head of business protection and continuity at John Lewis. He however like Richard Quinn pressed for proof that such initiatives related to actual drops in crime. As with CCTV, a retailer would want quantified savings, a known return on investment, before deciding to spend on a security measure.
The discussion turned to the important topic of ‘performance metrics’. Peter Kaye went on: "If you haven’t got the data to back it, you lose credibility; nobody wants to lose that. If you haven’t got the numbers in retail, don’t expect anybody to listen to you; because other areas of the business have the numbers." John Roberts did agree, adding that police were being challenged to show evidence for doing something. However he raised the question whether crime data has been particularly interested in the cause of a crime (such as alcohol). He, too, made the point that the metrics since 1995 show a reduction in crime, ‘but the problem is, people don’t feel good’. (An answer of sorts came in the afternoon when Duncan Miles, head of security at Iceland, spoke of cases of police not collecting CCTV of an incident; most stores not calling police in a case of shoplifting, and: "We have also had police complaining to store managers about petty value of shoplifting," when police were called out. It went on; a police response to a knife incident in 23 hours; police calling before they arrived to ask if they have to attend, because they are busy.)
And the BRC survey begged the question that maybe the police official recorded data is under-stating the truth about crime. As Stephen Robertson, director general of the BRC, put it soon after: "Many crimes go unreported because retailers lack faith that criminals will be brought to justice." Hence the BRC at the end of October was meeting Justice Secretary Jack Straw to press for an end to the abuse of fixed penalty notices for shop thieves. Retailers report that such tickets are regularly given for multiple thefts, and for thefts of a value more than the (supposedly maximum) £200: "The greatest frustration is the lack of clear guidance to the police as to qhen a penalty notice is suitable for an offender."
Geoffrey Northcott, the head of loss prevention at book chain Borders, said from the floor: "We don’t have the resources available to the Tescos and Sainsbury’s. I see a huge disconnect between what these people are achieving and what is happening for the majority of mid-size retailers. We [Borders] have had two major thefts from our business and I have had to argue tooth and nail to have the police turn up, invetigate, and then arrest perpetrators … I still have a huge disconnect between what is said here and what is delivered on the street by the police and the local authorities. I ring up police and report a crime and get no response." Alan Brown of Tesco returned to the good work by police officers at a local level: "The bit that concerns me, though, what I don’t hear is anything at a strategic level from the Home Office, and the strategic level of the police service. That doesn’t give me any confidence that the work of colleagues at the front line is going to be supported and sustained." Stephen Robertson, director general of the BRC, said: "It does speak volumes that the Home Office weren’t able to be with us today." The Home Office crime minister, Alan Campbell, newly taken over from Vernon Coaker, gave a video’d response to the BRC crime survey (visit www.brc.org.uk/crime).
Retailers reported a ‘marked overall reduction in offences’, according to the survey. Theft, by staff and customers; criminal damage; burglary; and violence against staff: all saw reported falls. The top three concerns over the past year for retailers had been customer theft, employee theft, and burglary; for the coming year, the three top concerns were customer theft, burglary – and fraud (particularly on-line, and organised crime).
Commenting, Andy Pope of the Co-op stressed violence against staff, whether verbal abuse or assaults: "We all experience the same problems; it’s important we do join forces." Michael Foligno of Peacocks queried the downward trends of theft, and the low showing of staff theft compared with theft from customers.
Unveiling the survey Stephen Robertson of the BRC said that the police were recording fewer than half of all offences. He said: "The job of a retail loss director is just about to get even more important and probably even more demanding." On e-crime, he pointed out that by 2010 an estimated tenth of retail sales will be via the internet with (payment) card not present: "A significant increase in e-crime is expected. Retailers of course are concerned that police just don’t understand online crime or fraud and a lack of the necessary resources within the police to deal with these offences is very clear." On terror, Stephen Robertson voiced a concern that police counter-terrorism advisers (CTSAs) lack understanding of retail business. And on e-crime, he asked if the bad guys were showing retailers a clean pair of heels: "If we ever lose the confidence of the customer on this, we would be economically in a very serious situation."
Phil Hagon, head of corporate security at Sainsbury’s, spoke of the need for policing to move from metrics to ‘an approach based on harm reduction’, "because certainly within my business the threat from organised criminality is growing, there is no question about that. A lot of that is feeding terrorist activity and other areas of very dark criminality. It seems to me entirely inappropriate for the authorities to ignore that." Stephen Robertson added that he attended the Labour and Conservative autumn party conferences; and was invited to join a Tory retail crime commission. So has Phil Hagon, representing Justin King, Sainsbury’s chief executive. Phil Hagon raised also the lack of police ‘operational capacity’ to tackle robberies or other crime happening cross force boundaries. In other words, no single force would take responsibility where the same criminals worked in several force areas.
Earlier, you could forgive Robin Tinto for starting his talk with the Sainsbury’s slogan ‘try something new today’. As head of profit protection London for the supermarket chain, that is what the retailer did, faced with cash in transit crime – whether at tills, or during stocking of ATMs.
As he reminded the audience, £1.4 billion a day will travel across the UK in cash in transit vans. Even low-level criminals came to see CIT cashbox snatches as quick and easy. He suggested it is the 21st century equivalent of highway robbery – the get-away vehicle now being a black Audi instead of Black Beauty. The retailer sought to reduce risk against store customers, besides the financial risk to all involved. Robin Tinto spoke in terms of people, and process. He had praise for the Chubb Security contract officers, besides car washers keeping an eye out for anything suspicious – though staff had to know who to talk to, if they saw something. Sainsbury’s had short-term ‘quick wins’ and medium and long-term solutions. In the shot run, every Loomis CIT van rang ahead – ‘the 15 minute warning’ – for the store security officer to start patrolling, as a deterrent. If the patroller saw something suspicious, the retailer would abort the delivery. It worked, besides work on cutting back bushes, lighting, and CCTV. It still works; the retailer does ‘mystery customer’ checks that CIT vans are still making the call ahead. Robin Tinto praised also the police Operation Vanguard for bringing intelligence together; and CIT carriers for using it to abort deliveries, again, if they saw something awry such as waiting cars and passengers.
Next, Mike Braddock of Manchester-based Secure Options worked on a ‘docking station’ (painted in Sainsbury’s orange), an archway so that CIT vans can park at the side of the building; shutters come out; and the CIT staff can pass money into the store. Next year, Sainsbury’s plans to roll out ‘glue boxes’. According to Robin Tinto ‘red ink boxes have had their day’ – that is, cash boxes that if stolen will spray ink over the banknotes. Instead, a glue box – G4S are working on something similar, as featured in the November issue of Professional Security – if tampered with will glue the contents together, and add a tracing agent. The solvent will only damage the notes, not the silver lines and other features that mean the notes remain recognisably Bank of England legal tender. Phil Hagon, head of corporate security at Sainsbury’s, is chairing the BRC’s CIT working group. Robin Tinto ended by stressing the personal: "The most powerful results come from inspired people, not inspired technology." Put another way, the retailer could, did, come up with ‘great processes’, but it took discipline to keep explaining why processes are important.
Who was there? Spotted on the guarding supplier side: David Stubbs of Astute Security; Mike Goodman of Advance Security; Paul Spiteri and others from Lodge Service UK; Chubb Security account director Paul Bland; and David Foster of Chubb Security Personnel. Also: Noel Verbruggen of Intrepid Security Solutions; and Atul Rajput, UK business development manager at CCTV firm Axis Communications (UK).
From retailers, from The Co-operative, including Richard Quinn, food retail loss prevention manager, and Phil Willsmer, head of operational risk. Neil Bohannon, loss prevention and risk manager at Woolworths; Sally Kee, head of partner and asset protection at Starbucks Coffee; Chris Holmes, regional security manager, Makro; Michael Foligno, Head of Loss Prevention, The Peacock Group; Simon Gray, loss prevention manager, Marks & Spencer; Debra Tullet, profit protection co-ordinator, Mothercare; some from Historic Royal Palaces, including David Ramcharran; Jim McKenna, controller group security, Travis Perkins; Alex Seaton, regional loss prevention manager, Shop Direct Group (that’s the Littlewoods home shopping arm); and a posse from Tesco, notably Alan Brown, Group Security Director; Ian Bourne, security buyer, and Sean Bowen, head of security and loss prevention at Asda, who – appropriately given his job title – spoke on technology and a coming together of security and LP.
Attending from the training side, Steve Pitman, security workshop man for the Association of Charity Shops; Andrew Wood, MD of ORIS Group; and Ian Kirke and Robert McHarg of Training for Success.
On the partnership side, Dawn Robinson of North East Retail Crime Partnership; Maxine Fraser of Stirling-based Retailers Against Crime; and a regular, Gary Calder, ops man at North East Lincolnshire Business Against Crime.
