ORC Conference Draws Large Crowd in Los Angeles   Nearly 1,000 law enforcement officers and retail loss prevention professionals gathered at the Los Angeles Convention Center February 16 for an education and networking conference sponsored by the Los Angeles Area Organized Retail Crime Association (LAAORCA).   Setting the Stage Opening remarks by Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley included both good and bad news. “The good news is our crime rate is at a sixty-year low,” he said. However, because of recent legislation know as AB 109 realignment that requires certain state-held prisoners to serve at local facilities, he…

As discussed in my last article, many states hold parents/guardians civilly liable for theft from retailers by minors (i.e., "civil recovery liability"). While many states' statutes may promote parental responsibility by holding parents/guardians civilly liable for not exercising effective control over their minor children, not all states do.1 Instead, some states have created statutes that provide a defense to the parents/guardians of the minor child for the purpose of limiting parent/guardian liability. States such as Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and North Dakota all provide defenses that can essentially excuse the parents/guardians from civil recovery liability. Subsection (3) of…

Your Superiors Can Impact Your Career in So Many Ways: 5 Ways to Make Them All Positive. I am writing this article to inspire all LP professionals (young and old) to continue your Loss Prevention education. If it does not inspire you, it will most certainly motivate your superiors. Our superiors are our mentors and we trust them with our careers. In turn, they trust us to uphold the reputation and integrity of the company. This has to be a two-way street for the Loss Prevention department to thrive. Please do not think ill of your superior or become disrespectful…

Whatever your chosen profession may be, regardless of position, title, or rank, you have a unique 'Leadership Brew.' Your leadership approach will inevitably be comprised of a lifetime of experiences--good, bad and ugly. That approach will be built from bits and pieces of people you admire from your personal and professional life, happen to have resonating chemistry with and how they made you feel or inspired you. Leadership Brew is also roasted with the core beliefs of who you are as a person, you cannot separate them from the blend and they are vital to the recipe. I am one…

Last year was our tenth anniversary and was a terrific year. You would think that after such a great year, I would experience a letdown. Not so. I'm really looking forward to 2012 just as much. Maybe it's the good sales season retail experienced. It's great to see consumer confidence getting somewhat back to normal. Maybe it's the word on the street that I hear both retailers and solutions providers talking about capital spending and purchasing rebounding. Maybe it's our association partners talking about all the positive developments on the legislative and conference front, not to mention two trips to…

We had the opportunity to listen to a presentation by Dr. David Matsumoto on micro expressions at the Certified Forensic Interviewer Elite Training Day seminar in November. To establish the difficulty of identifying truth or deception, Dr. Matsumoto had everyone evaluate a series of videos and make judgments of the person's truthfulness. He then asked for the reasons why the person was ranked truthful or deceptive by the observers. Some of the attendees made their decisions based on the individual's verbal response, others used emotion, some word choice, but many focused on physical behavior to reach their conclusion. It was…

During this past fall semester, I was on an academic sabbatical. This is a time when professors are temporarily relieved of their everyday teaching and administrative duties in order to travel, write, conduct research, and generally "recharge their intellectual batteries." In October I was invited to Bogotá, Colombia, to present a keynote presentation at the very first loss prevention conference sponsored by FENALCO, which is the Colombian national retail association. Then in November my wife and I traveled to northern Thailand primarily to visit the cities of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rei. We rode elephants, crossed the Mekong River into…

As I reflect on the initiatives driven by the RILA LP team in 2011, two things stand out to me about the loss prevention profession. First, retail LP continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Second, LP executives are stepping out of their corporate silos to collaborate with industry peers and external stakeholders. Gone are the days of LP professionals living their professional lives as crime stoppers. Retail crime remains a significant risk that will require our ongoing attention. But, today there is much more to retail LP than fighting crime. Thanks in part to corporate reorgs and budget constraints,…

I'll never forget having dinner with a well-known industry leader just after the team at Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates launched the certified forensic interviewer (CFI) certification in 2002. It struck me how critical this individual was of the program. He voiced the belief that our industry didn't need another interview-and-interrogation class. He questioned why any seasoned professional in our business would need a certification, firmly believing that years of experience should simply speak for itself.   Value of Certification This person had no understanding of the true value of certification, and the validation of knowledge that results when completing a professionally…

It all starts somewhere and somehow. Many, or maybe even most, crime attempts are spontaneous; they rarely involve much planning. But many crimes are planned, even if just a little. And often criminals and terrorists signal what they're up to as they plan and scout. We teach our students to use "pre-incident indicators" or PIIs to detect potential events, help solve crimes, and improve prevention efforts.   Pre-Incident Indicators Pre-incident indicators can be described as observable or otherwise detectable anomalies or incidents (clues) that may precede a crime attempt or attack. PIIs may indicate planning, preparation, recruiting, communication, scouting, or…