Employee shoplifting training

It’s getting darker earlier: how to keep customers and employees safe

October 1, 2018 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Now that fall is upon us it is getting darker earlier. These hours of darkness can bring unique challenges for retail owners. Have you ever considered that it is your responsibility to help keep customers and employees remain safe while they are on your property? It may make sense that you are responsible for employee safety but you are also obliged to help keep customers safe as well. This includes your parking lot and the exterior areas around the building. How do you do this? What do you have to protect against? Good questions and hopefully we can provide you with answers to those questions and suggestions to make your business safer.

What is it that you need to protect against as the daylight hours become shorter?

The potential for robberies increases in the hours of darkness.
Slip/trip/fall accidents in the parking lot can increase when it is dark as hazards are more difficult to see.
Car break-ins can increase.
Working at night can have an impact on your employees.
The risk of violence can increase.

Planning for operating a store during extended hours of darkness can help prevent problems that could arise. According to an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) power point presentation, “Recommendations for Workplace Violence Prevention Programs in Late-Night Retail Establishments” one of the panels states”; “Late-night retail businesses such as convenient stores, liquor stores, and gasoline stations have experienced high homicides and assault rates”. The same power point on panel 5 goes on to mention the following as risk factors for late-night retail workers:

Exchange of money
Solo work and isolated work sites
Sale of alcohol
Poorly lit stores and parking lots
Lack of staff training in recognizing and managing escalating hostile and aggressive behavior

There are things store owners can do to mitigate the risks to their employees and patrons.

Inspect parking lots and sidewalks now for potential trip hazards. Have curbs painted yellow to make them fire lanes as well as making them brighter to reduce the chance someone trips on them. Paint parking stops or blocks a reflective white or yellow again to lower the risk of tripping.
Cracked or raised sidewalks should be repaired or reported to a landlord.
Check the parking lot light timers to ensure they turn on as it becomes dusk.
Inspect all parking lot lights and have burned out lamps replaced.
Add extra exterior building security lights.
If you have not installed them, have night vision security cameras set up to monitor the parking lot, sidewalks, entrances, and corners that may be out of view.
Install interior cameras and Public View monitors. These cameras should be at the front entrance and exits, cameras that capture activity at and around cash registers and a camera in a cash office that can see the safe and as much of the office as possible.
Have a cash drop at each register for $50 and $100 bills.
Keep register positioned away from customers so they cannot reach over the counter into the till.
Always have at least two people working in a store and never allow one person to close or open alone.
If you have two people working consider having an employee offer to watch a patron walk to their car when they leave. Patrons will appreciate it and it will make them feel safer.
If your credit machine accepts debit cards think about refusing cash back transactions after 6 pm. You won’t have to make as many trips to the safe to refill the register after dark.
Use a counterfeit bill detector for all $20, $50 and $100 bills.
Train each employee on how to recognize and de-escalate aggressive situations. This is also a good reason to have a second person working.
If you can only afford one employee at a time and your business is in a strip mall partner with a neighboring business to work together to provide mutual security/support at opening and closing.
Employees may get tired more easily as the daylight decreases. Be aware that it can lower their alertness while working and when they drive home. Encourage workers to be careful so they don’t hurt themselves or others.

Operating stores can be different when darkness comes along earlier. Taking the right precautions, being aware of potential issues and planning ahead can make that transition easier. Don’t take hours of darkness lightly.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, Background checks, CCTV cameras, EAS Devices, employee background checks, employee safety, Employee shoplifting training, Employee Theft, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, interior cameras, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Seminars, Loss Prevention Training, mobile POS loss prevention, OSHA, POS ROI, pre-employment background check, Prevent Shoplifting, Prevention Programs, Public View monitors, Seasonal employees, shoplifting violence, surveillance, Workplace Violence

Sensormatic & Loss Prevention Systems Join Forces

August 31, 2018 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

We are excited to announce our partnership with Johnson Controls/Sensormatic. Sensormatic is one of the oldest and largest Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) manufactures in the world. Loss Prevention Systems has deep loss prevention and EAS experience.

We are offering the entire Sensormatic line of Acousto Magnetic (AM) products to our customers. We will still carry RF products such as hard tags, labels and high theft product protection. Acousto Magnetic systems by Sensormatic give us solutions to fix a number of issues that traditional RF cannot handle. This includes labels applied directly to metal and systems that can handle wider door widths.

Do you have a single doorway, double doorway or a mall entrance? Sensormatic can cover it. Tired of shoplifters taking merchandise into your restrooms and concealing it? We can fix that problem also. From an EAS standpoint, there is not much we cannot do. Challenge the Loss Prevention Systems team to design a system to fit your needs and budget.

Loss Prevention Systems’ choice of Sensormatic is also based on the quality of the systems. Sensormatic systems are extremely robust. They include features such as low power consumption, door frame and hidden systems that keep the Retailers’ storefront looking neat and clean while protecting your merchandise 24/7.

Pricing is also a factor. Sensormatic line of systems will fit a wide range of budgets depending on the features you select. We also have people counting, and data reporting. This gives the Retailer important intelligence on customer traffic and flow. We have seen many of our customer’s significantly reduce expenses in both payroll and operating costs by having this data. Store hours can be adjusted and you can adjust staffing to fit the real world.

Want more? How about having your Sensormatic EAS systems online and monitored at all times? This allows us to know if the system has been turned off or if it has maintenance or other issues. We then notify you. You no longer have to solely rely on your staff to discover that the system has an issue sometimes days or weeks later. By that time shoplifters have had a party on your dime.

On top of this Loss Prevention Systems now has a free shipping program for the purchase and installation of a Sensormatic system. One more way we are saving you money.

A typical Sensormatic system can be installed in one day. This minimizes the interruption in your store.

Of course, Loss Prevention Systems still provides free, live loss prevention training to our customers for the life of your EAS system. We will conduct any of our live sessions as often as you reasonably need them. Staff turnover? Promotions? Changes in product lines? Our training sessions include the following.

We include so many other services that Loss Prevention Systems can be your one stop shop for loss prevention support. So experience our award-winning service and support. Our goal is to keep your hard earned money on your bottom line, not the shoplifters.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Daily Loss Prevention audits, dishonest employees, EAS, EAS Devices, EAS Systems, Electronic Article Surveillance, Employee and drug abuse, employee background checks, Employee shoplifting training, Employee Theft, employee training, hard tags, high theft product protection, Johnson Controls, juvenile shoplifters, labels, Loss Prevention systems, pre-employment background check, pre-employment investigations, pre-employment screening, Prosecuting shoplifters, RF products, Seasonal employees, Sensormatic, Sensormatic line of Acousto Magnetic, suspected shoplifter

Suspect Signs Of Employee Theft? What Is Your Next Step?

August 31, 2018 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Maybe you have seen it before and never gave it much thought, you walked by a cash register and saw a gift card lying next to it. A customer probably just changed their mind, right? Perhaps you saw your salesfloor person wearing a heavy jacket while working but you just attributed it to them being cold all the time. You may notice cash shortages periodically but they are under $10 and some people get busy and make little mistakes, it happens. Then there is the cashier that seems to be really interested in the store and always reports suspicious people he sees. He even asks managers if there might be security camera footage that could be reviewed to see the “suspect” in case they return. There is the saleswoman who finds a lot of empty packages on the floor and reports them to the manager and where she found them so managers would know about theft taking place in the store. These each seem like harmless issues on the surface but could there be something more nefarious going on under your nose? Is something starting to seem a bit curious after all? If you are suspecting something dishonest may be going on in your store what is your next step?

You may be thinking this would be the time to call the police and report your suspicions. Hold your horses, what are you reporting, a gift card tucked next to a register? A couple of low dollar cash shortages? You won’t get very far with the police and they certainly aren’t going to do any investigation for you. The appropriate step is to contact Bill Bregar at Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. He will walk you through the next stages of what you need to do to look into this further. Sure you are busy and have a million things to do each day but if you suspect theft is taking place something has to be done before it gets out of hand. Then again maybe there is another way to tackle this. Yes, Bill will be happy to talk to you and discuss your case but it might be in your best interest to let Bill conduct the investigation for you.

Why hire Bill to do the investigation for you? Well for starters Bill served in the U.S. Army as a Military Policeman, a Military Intelligence Officer and he was a police officer. He is no stranger to conducting investigations. He is a trained and licensed private investigator, skills that are well suited to a successful retail investigation. Bill has also been a Retail Loss Prevention Director at the national level which makes him uniquely qualified to conduct store-level dishonest employee investigations. Who better to have on your side as a detective unless you could hire Sherlock Holmes and I hear he is currently unavailable?

Are there other signals you might be overlooking that may indicate dishonest activity other than those touched upon earlier? Do you know where to begin looking? Do you know how to look for indications of employee’s conducting fraudulent refunds? What are the signals of sweetheart deals taking place under your nose? You can have an inkling that theft is happening in your store but if you know what signals to look for you can be sure when it takes place. The critical piece to getting your merchandise and/or cash back and restitution is a successful investigation. Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. has training seminars and workshops that can educate you on how employee theft takes place, signs to look for and how you can prevent it. When it does take place you will know what is going on and can call on Bill to be your personal gumshoe.

Investigating employee theft is no game. Private investigators are a dime a dozen but finding a reputable company that is experienced in retail theft investigations is a more difficult task. Hiring an investigator with the background Bill has may seem to be an unattainable goal. Fortunately for the small and medium-sized retailers searching for a sleuth is simplified with a single stop at Loss Preventions Systems, Inc. Theft is probably happening in your store, the question is, what are you going to do about it?

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alabama Shoplifting Laws, Anti-shoplifting alarm systems, Anti-shoplifting training, Cashiers and preventing shoplifting, combating shoplifting, Customer service and shoplifting, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Employee shoplifting training, Employee Theft, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Seminars, Loss Prevention Training, mobile POS loss prevention, Periodic inventory, Prevent Shoplifting, preventing shoplifting in your store, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security, retail security and monitoring, security, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

What is Shrink And What Does It Mean For Your Profit And Bottom Line?

August 31, 2018 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

What is shrink? Obviously, that will depend on the context in which you are referencing it. It may be what happens when we wash a new pair of jeans in hot water. Maybe it is what happens to our household budget when our children get older and require more food, clothing, and school supplies. In retail, it has a different meaning altogether. Shrink is not a downsizing of a store or reduction of staff (although it can lead to those things if not addressed). Retail shrink is merchandise we cannot account for due to any number of reasons. It impacts the profit margin of a store and since those losses directly affect the retailer there are usually steps the store owner takes to try to offset those lost dollars. If not well thought out those measures the store owner takes could hurt the business further. There is a vicious circle that follows and can lead to a store closing down.

In Retail Loss Prevention we generally identify four primary causes of shrink, shoplifting, employee theft, vendor shortage/fraud and administrative errors. According to the 2017 National Retail Security Survey, approximately 66.5% of shrink is attributable to shoplifting and employee theft combined. 21.3% of shrink is due to administrative and paperwork errors, 5.4% is related to vendor fraud or error and 6.8% was unknown (pg. 8). The same report states that the average retail shrink rate in the U.S. was 1.44% in 2017 (pg. 6). Since this is an average that means there are industry sectors that are higher and others that are a bit lower so where your store may fall can depend on what you sell.

What mistakes do retailers make when trying to cover the profit losses from shrink? Often they increase prices on merchandise. Those price changes may be a few cents per item or a few dollars but no matter how small the increase regular customers notice those hikes. There comes a point when customer loyalty takes a backseat to customer’s budgets. No matter how minute you may feel a price increase is there is a threshold that customers will finally say enough is enough and they relent and shop at a big box retail store. Some store owners will make up for the lost revenue through reduced payrolls. This may include getting rid of full-time positions and making them part-time positions saving on benefit expenses. Employee hours may be reduced all around with the store owner picking up more of the workload themselves. The impact of this strategy is a blow to employee morale and loyalty. It can also lead to increased employee theft as those employees feel the financial pinch of the reduced hours and feel cheated. Reduced employee hours also means fewer people on the salesfloor providing customer service which results in more shoplifting, ergo more shrink. As you can see taking the wrong steps to address shrink can lead to a cycle that is hard to break and can lead to a store shut down.

So if a retailer opts not to raise prices what is the resolution to solving the problem of shrink? Retailers cannot afford to continuously bear the costs of shrink. Assuming over 60% of a store’s shrink is incurred through theft then anti-theft measures are a logical starting point. Sensormatic security systems and tags play a critical role in theft prevention. They are proven to significantly cut into theft related shortage. They also help reduce a portion of administrative shortage. If it is tagged, merchandise overlooked in a shopping cart will activate an alarm and be paid for or returned to the store. Requiring vendors to check in and out of the store on a sign in sheet and making them talk to a manager about what they have done that day holds them accountable. Store managers should be doing weekly reviews of vendor credits to ensure they are not losing money for product removed from the store.

Shrink can cut into your profit margin and if that isn’t bad enough addressing it improperly can make the situation for your store worse. Taking positive steps to address each of the areas where losses occur will improve shortage results. It will make you, your employees and your customers happier when your actions are directed towards the real culprits of shortage.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, CCTV cameras, Daily Loss Prevention audits, dishonest employees, employee background checks, Employee shoplifting training, Employee Theft, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Loss Prevention Workshop, prevent shrinkage, preventing shoplifting in your store, preventing shrink, Retail Anti Theft Devices, Retail Loss prevention, Retail profit margins, retail security, retail security and monitoring, Seasonal employees, security devices, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll

January 29, 2018 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

I actually like and believe in all three of these things. When it comes to drugs they have to be the legal kind. All of us have seen the destruction that illegally used drugs cause. In a business environment, illegal drug use by an employee not only has an impact on their work performance but creates serious customer and legal issues for employers. An employee that is under the influence of any substance that influences their ability to do their job correctly or safely, will cause customers to question who they are doing business with.

If this employee drives for their employer and is involved in an accident, even if it is not their fault, then liability could come back to the company. That one is easy to understand. But what about the recent changes in the law regarding marijuana? Some States have relaxed or legalized its use. However, it is still against Federal Law… EVERYWHERE. I do not agree with these changes. Not because I am a former Law Enforcement Officer that has seen firsthand the impact on society but because it is simply wrong.

The biggest argument I hear is “well alcohol is legal. Marijuana is no different”. Sorry to say yes it is. The active ingredient in marijuana is THC. THC stays in the bloodstream for up to two weeks after it has been ingested. Alcohol leaves the bloodstream within hours of consumption. The person may not be high but the “drug” is still there.

Now that same person comes to work. They have not ingested any marijuana for let’s say a week. Now they are involved in a customer accident. This could be dropping something on a customer from a shelf, hurting a customer with the use of a forklift, pallet jack or motor vehicle, or any other poor judgment that results in injury. If it is discovered as a result of testimony, blood test…. that the employee had THC in their bloodstream….. Surprise, you as the business owner could now be liable.

As a Loss Prevention Manager, I was involved in an accidental death case in one of my stores. Picture a building materials type store. Lumber, hardware, carpet, nuts, bolts…. A forklift operator was moving two full bundles of lumber and had them up on the lift about ten feet off the ground. At that moment a man and his very young son walked underneath the load. One of the forks on the lift gave way and an entire load of lumber landed on them. It killed them both instantly. There was not a piece left of either of those human beings thicker than three inches.

When OSHA, Fire/Rescue, Law Enforcement and a whole bunch of other government folks arrived on the scene, it was quickly determined that there was a defect in the fork that broke. This defect occurred during the manufacturing process. That defect was not caught as it should have been. So liability rested squarely on the forklift manufacturer. However, as required by law, our employee was drug tested immediately. His test came back positive for THC/marijuana. This caused the liability to shift to my company. All because this employee had smoked marijuana the weekend before.

So you may be thinking this can’t happen to me. I own a small boutique, grocery store, clothing store….. Yes, it can and could happen at any time. Why risk it? The commonly accepted practice is an employment drug test. Screen out potential liability and poor performers. A drug test should be required as a part of the pre-employment process, no exceptions. It is a simple and painless process. Contact us today, we can set your drug screening program up, make it very cost effective and make it simple for you and your candidate. You can reach us toll-free at 1-770-426-0547.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, Background checks, CCTV cameras, employee background checks, Employee retention, Employee shoplifting training, employee training, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminars, mobile POS loss prevention, Prevent Shoplifting, quality employees, racial profiling, Retail Anti Theft Devices, Seasonal employees, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Employee Training And Shoplifting

January 3, 2018 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

After the holidays, you probably have a whole array of chores you must do to decide whether you had a good or bad year. The holidays are behind us, and if you seem eager to have new strategies to put in place, it is not uncommon, and you are not alone. New year resolutions are abundant during this time of year, and even though many of them are related to exercise, eating and health issues, yours can be directed completely to the business side of your life.

For a retail business owner, employee training is always an important issue they should not neglect. There are many aspects of every business that owners must take care of to ensure a well-run business and employee training is one of those important issues they must keep in mind.

Employee training has been shown to help businesses keep more of the profits, and to reduce the shoplifting happening at their stores. Paying for employee training is one way of investing in your business, and seeing the return of investment right away.

One of the many benefits of employee training is the certainty your employees will know what to do in case a shoplifting incident occurs. From the way they approach the suspected shoplifter, to the way they apprehend them, their training can be the difference between a lawsuit for your store or not. The guidelines they are supposed to follow are clear for trained employees when dealing with a difficult situation, and a dangerous situation is clearly assessed and dealt with before lives are endangered.

Employee training can also be a deterrent to shoplifters. Shoplifters will be less eager to enter your place of business if they know they will be approached and even questioned or apprehended if they do something illegal. Making your business a place where shoplifting is hard can get around to other shoplifters. Sharing the names of “easy” places to shoplift is well known among them, make yours the “hard” place shoplifters are unwilling to try.

Trained employees know how shoplifters behave and how they try to get away with stolen merchandise. They know which items may be a target for shoplifters, and which ones if the opportunity presents itself will be stolen without a second thought.

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting alarm systems, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, Background checks, Businesses and shoplifting, CCTV cameras, combating shoplifting, Customer service and shoplifting, employee background checks, Employee shoplifting training, Employee Theft, employee training, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Training, Loss Prevention Workshop, Management and shoplifting prevention, preventing shoplifting in your store, Retail Anti Theft Devices, Retailers and shoplifting, surveillance

Shoplifting, Employee and Vendor Theft: Is There A Solution?

June 28, 2017 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Employee theft, shoplifting, and vendor theft are problems that the retail industry faces every single day without a clear solution. The billions of dollars lost to these crimes is a constant problem for retailers, and the losses have to be accounted for someplace else, and they need to make them up somehow to minimize their losses. The amount of sales retailers need to cover any losses is significant and not easy to do. Is preventing the loss the first step to stop the crime? Read more about this topic by clicking the links below.

Wage Theft and Shoplifting: Same Cost, Different Deterrents

A massive force is deployed against one, but not the other. (Guess which.)

ach year, shoplifters steal roughly $14.7 billion worth of goods from stores. (So says the Retail Theft Barometer.) Each year, employers steal roughly $15 billion from their workers by paying them less than the minimum wage, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.

The treatment of these two kinds of crime, however, are completely different.

Many more resources go into trying to deter, detect, and punish the guy trying to pinch a video game system off the shelf at the local big-box store than into the grand theft the store itself may be perpetrating against its own employees—even if the retailer is taking millions of dollars from workers’ paychecks. It’s one more way that the economic crimes of the powerful are treated far less seriously than the transgressions of those with less power.

Task force teaches businesses how to thwart fraud, theft

The enormous number of ways criminals can defraud shoppers and business owners requires increasing awareness about how to combat their efforts, Greenwich police detective and state financial crimes task force member Mark Solomon told attendees of a Monday panel on how to combat identity theft and retail fraud.

“It’s a constant cat-and-mouse game — there’s always a vulnerability criminals will learn to exploit,” Solomon said during his presentation. “It’s not if (criminals) do have our information, but how many times over they have it.”

Due to its wealth and slowness to adopt more secure credit card technology, the United States has become a prime target for cybercrime and fraud, according to Solomon and his co-presenter Christopher Riley, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Connecticut financial crimes task force.

Employee retail theft soars says new report

When it comes to insider theft and employee dishonesty, the news is not good for the nation’s retailers. At least that is what Mark Doyle, president of Jack L. Hayes International, one of the leading loss prevention and inventory shrink control consulting firms in the world, confides as the group announced the results from their 29^th Annual Retail Theft Survey this week.

The 23 large retailers who were surveyed comprise 16,038 stores across the country with over $370 billion in sales in 2016 and they reported 438,000 incidents of shoplifting and employee theft where suspects were apprehended. A staggering $120 million was recovered by retailers from these thieves.

“The five-year trend shows a continued increase in employee theft in both apprehensions and recovery dollars. This past year is the first decline, which was very minimal, in both shoplifting apprehensions and recovery dollars. In four of the past five years both shoplifting and employee theft apprehensions and recovery dollars have increased, and in many cases, this is with a reduced loss prevention/asset protection staff. The losses are real and the theft problem is only getting worst,” says Doyle.

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-theft training, anti-thefts devices, Background checks, dishonest employees, employee background checks, employee hiring, Employee shoplifting training, Employee Theft, employee training, Georgia shoplifting systems, organized theft, quality employees, Retail Anti Theft Devices, Retail Theft Survey, theft prevention, Vendor theft, workplace theft

The Habit of Shoplifting

May 2, 2017 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention studies have shown that there is not a profile for a typical shoplifter. Women and men shoplift as frequently, and the majority of the shoplifting is done by adults. And although, shoplifting has been shown to start early in a person’s teenage years, as teenagers become adults, the tendency to shoplift stays with them. Drugs, poverty, and mental illness have been factors for people who shoplift. In other cases, the reasons are still unclear. People from all walks of life shoplift.

Studies in the United Kingdom have shown that people who shoplift will do so again within the year. That is the case in most developed countries. Shoplifting can be a way of life for many of these people, and if retail stores across the globe do not find measures to mitigate the damage these shoplifters do, the profits these retail stores can count on at the end of their fiscal year diminish tremendously.

To learn more about this topic, follow the links below.

One in four criminals re-offend within a year

More than a quarter of offenders are re-convicted within a year, according to official statistics.

Figures from the Scottish Government show that in 2014-15, 28.2 per cent of the 43,634 people released from prison or given a non-custodial sentence such as a community payback order or fine had a further conviction within a year.

The overall re-conviction rate has fallen 0.3 per cent from 2013/14, continuing an 18-year downward trend.

But of those given a custodial sentence of six months or less, 57 per cent were re-convicted within a year and 39 per cent were back in prison 12 months later.

Offenders released from jail in 2014/15 had a higher re-conviction rate at 43.9 per cent than for any other type of sentence except drug treatment and testing orders.

Statisticians highlighted that offenders who receive short sentences typically commit “low level” crimes such as shoplifting, but often in higher volumes and are more likely to be re-convicted.

Sex offenders had the lowest re-conviction rate at 12.1 per cent, while people committing crimes of dishonesty such as theft or shoplifting had the highest out of the crime classifications at 42.5 per cent.

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said the figures showed that community sentences, including community payback orders (CPOs) brought in to replace community service, were more effective at cutting re-offending than short jail terms.

Former State Rep. Hurley pleads guilty to three shoplifting incidents

ROGERSVILLE – Local businessman and former State Representative Bruce W. Hurley, 83, entered guilty pleas in Hawkins Co. Criminal Court on Friday, April 28, to three counts of theft of property valued at less than $500.

Court records indicate that Hurley, who pleaded guilty before Criminal Court Judge John F. Dugger, Jr., will serve no jail time as a result of his pleas of guilty to what amounts to three shoplifting charges.

Judge Dugger imposed a sentence of 11 months and 29 days, but ruled that all but 120 days of that sentence is to be served on probation. The remaining 120 days is to be served on community corrections (house arrest), court records indicate.

In addition to a $50 fine on each count, Hurley was ordered to pay $4.02 in restitution to Walmart, one of his two theft victims. The other theft victim was the Rogersville Food City supermarket. All three charges were brought against Hurley by the victims, according to a Rogersville Police Department spokesman.

Court records indicate that the thefts took place on Aug. 25, 2016; Sept. 29, 2016; and Nov. 16, 2016.

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, Employee shoplifting training, Employee Theft, Former State Representative shoplifting, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Training, National Association for Shoplifting Prevention, Prevent Shoplifting, racial profiling, Retail Anti Theft Devices, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, Shoplifting prosecution, Shoplifting Sentencing, shoplifting statistics, Shoplifting Training Seminars, shoplifting violence, surveillance, Walmart shoplifting