LPRC Community Partnerships – PR | 11.22.21

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Retail Crime Can Be Dangerous and Intimidating.

Retail stores are a vital part of any community. They conveniently and quickly provide the goods local people want and need. And shops are places where residents work and build their careers. Finally, stores also provide entertainment and can be a welcome diversion for busy, stressed citizens.

But ongoing thefts and looting intimidates workers, shoppers, and their loved ones while boosting fear of criminal victimization and the resulting avoidance behavior. Store thefts can result in Injury and worse, as well as strip stores of desirable goods local citizens seek forcing them to look elsewhere for better, safer shopping options.

Partnerships

No individual store or even chain can flourish alone in this climate of increasing crime victimization and lower consequences for those that harm others where they work and shop. Retailers are working together to build stronger, science-based cross-company, local policymaker, and law enforcement partnerships at the individual retail center and market levels in part via the Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC).

Over 70 US retail companies work together with 80 protective solution companies and PhD-level research scientists on anti-crime community engagement and technological solutions via Gainesville, FL based Loss Prevention Research Council. LPRC’s Director and University of Florida Research Scientist/Criminologist Read Hayes, PhD works with a team of eight to support retailers as they deal with theft, fraud, and violence across their stores and supply chain using data analytics, randomized field experiments, offender interviews, a series of simulated retail environment labs, and other scientific methods.

What and How

The LPRC team is available to discuss retail crime dynamics, and group and individual crime reduction strategies and tactics at: operations@lpresearch.org

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LPRC 2019 Working Group Award Recipients

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LPRC’s Working Group Awards are given to leaders and co-leaders who demonstrate strong participation, maintain a positive and interesting call environment, and whose deliverables affect a cross-section of retail formats.​ Their commitment and dedication improves our research and results community, and for that we are grateful. The LPRC is pleased to announce the 2019 Working Group Award Recipients:

 

Retail Fraud Working Group

  • Leader(s): Trish Svebek, Dollar General
  • Co-leader(s): Sean O’Brien, Target / James Kendall, Target

Organized Retail Crime Working Group

  • Leader(s):  Jessica Zwart, Target / Bobby Haskins, Auror
  • Co –Leader(s): Ben Dugan, CVS / Abe Gonzalez, Bloomingdale’s

Product Protection Working Group:

  • Leader(s): Adam Hartway, InComm/ Scott Ziter, Price Chopper
  • Co –Leader(s): Andrea Guthrie, Dick’s/ Jeremy Henderson, TJX

 

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LPRC 2019 Fellowship Award Recipients

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The LPRC Fellowship Award is given to those that exceed expectations through high-level performance and dedication on working groups or projects.​ We are proud to recognize these individuals for their participation in the LPRC. Our research and results community is made better by their contributions.

2019 LPRC Fellowship Award Recipients


Krista Monnin

Procter & Gamble


Basia Pietrawska

CAP Index


Tom Arigi

Kroger

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Announcing The New 2019 LPRC Board of Advisors Members

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The LPRC is proud to announce its newest Board Members. The LPRC’s Board of Advisors champions the longevity of research-based decision-making through collaboration, advice and support to the Loss Prevention Research Council’s Director’s mission. Please join us in congratulating the following individuals:

LPRC Board of Advisors

Peter Chie

Peter Chie is the Operating Vice President of Asset Protection and Risk Management for Bloomingdale’s based in NYC. He is responsible for all physical security, crisis management, business resiliency and investigations for the organization. His experience in the retail loss prevention industry spans over 30 years in field, corporate and distribution positions at several Fortune 500 companies, both big box and specialty. He is a former Chair for the Lehigh Valley Chapter of ASIS, a member of the ASIS Retail Asset Protection Council, and a member of the NRF Loss Prevention Advisory Council.

Tim Hall

Tim Hall is the Director of Asset Protection at 7-Eleven. In his 20 year career at 7-Eleven, Tim has held various leadership roles in Operations and Asset Protection. Tim is a highly experienced Asset Protection professional who has demonstrated the ability to lead diverse teams of professionals in 12 regions across US and Canada. Tim has strong technical and business qualifications with a proven track record of hands-on experience in strategic planning, business unit development, team development and project management. Tim is currently working towards earning his Bachelor degree in Business at the University of Phoenix.

Chris Hackler

Chris Hackler is the Vice President of Global Asset Protection for Signet Jewelers. Chris has over 30 years of experience in Loss Prevention. She has held a variety of positions including Store Manager, Regional Inventory Analyst, Director of Asset Protection, Director of Physical Inventory and Risk Management, Senior Director of Physical Security and Senior Director of Loss Prevention. Chris holds a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree with Minors in Accounting and Psychology.

Tony D’Onofrio

Tony D’Onofrio is currently CEO of TD Insights, a consultancy focused on working with private equity companies, board of directors, public speaking, industry groups, and advanced technologies companies. Previously, Tony was Chief Customer Officer (CCO) at Tyco Retail Solutions (now Sensormatic), part of Johnson Controls. At Sensormatic, he managed global customer relationships, marketing, source tagging, and transitioning key security solutions into “as a service” models. Tony is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University (BA) and Cleveland State University (MBA).

Eric Williams

Eric Williams, CFI, CORCI, is the Senior Manager of Loss Prevention with City Gear.  Based in Memphis, TN, Eric has the responsibility of managing all aspects of Loss Prevention for over 140 stores. He is a Certified Forensic Interviewer (CFI) and a Certified Organized Retail Crime Investigator (CORCI). Eric is also certified in Wicklander-Zulaski and Reid and Associates. He’s been an active member of LPRC since 2016, particularly in the Violent Crime Working Group.

 

Thank you to all of our Board Members!

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The Significance of IMPACT to Hedgie Bartol of Axis Communications

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What is the significance of IMPACT to Hedgie and his team? Find out in our latest video! Everyone experiences IMPACT differently: each attendee carries their own unique goals and objectives to our two-day event. But the unifying factor of collaboration ties our research & results community together each year. Register for IMPACT 2019. 

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LPRC Team Spotlight: Mike Giblin

Mike currently leads the LPRC Research team, working with Director Dr. Read Hayes to shape, manage, and execute the LPRC’s yearly research load. He writes a monthly column for LP Magazine, and has been featured on Fox News, ABC News, and in depth on Fox Network.

  1. We would love some background on your education. What did you study in college (what was your major)?

     Sure! I was a psych major in undergrad at SUNY Buffalo, which it turns out means grad school is almost mandatory to land a great job. My sister was at Cornell 2 hours away working with some awesome professors studying marketing and consumer behavior. I got an internship there, and I haven’t left a research lab since!

  2. When did you discover you had an interest in research?

    I think future research scientists make the most annoying children on earth. “Why is that the way it is? Yeah but how does it work? Yeah but what if you took this part away, would it still work? Yeah but? Yeah but?” Sorry mom and dad.   

  3. How have your previous work experiences shaped you and your transition into your current role?

    A typical academic research lab does a fantastic job of training you to form great research questions, come up with great plans for studying those questions, and analyze and interpret the results. The business world, including retail, does a fantastic job of challenging you to make sure your research questions matter to more than a handful of people, and to transform your results in to actionable insights. 

  4. Loss prevention is a hot topic largely because theft is so prominent, especially for large retailers.  How would you say you approach your research with this in mind?

    It’s actually really interesting how the general public views shoplifting. If I ask people to close their eyes and picture someone stealing from a store, they’ll probably picture a poor person stealing a loaf of bread, or a young kid stealing a pack of gum. What’s the big deal, right? Why are retailers getting so worked up? They picture Aladdin, not Tony Soprano. Understanding and reacting to that public perception is hugely important for our retailers.

  5. What do you love most about your job?

    I see a lot of people my age that are doing cool things, but what they’re working on doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of exposure that my ideas do. If I come up with an interesting study, I get to run it and share the results with hundreds of people. It’s really cool to know that my ideas and contributions are being put to real world use.

  6. Have you ever had a surprising finding? If so, how did it change the way you approached data and future research strategies?

    All the time. One of the most important reasons that research is so vital to AP is because we’re trying to understand the behavior of a population we don’t belong to. Offenders will routinely share a perspective on an LP deterrent with me that I wouldn’t have thought of in 1000 years. They’ll think a hole in a tag is a camera. They’ll show me how to pop a so-called “unbreakable” clasp open in seconds. There’s an incredible wealth of information that they have to offer us, albeit often hidden in a sea of not-so-useful ramblings, brags, and curse-word-laiden hot takes on global politics and economics 

  7. Where do you think the loss prevention industry is headed? What factors do you believe are/ will be influencing those changes?

    I think big data and smarter analytics are going to completely change the game on us knowing when a bad person walks in to a store and is up to no good. However, I also think retailers will increasingly value customer experience over preventing theft, effectively handcuffing the LP team. Benefit denial technologies and technologies that serve the overall business as well as LP (i.e. inventory control, personal data for customer experience) have the surest future in our field.

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