Corporate Security and Loss Prevention
Professor Swanzey
Final Paper
Loss prevention in corporate and retail establishments is crucial to developing and maintaining successful businesses. The FBI reports that retail theft costs businesses $30 billion dollar a year overall, making theft prevention a huge concern. There are countless areas to consider when setting up a new business and one must carefully follow certain protocols as to prevent theft. Conducting a site survey, developing policy and procedures, establishing specific operations and hiring personnel must be carefully instituted before a store can open. Without these highly specific policies, a business can risk great loss.
When establishing a new business, one must first conduct a thorough site survey. This involves finding out the median income of the area, investigating the crime rates in the area as well as police response time. This will impact how much security is necessary as well as what measures will need to be taken to prevent theft.
One must also examine the physical location of the store. For example, does the parking lot have breaks, stop signs and speed bumps. Is it close to a highway, risking a quick getaway by a potential thief. One must consider how many cameras to place throughout the building, outside the building, whether public view monitors are necessary for that specific establishment and which items are tagged or locked up in a glass case. It is imperative to determine the amount of lighting needed on a store-by-store basis indoors and outdoors. The parking lot should be well lit at night for the safety of the customers and for the security of the store in order to prevent criminal activity. After the store closes, one should evaluate how much lighting is to remain inside the building and outside the building – whether some of it, most of it, or all of it, depending on the area. Based on this site survey, one may determine how much staff to hire as well