ROC and FaceFirst Deliver Real-Time Intelligence for Safer Retail Spaces

Gatekeeper Systems has selected ROC for its high performance, NIST-ranked face recognition algorithms. The strategic partnership unifies ROC’s trusted capabilities with FaceFirst’s AI-powered video analytics platform, which helps retailers prevent violence, theft, and fraud through a powerful combination of artificial intelligence and human oversight.

Making the World Smarter, Safer, and Stronger

ROC today announced a strategic partnership with Gatekeeper Systems to enhance its FaceFirst software, the trusted solution for retail life safety and loss prevention. The new initiative integrates ROC’s top-ranked facial recognition technology into the FaceFirst AI-powered platform to help retailers proactively identify threats, prevent violent incidents, and reduce losses with unmatched speed and accuracy.

A Shared Commitment to Safety and Trust

FaceFirst’s video analytics platform was built from the ground up for operational use in busy, high-traffic settings. Deployed across major retailers and public venues, it pairs powerful AI with human decision-making to ensure alerts are both fast and responsible. By embedding ROC’s face recognition, ranked in independent NIST evaluations as the #1 American algorithm in accuracy, FaceFirst enhances its core offering with even greater speed, precision, and resilience in the field.

Read more here
 

Employees, Not Just Merch, Are At Growing Risk
ORC Crews Increasingly Target Employees With Distraction & Intimidation Tactics

By the D&D Daily staff

While organized retail crime (ORC) has long focused on high-value merchandise, an emerging pattern across several retail sectors suggests that the behavior of ORC groups is shifting. Increasingly, offenders are targeting store employees themselves — not just with physical violence, but with calculated distraction and intimidation strategies aimed at manipulating staff behavior and creating openings for theft.

Recent incident reports show a rise in coordinated “customer pressure” scenarios in which groups deliberately overwhelm a department, engage employees with repetitive or aggressive questions, or create minor disturbances to divert attention away from high-risk zones. In some cases, one individual initiates a loud argument or dispute while others quickly remove merchandise behind the distraction.

The intent is not necessarily to harm employees but to influence their responses. Offenders have learned that associates often step back, disengage, or focus on de-escalation when confronted with confrontational behavior. ORC groups are exploiting those predictable patterns. Loss prevention leaders note that these tactics are becoming more structured, with teams assigning designated distractors and watchers in addition to boosters.

Another emerging trend involves intimidation without direct confrontation. Some offenders shadow or closely follow employees around the salesfloor, stand uncomfortably near them, or make vague comments to unsettle associates. The goal is to deter staff from monitoring certain areas or approaching suspects, effectively creating temporary “no-go zones” within the store.

These behavioral strategies complicate traditional LP approaches that rely on surveillance of merchandise movement or exit paths. When employees themselves are the focus, the frontline response becomes more nuanced. Training programs increasingly include modules on recognizing ORC-linked behavioral manipulation and maintaining situational awareness without escalating encounters.

Retailers are also evaluating staffing models, particularly during evening hours, and reviewing policies that govern employee engagement thresholds. As ORC tactics evolve, some organizations are reconsidering how associates balance safety, observation, and service during high-risk interactions.

The broader takeaway is clear: ORC groups are refining their playbooks in ways that target human behavior as much as store assets. As these methods grow more common, retailers will need to strengthen both their procedural guardrails and employee readiness to ensure safety while mitigating risk.


A Proactive Approach to Fighting ORC
Genesee County/Sheriff’s office, regional partners work together to thwart organized retail theft
It takes hard work and plenty of collaboration, but the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office is taking a bite out of organized retail theft rings that cost New York State stores billions of dollars in annual revenue.

“Over the last year we’ve seen a dip in the numbers (of retail theft incidents) as we’ve definitely leveraged our relationships with the private sector – the stores and their asset protection or loss prevention personnel,” Undersheriff Ryan DeLong said on Friday afternoon.

DeLong and Criminal Investigator Erik Andre sat down with Video News Service to talk about the agency’s push to crack down on organized retail theft.

Much of the theft occurs from the big-box stores along Veterans Memorial Drive, DeLong said, providing statistics that show the number of calls responded to by the sheriff’s office from those stores has decreased from 134 in 2023 to 124 in 2024 and 74 through November of this year.

He said his office has “created an environment” where store asset protection and/or loss prevention personnel are communicating with each other and with law enforcement on a daily basis.

“If one loss prevention person sees something, they talk to the other stores, which helps us (in attempting to locate the perpetrators),” he said. “We have established a really good relationship with them where they call us right away and Erik can speak to some instances where we have notified stores that property is being stolen from them without their knowledge.” videonewsservice.net


Canada's Retail Crime Crackdown
Windsor police arrest 32 during 4-day city retail crime crackdown

Windsor police last year began a full-on offensive against retail theft in response to a swelling number of shoplifting cases.

Windsor police arrested 32 individuals and laid 33 charges during a four-day retail crime crackdown initiative last week.

Officers with the Windsor Police Service’s problem-oriented policing unit partnered with 15 local retailers, from Wednesday, Dec. 3, to Saturday, Dec. 6, in a co-ordinated effort to prevent and deter shoplifting and related offences.

“Retail theft has a significant impact on local businesses, staff, and our community,” said Staff Sgt. Brian Caffarena. “This initiative demonstrates our commitment to working closely with our retail partners to deter crime and hold offenders accountable.”

Earlier this year, Windsor police closed nearly 530 cases and arrested almost 200 suspects — including organized gang members and dozens of repeat offenders — in a major citywide crackdown on shoplifters. windsorstar.com


Holiday Thefts Rising
How to protect yourself from theft during holiday shopping season

Holiday shoppers adapt to rising theft threats

With holiday shopping in full swing, many Americans are adjusting how they shop to protect themselves amid a sharp increase in theft incidents.

The National Retail Federation reports shoplifting has risen 93% since 2019, causing most shoppers to worry about theft and change their habits.

With holiday thefts on the rise, crime and safety expert Darnell Blackburn offers practical advice to help shoppers protect themselves and their belongings.  clickondetroit.com


DC sees 27% drop in homicides, but data integrity questioned amid federal probes

Hawaii launches new way you can view crime statistics