Brosnan Risk Consultants & Johnson Controls co-sponsor LPRC Golf Outing
Funds Donated to Gainesville PD's B.O.L.D. Program

Brosnan Risk Consultants and Johnson Controls co-sponsored Monday's LPRC Annual Golf Outing. At the conclusion of the outing, the Brosnan and JCI team invited John W. Alexander Jr., Executive Director at Gainesville Police Department, representing the B.O.L.D. Program, to speak to the golfers about the program, and receive a donation of money raised via the golf outing (see picture below).

B.O.L.D.'s Program Vision
The Brave Overt Leaders of Distinction (B.O.L.D.) Program was started in 2010 to provide assistance to young men previously between the ages of 16-24 who needed professional guidance in addressing their life situations and circumstances.

The B.O.L.D. program drives to create a community-based organization that is rooted in the theory of empowerment by creating learning experiences and providing services that cultivate growth and nurtures development to change lives.

The B.O.L.D. staff is driven to connect program members with opportunities that allow them to experience an individual and group process, ethical behavior, leadership, civic duties and responsibilities that enhance social and community cultures.

The B.O.L.D. program’s members are guided and encouraged to achieve their educational and career goals.

'Project Safe Neighborhoods'
Evidenced-Based Program - Sound Familiar?
Combating Violent Crime

Justice Department Awards More Than $30 Million to 'Project Safe Neighborhoods' to Combat Violent Crime
An Evidence-Based Program - Crime Gun Intelligence Centers (CGIC)
Should the LPRC Strategically Share Select Reports with Specific Law Enforcement Groups?
Attorney General Sessions today commemorated the reinvigoration of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. In support of the Department’s PSN programs throughout the country, the Attorney General also announced awards of almost $28 million in grant funding to combat violent crime through PSN and another $3 million for training and technical assistance to develop and implement violent crime reduction strategies and enhance services and resources for victims of violent crime. Over the past year, the Department has partnered with all levels of law enforcement, local organizations, and members of the community to reduce violent crime and make American neighborhoods safer.

“Project Safe Neighborhoods is a proven program with demonstrated results,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. “We know that the most effective strategy to reduce violent crime is based on sound policing policies that have proven effective over many years, which includes being targeted and responsive to community needs.

PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.

Through the enhanced PSN, the Department is targeting the most violent criminals in the most violent areas, utilizing policing tools that did not exist even a few years ago. Tools like crime gun intelligence centers (CGIC), which combine intelligence from gunshot detection systems, ballistics, gun tracing, and good old-fashioned police work, help to develop real-time leads on the “traffickers and trigger pullers” who are fueling the violence in their communities. By using modern technologies and cutting-edge police work, the Justice Department is deploying resources strategically to provide the greatest return on our community-based anti-violence efforts. justice.gov

Editor's Note: Will this help the retail industry's increase in violence and robbery rates? Which peaked in 2015 along with the beginning of the opoiod epidemic push, and has not returned to pre 2015 levels.

What impact will this program have on retail crime as it all begins in the neighborhoods of America. As they talk about deploying resources more strategically supported by gun detection and gun tracing, will this have an impact on armed retail robbery crews and ORC crews. How are they integrating these crimes or are they just not being addressed? As is the case so often.

Maybe the LPRC should strategically share some of their evidence based research projects with select law enforcement groups in a managed setting.  Because the FBI Crime Index just does not represent or document the retail industry's true crime stats or problems and for that matter while the NRSS does a great job, that model is somewhat limited by it's voluntary and relatively small sampling size that's compiled once annually. Where as the LPRC is an ongoing collaborative effort from virtually all of the stake holders.

Where as the LPRC research reports are wider in scope, more inclusive, and detailed. Driving more data and value and hopefully fueling law enforcement at a perfect time when they're rolling out a new program nationwide. If we could get involved and integrated within the program at least as a sub section it might make an incredible impact. That is if the Board, Leadership and members of the LPRC can agree on how to deliver the data.

We've had this problem for ever and there has never been a vehicle or effort that could quantify, prove, and possibly solve the governments inability to measure and adequately apply the resources for retail violent crimes.  Just a thought. - Gus Downing
 

Retailer's Alert: Philly Not Prosecuting Retail Theft Cases
Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner - Withdrawing All Retail Theft Cases Once They Reach Philadelphia Municipal Courts?
After Krasner was elected the new District Attorney of Philadelphia this year he released a memo in February stating that he would be changing the grading of retail thefts from misdemeanor’s, or felonies for 3rd or subsequent offenses, to summery (non criminal) offenses, going against the Pennsylvania crime code statutes... However, since that said policy change has gone into effect all retail theft cases are now actually being automatically withdrawn by the DA’s office, and not even prosecuted as summery offenses, as stated in the policy change.

That’s right... That means retail theft cases are no longer even being prosecuted under Larry Krasner. He has found a back door way to help his campaign of “ending mass incarceration”, without the public even realizing what he is doing behind closed doors at the DA’s office to achieve that goal.

Carol Temin from the DA's office has been contacted for comment. Once they respond we'll post it.

Read released memo from Philadelphia's DA's Office this past February on attached PDF. - Submitted by Loss Prevention executive

Target Customer Who Shot at Shoplifter in Las Vegas Acquitted Of Attempted Murder
But Guilty of Carrying a Concealed Weapon Without a Permit, a felony, But Not Guilty of 7 Other Counts
Video surveillance outside the store at 4100 Blue Diamond Road showed Howard pulling out his handgun after security guards tried to apprehend a suspected shoplifter who was exiting the store. Howard fired two shots as the suspect backed his SUV at him and drove away.

Howard, then 44, and his family had just finished shopping at the store on June 16, 2016, when they noticed a scuffle between a shoplifting suspect and the store’s loss-prevention officers, he said.

When Metropolitan Police Department officers arrived at the scene, “Howard began immediately excitedly uttering, without being asked any questions, that he had thought the man had just robbed the Target and (Howard) was trying to protect people,” a police report stated.

The man who scuffled with the security officer was described in the police report as a “repeat offender” but never was arrested or charged in the incident. reviewjournal.com

Relatives of woman/employee fatally shot by LAPD officer at Trader Joe's
file wrongful death claim with City
The claims, which allege excessive force, wrongful death and other violations, are a necessary step before suing in the courts.

Los Angeles Police Department has not provided the family with all of the videos surrounding the shooting. “The city has forced us to file the claims to take steps to get questions answered about how their daughter was killed,” Taylor said. LAPD says they've released all the video that captures the moments when the two officers fired their weapons.

Corado was killed on July 21, after two police officers pursued a suspect who had shot his grandmother in South L.A. and taken a young woman hostage. The suspect, identified by police as Gene Evin Atkins, led the officers on a lengthy chase with the hostage in his grandmother’s car. He parked the car outside the Trader Joe’s and ran toward the store, which was crowded with Saturday afternoon shoppers.

The suspect fired his gun at the officers, who fired back. An officer’s bullet struck Corado in the arm and passed through her body, fatally wounding her. Another bullet hit the suspect in the arm, but he held shoppers and employees hostage inside the store for three hours before surrendering.

The LAPD has released video and audio clips in two batches, to comply with a new policy requiring recordings to be made public within 45 days of shootings by police officers.

The edited releases, like others under the policy, contain voice overs by LAPD officials and are stitched together from footage that includes body cam and dash cam recordings and 911 calls, to form a coherent narrative. The editing has been criticized by Corado’s attorneys and others as a public relations effort to shape the story favorably for the LAPD.  latimes.com

Fork Over Passwords or Pay the Price, New Zealand Tells Travelers
Travelers entering New Zealand who refuse to disclose passwords for their digital devices during forced searches could face prosecution and fines of more than $3,000, a move that border officials said Tuesday made the country the first to impose such penalties.

Border officials, he said, believe the new fine is an “appropriate remedy” aimed at balancing individuals’ privacy and national security. Once a password was supplied, “preliminary searches” would be carried out with a traveler’s phone or computer set to flight mode, and officers would explore only files saved to the device, not website histories or any information uploaded to cloud-based storage. nytimes.com

AvantGuard Monitoring Reports Large-Scale False Alarms as a Result of Presidential Alert
During the Presidential Alert system test on October 3, 2018, the emergency monitoring industry saw an unprecedented influx of inbound signals from both security and PERS device users. The loud tone produced by devices that received the alert coincidentally matched the frequencies monitored by some security glass-break sensors, causing the sensors to trigger alarms that were reported to monitoring centers nationwide. sdmmag.com
 

Amazon's Ripple Effect
DOL Employment Numbers vs. NRF Numbers

8 Years of Job Gains, Unemployment Lowest Since 1969
Amazon's $15 Announcement & Low Unemployment Impacting Retailers
Workers at the bottom of the earnings ladder are seeing particularly strong growth: Amazon announced this week that it would raise the minimum wage for all of its employees in the United States to at least $15 an hour.

Amy Glaser heard the Amazon news on television while preparing for a meeting with a rival e-commerce firm. Ms. Glaser, a senior vice president at the staffing firm Adecco, helps companies hire for the holiday season, a task that Amazon had just made even more difficult.

“There was definitely a feeling of concern,” Ms. Glaser said. “It puts increased pressure on them in a market where they already knew they were going to have to make significant adjustments on wages.”

“The demand for workers is higher than ever and the supply just isn’t out there right now,” Ms. Glaser said.

Florence affected a smaller part of the country than last year’s storms did, and hit at a time in the month when it was less likely to disrupt data collection or measurement. Still, the storm could help explain the slowdown in job growth in September. The retail and hospitality sectors, which are particularly sensitive to bad weather, cut a combined 37,000 jobs. nytimes.com

Bernie Sanders to McDonald's: Raise your minimum wage to $15
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday called for McDonald's to follow the lead of Amazon and Disney, and pay their restaurant workers at least $15 per hour.

Sanders also wrote that many McDonald's workers need assistance such as food stamps, Medicaid, and public housing in order to survive. businessinsider.com

The unemployment rate has fallen to a 48-year low, and it's terrifying news for Walmart, McDonald's, and JCPenney

September retail jobs increase more than 25,000 over 2017
Retail industry employment in September increased by 25,600 jobs unadjusted over the same time last year despite a seasonally adjusted drop of 23,600 jobs from August, the National Retail Federation said today. The numbers exclude automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants. Overall, U.S. businesses added 134,000 jobs over August, the Labor Department said.

"I think we can safely ignore the decline from August because that was largely the result of the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, which affected both the retail sector and leisure/hospitality” NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said. “More importantly, we know we have a large number of unfilled retail jobs with a record level of openings in the industry.” nrf.com