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True Theft Deterrence?
by Mark Pikkarainen
General Manager Security Products Div.
Comtrol
With theft on the rise, do cameras alone or EAS tags
really deter theft? It sure doesn't appear to be the
case. In an average retail setting, cameras are
everywhere, yet theft is increasing at an alarming rate
from both an internal and external perspective. Is there
such a thing as a true theft deterrent solution? Studies
show that one big deterrent is employee presence, yet
employees are costly. On the other hand, what if the
employee is the person stealing? Retailers have gone
through great lengths to try to protect goods by locking
them in cabinets, using elaborate dispensing systems,
attaching EAS tags, or even keeping highly stolen items
behind the retail counter. However, thieves have
developed elaborate schemes to distract employees,
disable tags, or hide stolen items on their person.
Are employees even able to pursue someone who has walked
out of a store after setting off the alarm by the
entry/exit point? Do the employees really care? True
theft deterrence may be better accomplished with a
combination of different technologies. Laser scanners
for example, are an invisible, eye safe light barrier
that can be combined with RFID to protect vulnerable
areas within an establishment (i.e. behind a retail
counter, jewelry counter, bank tellers, back rooms,
server rooms, etc.) from unauthorized entrance. After
clearing the read zone, correctly tagged and identified
employees are free to move in and out of that space.
However, any unauthorized entry can easily trigger an
audible alarm (immediately draw attention to a would-be
thief), trigger a camera to record incident and send
immediately to central monitoring or LP for verification
(robbery in process), or simply alert an employee to
immediately return to the area. Employees wearing an
RFID tag will also allow retailers to know if an
employee who is supposed to be working in kids clothing,
is for some reason now behind the jewelry counter. In
such an instance, the employee's tag will be read and a
camera will be triggered to record the event and send
off to Loss Prevention. By using a combination of
technologies, true theft deterrence is attainable for a
number of situations where cameras alone or even EAS
tags are prone to failure. |
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