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Business Tips
Businesses can reduce their vulnerability to crime in may ways. Measures like locks, alarms, and good lighting make any establishment a less attractive target for criminals. A major ally is your local police department -- it's crime prevention officers can conduct a free security survey and give advise on alarm systems and other devices. Community service and involvement are important safeguards against crime. Customers and neighbors who view a business as a valued resource to the community will watch out for its property and employees.
Crime-burglary, robbery, vandalism, shoplifting, employee theft, and fraud-costs businesses billions of dollars each year. Crime can be particularly devastating to small businesses, who lose both customers and employees when crime and fear claim a neighborhood.
When small businesses are victims of crime, they often react by changing their hours of operation, raising their prices to cover their losses, relocating outside the community, or simply closing. Fear of crime isolates businesses, much like fear isolates individuals-and this isolation increases vulnerability to crime.
Helping small businesses reduce and prevent crime must be a community effort. Law enforcement can work with owners to improve security and design their spaces to reduce risk. Small businesses can join together in such efforts as Business Watch to alert each other to crime patterns and suspicious activities. They can help young people in the community learn job-seeking skills and give them jobs, when possible.
Finally, businesses must reach out to others-law enforcement, civic groups, schools, churches, youth groups-to fight violence, drugs, and other crime and create a safer community for all.
Employees and Crime
Employee Theft Prevention
- Employee theft accounts for a large amount of business losses.
- Establish a written policy that outlines employee responsibilities, standards of honesty, and general security procedures and consequences for § not following them. Make sure new employees read it, understand it, and sign it as a condition of employment.
- Follow strict hiring practices. Verify all information and contact all the references listed on an application. Consider running a credit check.
- Keep accurate records on cash flow, inventory, equipment, and supplies. Have it checked regularly by someone other than the person responsible for maintaining it.
- Limit access to keys, the safe, computerized records, and alarm codes, and engrave "DO NOT DUPLICATE" on store keys. Change locks and access codes when an employee is terminated.
- If internal theft is discovered, take action quickly. Contact your local law enforcement agency and be sure to send a message to your employees that theft will not be tolerated.
Reward employees for uncovering security problems, and doing a good job
Shoplifting Prevention
- Businesses lose billions of dollars each year to shoplifting, and then often must pass this loss on to the customers through higher prices.
- Train employees in how to reduce opportunities for shoplifting and how to apprehend shoplifters. Work with law enforcement to teach employees what actions may signal shoplifting.
- Keep the store neat and orderly. Use mirrors to eliminate "blind spots" in corners that might hide shoplifters. Merchandise should be kept away from store exits to prevent grab-and-run situations.
- Keep displays full and orderly, so employees can see at a glance if something is missing. Keep expensive merchandise in locked cases. Limit the number of items employees remove at any one time for customers to examine.
- Design the exits of the business so all persons must pass by security personnel or store employees. You may want to use an electronic article surveillance system or other inventory control devices.
- The cash register should be inaccessible to customers, locked, and monitored at all times. Place it near the front of the store, so employees can also monitor customers coming and going.
- Dressing rooms and rest rooms should be watched at all times. Keep dressing rooms locked and limit the number of items taken in.
Vandalism Prevention
- Annual damage estimates are in the billions, and businesses pass the costs of vandalism on to customers through higher prices. Most vandals are young people-from grade-schoolers to teens to young adults.
- Clean up vandalism as soon as it happens-replace signs, repair equipment, paint over graffiti. Once the graffiti is gone, use landscape designs (such as prickly shrubs or closely planted hedges), building materials (such as hard-to-mark surfaces), lighting, or fences to discourage vandals.
- Work with law enforcement to set up a hotline to report vandalism. § If you see someone vandalizing a property, report it to the police. Remember, vandalism is a crime.
- Protect your business by installing and using good lighting and locking gates. Eliminate places where someone might hide, such as trees, shrubbery, stairwells, and alleys.
Have a community meeting on vandalism to discuss its victims, costs, and solutions. Include young people in all vandalism prevention efforts.
Laying a Foundation for Prevention
Take a hard look at your business-its physical layout, employees, hiring practices, and overall security. Assess its vulnerability to all kinds of crime, from burglary to embezzlement. Some basic prevention principles include:
Provide training for all employees-including cleaning staff -- so they are familiar with security procedures and know your expectations
Use good locks, safes, and alarm systems. If you have questions, seek the help of law enforcement. Keep detailed, up-to-date records. Store back-up copies off the premises. If you are ever victimized, you can assess losses more easily and provide useful information for law enforcement investigations.
Robbery Prevention
Businesses are robbed ten times more often than individuals, but common sense can reduce the chance of becoming a victim as well as the amount of money lost if you are robbed. The following listing gives several tips on how to reduce your vulnerability to robbery.
Cash
- Keep only small amounts on hand and advertise this fact.
- Make frequent bank deposits.
- Have a drop safe or time delay safe.
- Vary your deposit time and route.
- Count cash only in a private area.
Lights, Locks and Alarms:
- Have exterior and interior lighting that allows visibility into the store from the street
- Have an emergency alarm system that works.
- Have a buddy system signal with a neighboring store in case a suspicious person enters.
- Keep seldom used doors and windows locked at all times.
- Use mirrors, cameras, or one way glass to observe all areas of the store.
Employees:
- Have more than one person to open and close the store.
- Do careful screening before hiring.
- Have employees notify police about loiterers who may be "casing" the store.
- Train employees on how to handle a robbery situation and effectively report it to the police.
Other
- Arrange your stock to allow clear visibility into the store.
- Set up a signal for the police patrol officer in case of problems.
- Arrange for a risk analysis security survey from Elite Protection Specialists.
If Confronted By A Robber...
- Stay as calm as possible. Try not to panic or show any signs of anger or confusion.
- Consider your well-being and that of your employees as the highest priority. Don't escalate the incident into a violent confrontation in which someone may be injured or killed.
- Make a conscious effort to get an accurate description of the robber(s): age, race, complexion, body build, height, weight, type and color of clothing.
- After the robber leaves, call police immediately
- Leave the job of catching the robber to the police.
After a Robbery:
- Lock your business.
- Ask any witnesses to stay until the police arrive.
- Call the police and remain on the line.
- Call your business owner, manager, or other designated person.
- Call the security hotline, if applicable.
- Don't touch anything the robber may have touched.
- Write down a description of the robber and the weapon as soon as you are able
Burglary
Burglary is a property crime that occurs when the business is closed. The burglar may enter through any opening (door, window, air conditioning duct, skylight, etc.) or even create an opening through an interior shared wall or an outside wall. Reduce your risk as much as possible. Burglary is a crime of opportunity that can be prevented.
Surveillance and Security are Critical
Lighting: Install bright interior and exterior lighting to make all openings visible from both outside and inside the store.
Locks and Safes: Purchase high quality door locks and use them. Grilles and storefront gates delay entry. Use an Underwriters Laboratory listed money safe, bolted to the floor and visible from the street.
Entry Control: Know who has a key and restrict access to the front door. Re-key locks annually if you have high turnover of employees. Consider an access control system rather than keys.
Intrusion Alert: Install a good quality alarm system to detect unauthorized entry. Check with the Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, police department, and other businesses before you make this investment.
Windows: Consider burglary resistant glass in accessible areas. Unbreakable polycarbonate may work even better, particularly if you have high value items in window displays.
Environment: Keep areas around the store clean to aid visibility. Display your most valuable articles near the center of the store to force a burglar to take the longest possible escape route. Keep merchandise displays organized to allow maximum visibility throughout the store. Check closets and rest rooms before you lock up. You don't need an unwanted visitor staying inside your store after closing hours.
Credit Card Fraud
- Train employees to follow each credit card company's authorization procedures.
- Be skeptical of a customer with only one credit card and one piece of identification.
- Be aware of the customer who makes several small purchases by check or credit card that are under the amount for manager approval.
- Is the item being purchased one that could be easily fenced for cash? (Examples include televisions, stereos, cameras, and other portable items.)
- If you are suspicious of the purchaser, make a note of appearance, companions, any vehicle used, and identification presented. Call your local police department.
- Look for "ghost" numbers or letters. Many times criminals will change the numbers and/or name on a stolen card. To do this they either melt the original name and numbers off or file them off. Both of these processes can leave faint imprints of the original characters.
- Examine the signature strip on the credit card. A criminal may cover the real card owner's signature with "White-Out" and sign it on the new strip.
- Check to see if the signature on the card compares favorably with the signature on the sales slip.
Cheque Fraud
Many fraudulent checks are visibly phony. By paying close attention to a check's appearance, you can often detect a possible bad check before accepting it as payment. When you see one or more of the following telltale signs, you may be looking at a phony check. Protect yourself against possible losses by requiring management approval of the check or asking for an alternative form of payment.
Do not accept cheques that are:
- Have no perforation on check edges
- Apparently altered writing or erasures Water spots or alterations of check's color or graphic background Numbered under 500 (new account)
- Post-dated
- Glossy rather than dull finish of magnetic ink
- Signature does not match imprinted name and ID
Take Action--Get Involved With Your Community
Learn about crime in your neighborhood and what is being done about it. Offer to help. You can provide expert advise, funding, publicity and meeting places for citizen efforts.
Try to hire employees from the neighbourhood and make a special effort to give teens an opportunity to work.
Include crime prevention information in your staff memos and newsletters, customer statements and notices.
Role-play a robbery situation with your employees.
If you use vehicles, teach your drivers to spot suspicious behaviour and how to notify the police. If you're radio dispatched, train your dispatcher to report information effectively.
Learn about crime victim services in your area and help any employees who are victimized by serious crime.
Bring the problems of business security, shoplifting, vandalism, etc. to the attention of community leaders.
Start a "Business Watch" to prevent crime.
What is a Trespass Warning?
To "trespass" a person means to formally warn the offending person that they are to immediately leave the premises and not return under threat of criminal prosecution.
The trespass notification can be written document or just a verbal warning. In either cause, the trespass warning must be communicated to the offender and should containing the precise language used in the Trespass Act. Trespass warnings can be given for a day, a week, a month, a year or permanently. However, temporary trespass warnings are difficult to enforce. For example, can you legally trespass a 15-year-old minor child for life? Technically speaking, once a person is formally "trespassed" they can be arrested if they return.
Who Can Trespass?
Anyone who represents the property owner or leaseholder can revoke permission to come onto private property. The property landlord, property manager, and their employees would certainly have the authority to trespass someone. Security typically is given the responsibility for trespassing undesirables. The trespass warning is equally legal if given verbally or in writing as long as it contains the proper language. Written and signed trespass warning are better for proof purposes.
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