Hire Loss Prevention Officers What They Do and Why You Need One
Hire Loss Prevention Security Officers. We are a retail loss prevention hire company and we thought we’d shed more light on “hire retail loss prevention officers.” What are the duties of a loss prevention officer, how can they help your business or retail store? It is important you read the entire blog, so you can understand the importance of loss prevention officers and how best to utilise them at your business or store.
You can also read these helpful articles/books:
- 23 important tips you need before you visit the shopping centre
- How can a retail worker respond to a shoplifter? Read this book
What is a Loss Prevention Officer?
The Loss Prevention Officer is a security guard position that is not so visible to members of the public/patrons (undercover store security) unless such patrons have acted on the opposite side of the law (i.e. shoplifting). The licensed security personnel for this type of security work is called a Loss Prevention Officer (LPO) or Loss Prevention Security (LPS).
Types Of Loss Prevention Officers
| Covert Loss Prevention Officer | Overt Loss Prevention Officer |
| Covert loss prevention officers are often working undercover. Their purpose in the retail store or at a business is to monitor would-be shoplifters and apprehend them. |
Covert (open or uniform) loss prevention officers’ primary purpose is to deter any would-be shoplifters, hence they are openly in uniform. They could also apprehend or arrange for the arrest of offending patrons/customer.
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The loss prevention officer can also issue an in-store or centre banning notice, and possibly hand the offenders over to the local police authority to process and charge them to court, depending on the offence.
Loss Prevention in Retail Hire During Busy Season
Most retailers or businesses tend to hire loss prevention officers during busy days or months because the busier the business is, the more likely you are to have shoplifters mixing with your genuine clients.
We always advocate that every major or small retail store hire loss prevention officers, especially during the festive seasons (e.g. Christmas) and on busier days of the week (Thursday-Sunday).
These busy seasons and days of the week are periods where there is a high volume of foot traffic in the shopping centres/retail stores. With a large number of genuine customers visiting retail stores, you will attract a number of individuals who specialize in shoplifting and stealing from retail stores.
What You Should Do About Shoplifters During Peak Periods
The trick is that the busier the shopping centre and the retail store gets, the more likely staff members are going to get distracted, serving genuine customers in the store. Therefore, hiring loss prevention officers helps you to have that extra staff member during the busy days, weeks and seasons to prevent theft, and possibly arrest offending patrons and ban them from your store.
You can also hire static security guards and position them at the front of your centre/store. You can also ask them to do regular foot patrol rounds inside the store or centre for a visible security presence. Such tactics are to deter would-be thieves or shoplifters. However, the advantage of the loss prevention officer over a uniformed security guard is that the loss prevention officer disguises themselves as a customer, so the shoplifter doesn’t know they’re being followed/watched, and they easily get caught when they engage in criminal activity in your store.
Value of Loss Prevention in Retail
Loss prevention officers are very valuable to the retailer/business, not only because they do make an arrest. Their presence in the business reduces the insurance premium. Additionally, most shoplifters work in a network; once they have been arrested in a retail store that has loss prevention officers, they often let their criminal network know about the store loss prevention officers. They then avoid these store’s in their future prowling.
Loss Prevention Specialist Tips on Loss Prevention Hire
Although the loss prevention officers make the arrest or apprehend the offending patron. They only do such arrest when they are one hundred per cent sure that they have witnessed the offender stealing the item/stock and walking out of the retail store without paying. This then becomes a theft.
It is important for the loss prevention officers to be regularly rotated, so their cover doesn’t get exposed by past offenders, making any future detection and arrest more difficult. Such rotation could be every fortnightly, monthly or quarterly.
Also, check out these in-depth articles/blogs on:
- ‘Retail Loss Prevention Officers| It Saves You Money.’
- ‘The ban on the plastic shopping bag and the increase in shoplifting’
- ‘How to save money on security hire’
Loss Prevention Consultants Melbourne
Security Concepts Services provides loss prevention consultancy services, loss prevention management services and loss prevention hire in Melbourne. If you are looking to contract your business or stores loss prevention responsibilities, please get in touch today and see how we can help reduce shrinkage in your store or business.
Please contact us today for a free quote and risk assessment on 1300 044 989 or email us at info@securityconcepts.com.au
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2nd Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash