Why An LP Agent or Mall Cop’s Job Has Gotten More Dangerous
Charlotte NC June 5 2020
The job of a loss prevention agent or mall security officer today is inherently more dangerous
than it has ever been, though some in management continue to turn a blind eye, not wanting to acknowledge it.
Right after returning from the army and while waiting to be hired as a campus cop, I got my first taste of retail security at a regional department store called King’s.
While I had worked uniform security before going into the military, this would be my introduction into “floorwalking”. No cameras, no one-way mirrors, no perches. Just me and the concrete floors of that 110,000 square foot discount retailer.
Every day, day after day, trying to blend in while cutting the same paths through the store over and over.
But, it turned out that catching shoplifters came easy and within the first ninety days I had snagged over 50 of them including two employees.
I soon decided to ply my newly found skills at a bigger and better known brand called Stop and Shop which included at that time, the Bradlee’s Department stores.
By then, stores had installed “window” box perches and large round balls with rotating cameras. Ten minutes after the installation of thirty of them in my store, I immediately began taking them for a test run and thought that I was in heaven. We even had zoom!
While policing at the school, I kept a full schedule at the store and within the first year had racked up over 200 apprehensions and busted an employee ring consisting of a mother and daughter, a cousin and four friends who would often steal merchandise and return them to our area stores for cash refunds. At the time of their arrests, we had traced refunds back to all of them that dated back more than three years.
In the twelve years that I stayed in the retail security business, I amassed well over 3000 apprehensions, shoppers, and employees, including several persons from the management team. I also worked as a district LP manager for two other retailers and witnesses many changes in loss prevention over the years.
Assaults back then would occasionally happen and about once or twice a year, a knife or gun was pulled on me, usually after they got to their vehicle with me in hot pursuit.
I was stabbed once in the hand and once in the back during two of those apprehensions and my life and the life of my family was threatened by a career shoplifter who I later learned had a long arrest record and was known for his violence.
But all of that was in the 80’s and 90’s and the world has certainly done a lot of changing.
Since then, I’ve worked in law enforcement and numerous areas of security for over forty years and in 2004 started a private security and law enforcement association called Private Officer International.
Our organization has a fully staffed news department and we curate, collect and record violence against police and security officers including loss prevention. We have also collected and recorded every on-duty death in the past sixteen years.
Each year, about 105-125, security officers die while trying to do their job protecting others.
Violence against security, including uniformed, retail loss prevention and mall officers has been on a steady increase since 2000 and in the past ten years has continuously been in the double digits.
We have found that as the number of theft apprehensions increases and the dollar amount stolen continues to be larger, offenders are more likely to use force to escape the apprehension.
Additionally, tens of thousands of known criminals are on probation or parole at any given time,
and many have been found to be armed with firearms, a violation of their release.
They know that if they get caught, they’ll be remanded back to jail or prison. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain by resisting or using force to get away from the security agent.
Homelessness, a nationwide mental health crisis and the current unemployment condition, coupled with recent protests and the gangs who are rushing into the store and walking out with armloads of merchandise that often add up to 10, 20, or even 50 thousand dollars of merchandise put security staff in the bullseye of the target.
And of course, let’s not forget about the professionals who ravage the stores of many thousands of dollars of merchandise in one quick swipe over and over again.
And while store security agent’s primary role is theft and fraud detection, agents often find themselves responding to in-store assaults, sometimes involving weapons, sex crimes, robberies and crimes involving violence. Unarmed and unprepared for what might happen.
Mall security officers are patrolling what amounts to a city within a city and respond to everything from a theft to disorderly or trespassing groups, robberies, shootings, and the occasional homicide.
It all adds up to the increasing dangers for retails security when stopping the people responsible for committing those crimes.
Every single time that an LP agent makes a stop, they are essentially making an arrest even if the store doesn’t prosecute the shoplifter.
The agent approaches the suspect not knowing who they are, what their criminal history looks like, whether or not that they’re armed or if they’ll come back peacefully.
Sometimes they do walk back willingly but not always. Our data indicates that 1 in 4 will resist, physically or verbally, fight, or flee. 1 in 7 are armed with a knife or other bladed instrument including a hatchet, screwdriver, razor, or other implements. Some will up their threats with a Taser, pepper spray, or firearm.
By in the large, our men and women on the frontline in the retail environment have no training in self-defense, protective tactics, weaponry or even handcuffing. Many times, a loss prevention agent works alone without any immediate back-up should something go south.
If, and when an agent is attacked, the best that they can do is flee or when that’s not an option, fight like hell as if your life depends on it because, it probably does.
About the author:
Rick McCann is the Founder/CEO of Private Officer International, a private security and law enforcement association founded in 2004. He is also the Founder/CEO of Armour College, a career and technical school.
Rick has been in law enforcement and security for forty years and is currently a police chief, a mufti-discipline instructor, and the author of nine books.
