Article by Wal-Mart executive revealing an internal audit on crime at Wal-Mart Stores and the effectiveness of security patrols.
Retail SecurityLoss Prevention Racks Up Success
By Dave Gorman
Wal-Mart protects customers and employees with security measures ranging from enhanced parking lot protection to child safety programs.At about 2:00 p.m. on November 18, 1993, a mother and her four-year-old daughter were shopping in the toy department of a Wal-Mart store in Crawfordsville, Indiana, when the two became separated momentarily and a stranger whisked away the girl. The kidnapper might have succeeded if not for an abduction prevention program initiated at the store just months earlier.
When the mother realized what had occurred, she notified store personnel, who responded by following the procedures of the new program. Within seconds a missing child announcement with a description of the child went out over the store's public address system. Associates, as Wal-Mart calls its employees, immediately monitored doors and combed the store aisles, vestibule, and parking lot.
Shortly after the announcement, a salesperson in the store's Tire & Lube Express area noticed a man accompanying a girl who fit the description of the missing child. The salesperson notified a manager, who asked the man to stay where he was. The man obeyed, never trying to flee, although staff never physically detained him. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the man, the police were summoned. Within minutes the police arrived and the man admitted to trying to abduct the girl.
Thanks to the new abduction prevention procedures, a potential tragedy was averted. The program is just one part of Wal-Mart's overall loss prevention plan, but its focus on customer and employee safety is a theme that runs through all of the store's security policies.
Loss prevention essentially means shrinkage control for many retailers. To be sure, the company's more than 2,500 Wal-Mart stores and Sam's Clubs across the United States, Canada, and Mexico use various techniques to safeguard their inventory and profits, including stationing loss prevention officers to deter shoplifting. But the Bentonville, Arkansas-based chain targets its protective efforts on its most valuable resources: its 650,000 associates and its average of 60 million weekly customers. To that end, the chain has put in place a range of safety and security measures, including enhanced parking lot protection, child safety measures, and interior and exterior camera surveillance.
Parking lots.
Three years ago management conducted a survey that looked at crime statistics for a one-year period on Wal-Mart properties. The survey showed that 80 percent of crimes at Wal-Mart were occurring not in the stores, but outside their walls, either in the parking lots or around the exterior perimeter of the stores.These crimes consisted predominantly of property offenses, especially theft, break-in, and vandalism of cars. On a smaller scale, some store locations also experienced purse snatches, muggings, and assaults. To combat this outdoor crime, a team of loss prevention members tested a new parking lot security program in September 1994 at several Florida stores.
The program was the brainchild of District Loss Prevention Supervisor Bill Sundey, who suggested that stores outfit roving patrol vehicles for high-visibility and customer service in parking lots. In the past, stores generally had only a single stationary police officer on duty to watch the parking area. To implement the idea, a team composed of Sundey and corporate-level loss prevention executives equipped several parking lot patrol vehicles for the test. Yamaha G-5 security cars, which are gasoline-powered and constructed on a golf cart chassis, were used. The cars have a governed speed of 14 miles per hour and include a full zip-in enclosure for inclement weather.
Each vehicle is fitted with rotating amber lights on the roof and a fire extinguisher. But to convert the vehicle into a more valuable tool for meeting customers' needs, management added other equipment, including a flashlight, an umbrella, a temporary tire fixer, and a disposable camera for taking pictures of evidence. Each vehicle has two batteries. One battery is used to start the vehicle and the other, located on the rear of the vehicle, can be used to jump-start disabled cars.
These courtesy patrol cars are not police vehicles. Their main function is to serve customers. Uniformed loss prevention personnel drive the cars around the parking lot not only to deter crime but also to escort customers to their cars, help them with packages, find misplaced vehicles, and try to remedy car trouble.
Drivers are equipped with two-way radios so they can keep in constant contact with managers inside the store. Managers can thus summon vehicles for various purposes, such as to escort patrons to their cars or to help apprehend shoplifters. Drivers can ask managers to call the police or do other tasks.
For testing, sites with widespread parking lot crime were chosen. Each test site received one patrol vehicle, except for one store, which received two. That store compared use of a single vehicle with use of two vehicles concurrently.
The results have been outstanding, both in terms of reduced crime and customer satisfaction. Before beginning the courtesy patrol at one store in a high-crime area in Tampa, Florida, there were 226 cars stolen, 25 purse snatches, 32 burglaries, 14 armed robberies, 3 assaults, and 1 arson reported at the site in a single year (1994). All this occurred despite the presence of an off-duty police officer posted at the front door. During the first four months of operating the patrol vehicle at that store the reported incidents for each of these crimes dropped to zero, and numbers have remained low.
Other stores have seen similar declines. No violent shoplifter incidents were reported during the test at any test sites; incidents had previously been commonplace.
The patrols also improve security over other key loss areas such as external storage facilities, outside merchandise displays, and pallets. Because patrols do not run fixed routes or follow a schedule--but circulate randomly--it is hard for thieves to time a heist on outside targets.
The patrols have helped halt many crimes in progress. For example, in October a patrol at an El Paso, Texas, store caught thieves trying to steal cardboard bales--an expensive item targeted by criminals--from an outside storage area. Other patrols have reunited missing children with their parents, and one patrol aided an associate who was being beaten by her boyfriend in the parking lot.
With the success of the testing, Wal-Mart has introduced patrol vehicles to almost 250 stores. (In cold climates, similarly equipped Ford Ranger trucks are used.) The company expects the number of patrols to grow to 400 by the end of 1996. The patrol program costs Wal-Mart up to $45,000 per year per store, including vehicle leasing and drivers' salaries.
Crime and loss prevention are only part of the story. The feedback from customers has been phenomenal. While it is not possible to say with certainty whether other factors, such as the economy, have played a role, over the four-month test period in the Jacksonville store, the number of customers shopping in the evening has increased 11.5 percent while nighttime sales have climbed 13 percent. In a survey of managers at ten Florida stores, managers generally reported a 1 percent to 5 percent increase in foot traffic and a 1 percent to 10 percent increase in nocturnal sales. Moreover, the company has been getting enthusiastic feedback from shoppers who report a greater comfort level with and appreciation for the services provided by loss prevention officers.
At stores where parking lot security needs are not as great, Wal-Mart stations associates in orange vests to help with carts and assist customers outside the store. The vests alert potential criminals that the parking area is monitored. Patrol times are continually reevaluated to make sure that sufficient personnel are working the appropriate time of day. For example, if patrols are heavy during the afternoon and evening, crime may shift to the morning, and patrols would be adjusted accordingly.
Child safety.
As mentioned earlier, Wal-Mart has a child safety program that aims both to prevent abductions and to find children lost in the store. Initiated in 1993, the program is called "Code Adam" after Adam Walsh, a child who disappeared in a high-profile abduction case that received nationwide attention. The program establishes a series of steps that store associates can follow if a child is reported missing. The procedures, which worked well in the Crawfordsville, Indiana, incident, were developed by Crawfordsville Safety Team Leader Dawn Lane and the rest of her team. The idea itself came from Bill Burns, at the time a Wal-Mart district loss prevention supervisor for the Crawfordsville site, who had heard about the Adam Walsh case and thought the store should take preventive action.Essentially, the program works like this: When a parent or guardian notifies an employee that his or her child is missing, the associate asks for a detailed description of the child, including name, age, hair color, eye color, approximate weight and height, and what the child is wearing. A shoe description is especially helpful, since shoes are difficult for a kidnapper to change quickly.
After obtaining this description, the associate goes to the nearest in-store phone and pages "Code Adam." The associate then describes the missing child over the store intercom. The announcement could be something like: "Associates, we have a Code Adam. We have lost a five-year-old boy wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, and black tennis shoes. He has blonde hair, is about three-and-a-half feet tall, and weighs about forty pounds. If you find him, please take him to the courtesy desk."
As the announcement is made, the store "people greeter"--who welcomes customers to the store--immediately begins monitoring the front doors. At the same time, staff in the Garden Center and Tire & Lube Express center monitor the doors in their areas. Managers are posted at all other doors, including the back room door. Meantime, all available store staff begin looking for the child. The parking areas and vestibules also are checked; often a child has wandered out the door or gone elsewhere with a relative or family friend.
Initially, the doors are not locked, only closely monitored, so customers are free to come and go. The parents or legal guardians are escorted to the courtesy desk by an associate, who remains with them until the child is found.
If the child is found and appears to have been lost in the store and unharmed, the child is reunited with the parent or legal guardian. To conclude the procedure, associates cancel the Code Adam over the store intercom. If the child is not found within ten minutes, the local authorities are called for assistance.
Because personnel have already thoroughly checked the store, when police arrive they can move to the next stage, searching the parking lot or other stores, questioning people, setting up roadblocks, and the like.
If the child is found with someone other than the parent or legal guardian, associates are instructed to call the police immediately or ask another employee to call the police and describe the would-be abductor.
While staff is expected to do everything within reason to prevent an abduction, associates are not expected to--and are instructed not to--expose themselves or the child to physical harm. If it is not reasonable to detain the suspected abductor or cause him or her to abandon the child, the associate is expected to get a description of the person, car type, license plate number, departure route, and related information.
Although the likelihood of a child abduction is low, the benefit of preventing just one kidnapping is immeasurable for customer comfort and staff morale. Since it was rolled out nationwide to nearly 2,500 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in 1994, Code Adam has united many lost children with their parents.
Apart from the Crawfordsville case, no Wal-Mart associate has had to confront a suspect. However, children eventually found in the store have related stories of being approached or lured by strangers, and then abandoned by them when Code Adam was announced.
Code Adam is easy and effective and can be implemented by most retailers. Because the procedure is so simple, Wal-Mart has had no problem with staff training or faulty execution. Personnel are trained not to risk their personal safety. No staff member has been injured during a Code Adam nor have any liability issues arisen.
Missing children boards. Another district loss prevention supervisor for Wal-Mart also developed a successful child safety program. In the summer of 1994, Mark Earl thought of placing pictures of missing and exploited children in the vestibules of a Wal-Mart store in Vestal, New York, with the goal of helping to locate them and gently reminding parents to keep a watchful eye on their children.
With the assistance of Regional Loss Prevention Director Don Schmutz and support from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the program was rolled out to all Wal-Mart stores and Sam's Clubs in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico in mid 1995.
The NCMEC ensures that each Wal-Mart store receives updated information and pictures of children reported missing in their state on a monthly basis. These photos are posted in glass-encased display boards in the front entrances of the stores. Most stores have dedicated their boards to a local missing child.
Already, the display boards have increased awareness of proper child supervision as evidenced by extensive customer feedback about the program. They have also aided local authorities in investigations; in two cases, children were found by people who saw the youths on the display boards. The Department of Justice estimates that between 3,200 and 4,600 successful child abductions by strangers occur each year, as well as more than 110,000 unsuccessful attempts. This program is a subtle reminder for parents to pay special attention to their children.
Surveillance.
Where risk factors warranted additional measures, Wal-Mart stores have installed closed-circuit camera surveillance systems to monitor the parking lots and front entrance. Cameras on the corners of the store pan to capture most of the parking area. A twenty-inch monitor simultaneously displays four individual camera views of the parking lot and the store's front entrance. While the monitor can be seen by customers, the transmissions are not regularly watched by staff. The transmissions are, however, recorded twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Videotapes are kept for a week and then reused.Although the parking lots are large and it is difficult to capture all areas sharply, many videotapes have provided crucial evidence to local authorities. In late December, for example, a purse snatcher outside an Indianapolis store was caught on tape, which was then sent to police for enhancement. Police are still investigating the case.
Wal-Mart also uses in-store video surveillance. Movable cameras are used to prevent and detect internal theft. To guard against shoplifting, cameras are used in high-shrink areas such as the electronics department. Television monitors are conspicuously placed so passersby will see that a live camera is covering the area. Moreover, from these monitors hang signs saying that the store is under video surveillance. Similar signs appear on the front doors.
Training.
Informed associates are the vital link for making safety programs work. One of the company's most effective training measures is its Computer Based Learning (CBL) program. Installed in every store, this interactive computer training program uses audio, video, text, and graphics to teach loss prevention staff, patrol personnel, and other associates all they need to know to perform their jobs. Wal-Mart also uses training tapes specifically tailored for patrol officers.For quick reference, all emergency procedures are listed on flip charts that are placed in several locations throughout the store. The procedures are identified by a "code" that is paged over the intercom. For example, "Code White" alerts staff to a customer or associate injury and "Code Red" signals a fire in the store.
The key to security at Wal-Mart is not high-tech equipment but rather good relations with customers and staff. The company listens to associates and considers their suggestions important as evidenced by the number of their ideas that have been implemented. Similarly, associates are taught to listen to customer needs. This focus on customer service yields new programs that enhance safety and help make shoppers feel at home. The result is not only a secure working and shopping environment but also a secure foundation for a profitable operation.
Dave Gorman is the vice president of loss prevention for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Bentonville, Arkansas.