Robbery Rate

According to the 2006 FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 447,403 robberies were reported to the police at the rate of one per minute and accounted for losses estimated at nearly $539 million in the United States, according to the US Department of Justice. This is an increase of 7.2% over 2005. Robberies varied according to region with the Southern States having the highest percentage of 38.3%, the Western States 23.6%, the Northeastern States 18.5%, and the Midwestern States at 19.5%. Robbery rates did not vary drastically from month-to-month, however, August and October had the highest rate with February and April having the lowest rates.

Robbery is a Violent Crime

The weapon of choice for robbers is the firearm (42.2%) with knives or cutting instruments second (8.6%). Strong-arm tactics like punching, pushing, kicking, or threats are used mainly on the street (39.9%). Robbers like to use surprise and an extreme show of force to get victims to comply with their demands. Unfortunately, victims don’t always act appropriately when surprised and frightened and sometimes do things to startle the robber. Robbers are scared to and have been known to injure their victims when this happens.

Robber Arrest Rate

In 2006, 61% of all robbery arrestees were under twenty-five years of age. Of those, 90% were males. Violent confrontations have always been a young man’s crime because of the drug connection and need to fight or run away if necessary.
The nationwide robbery clearance rate for cities was a dismal 25.2%. Suburban counties recorded a 30% clearance rate while rural had a better record of 41%. Nationally 14% of robbery clearances were for offenders under eighteen years of age. One reason the arrest rate remains low is because most robbers and victims are strangers and witness identification is often inadequate.
More commercial stores and banks are installing new high resolution IP Camera Systems, the higher the resolution, the more details are in an image. Using traditional (analog) technology, a live image has no more than 0.4 megapixels and a recorded image only has 0.1 megapixels (CIF). On the contrary, an IP camera from Global Security Tactics with 3.1 megapixels records around 30 times more detail. As a result, larger image areas with up to 360° panorama are possible, thus reducing the number of cameras and therefore the costs. For example, four lanes of a gas station can be recorded using one IP camera from Global Security Tactics instead of four conventional cameras.

Employee Theft Profile

Retail store employees have a constant opportunity to steal cash or merchandise…all they need is the desire and sufficient motivation to do so. What keeps most employees honest is moral character, loyalty, respect for the law and their employer, and the desire to be viewed as trustworthy. Studies support this by proving that shrinkage is significantly less in stores with reduced employee turnover and fewer part-time workers.

Cost of Employee Theft

According to the University of Florida 2005 National Retail Security Survey, employee theft was estimated to be responsible for a price tag of about 17.6-billion dollars per year. This astounding figure makes employee dishonesty the greatest single threat to profitability at the store level.
The 2003 study found the average dollar loss per employee theft case to be $1,762.00 compared to $265.40 for the average shoplifting incident. Despite these facts, most retailers mistakenly focus their loss prevention budgets on shoplifting.

Workplace Homicide

Workplace homicide is the leading cause of death among female workers in the US and is the second leading cause of death for men. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 856 employees that were murdered on the job in 1997 and of those, 731 (85%) died during robberies. Among those killed during robberies, 46 percent worked in the retail trade such as convenience stores, gas stations, and fast-food restaurants. Another 17 percent worked in the service industry which includes taxi service, hotels, auto repair, and guard services. Of the remaining 15% of workplace homicides, 10% involved vindictive customers and co-workers, and 5% involved angry relatives and acquaintances.

High Risk Occupations

Convenience stores, gas stations, fast-food outlets, liquor stores, and taxi services have always had a greater exposure to violence because of the nature of those cash-based, extended-hour businesses. Aside from homicides, we can’t forget about the 18,000 employees who are non-fatally assaulted every week while on the job. Similar to homicides, 85% of those employees assaulted worked in those same high-risk occupation categories.