LPRC - CrimeScience – The Weekly Review – Episode 180 Ft. Brian Friedman (REI Co-op), Tony Sheppard (ThinkLP), Patrick Caulfield (ControlTek)

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

LIVE from the LPRC Supply Chain Protection Summits it's the CrimeScience Podcast! This week our hosts discuss some of the newest and latest trends, technology, and LPRC news live from Lebanon, TN! On this episode, our hosts discuss preparing for telecom issues, cyber incidents and preparations, the LPRC's Violent Crime Summit coming up, how the supply chain protection summit went, and a great big welcome to our new BOA members. Listen in to stay updated on hot topics in the industry and more!

Hi, everyone, and welcome to Crime Science. In this podcast, we explore the science of crime and the practical application of this science for loss prevention and asset protection practitioners as well as other professionals. Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Crime Science Podcast. This is the latest in our weekly update series. I'm joined by Diego Rodriguez, our producer, Tom Meehan. We believe Tony D'Onofrio. He is traveling widely, so we'll see if his portion gets in here on time. We also are going to have some good information recording live from, or recorded live from, the LPRC Annual Supply Chain Protection Working Groups Summit.

So that protection summit took place and was hosted by REI in the Nashville, Tennessee area. We'll hear more from them later. We're also preparing for Dr. Corey Lowe heading up the Violent Crime Working Groups Summit in Albuquerque, New Mexico, coming up in just a week and a half. We'll also be seeing so many of you all in the Dallas area for the annual RELA, Retail Industry Leaders Association, their Asset Protection Conference. And then from there, heading to New York City for an AT&T business retail group event, then heading back to Dallas later this summer for a Motorola retail vertical meeting and brainstorming session as well. So we're putting some miles on. And then we'll be in California with the National Retail Federation NRF's Annual Protect Conference.

So a lot of exciting things happening. Looking forward to visiting with so many of you all out there. In the meantime, a lot of heavy-duty planning and execution going on here for the ESOP initiative. That initiative today, we've had multiple calls. We actually also had a call today, a steering call with the LPRC's Innovate Advisory Panel Group going through how they want to prioritize giving us feedback on the many different types of solution sets we're trialing and getting ready to trial or contemplating trialing in the field initiatives in Port St. Lucie, in Gainesville, Florida, in Atlanta, and in Albuquerque, in all of those field initiatives. So, we'll provide more

feedback on that. Also, this week, a big announcement came out that Mike Lamb, recently retired from Kroger Company, is the Asset Protection Vice President, formerly Vice President in the same capacity, of course, at Walmart and before that with the Home Depot. And Mike and I go back as colleagues and friends really for decades. An amazing, amazing human, so gifted, so much expertise and experience he's bringing to bear. Now with us is our senior advisor for LPRC Innovate program. Right now, a coalition of 36 leading retailers and 16 solution partners that meet monthly to plan and execute world-class research and innovation in the labs, in the field, and to translate all that into very actionable ways to reduce that fraud and violence. So a lot going on here. What I'm going to do with no further ado, I'll turn this over to Tom Meehan. Let him talk with the group from the Tennessee area for the Supply Chain Protection Summit. So, Tom, if you would take it away.

Again, right in between you guys. You're getting right in between us and we're already recording. That's Pat. Pat's here. So we're live at the Supply Chain Summit. Where are we? I don't want to say it wrong. Lebanon. Lebanon. Lebanon. Lebanon, Tennessee. I would say Nashville normally, but I'll do that. We're at REI. So REI's at DC. So this is different, right? We've got a group of people here. There are some other people in the room that aren't allowed to talk, but it sounds, it sounds a lot smaller of a room, but I'm here. I'm with Diego, Tony. You guys can do intros afterwards. Brian, Pat, and we just figured we would talk a little bit about today.

Today was a good day. Why don't we go through and just do quick intros because some of the listeners might not know who everybody is. Hi there, everyone. I don't usually speak, but I'm here today. I'm Diego, the marketing manager. I help edit the podcast, the producer for the Crime Science Podcast, and also facilitator for the Supply Chain Protection Working Group and for the summit itself. Awesome. Yeah, I'm Tony Shepard. I'm with ThinkLP, which is a loss and safety intelligence platform, but a long-term, been at ThinkLP about three years, but been in the

loss prevention industry. I will age myself, just hit 30 years this year, 2024. I'm down, man. Yeah. You just started an LP yesterday. My name is Brian. Brian Friedman and I work for REI, the co-op. I and I support our stores, our DCs, and our experiences field asset protection teams. Great. I'm Pat Caulfield. I'm with Control Tech. I'm on the sales team. I am joined by

President Tom Meehan. And I'm glad to be a part of this podcast in front of the millions of listeners listening. Yeah, we're excited to be here. So Adam Stokes is in the background, but he's not allowed to talk, but he's waving to say hello to everybody. So most of the supply chain working group is here. And so I think, one, thank you to Brian and the REI team for hosting. I mean, it's awesome to actually be here

and the facility's beautiful. In... Lebanon. Just outside of Nashville. Ion just outside of nashville i just said outside of nashville it's uh the last three times i've been in tennessee there have been tornadoes so uh it doesn't quite there's not one we're on the lookout we're on the lookout right now so um i don't know if if weather travels me because i think actually the last two times i was in gainesville there was hurricanes so maybe that's a Tom thing.

I don't know. I'm going with it's not, but we'll talk about it. So, I mean, what did, you know, day one, we got to tour the facility. We talked about, you know, we shared information like we always do. And I thought it was a great networking. Tony, what do you think, man? I think it's great. This is my first one. I haven't been to a supply chain summit before. As I mentioned earlier, I don't think it's before you got here, Tom, but I actually worked in logistics loss prevention. That's where I started at CVS. 30 years ago? No, that was 20 years ago. 20 years ago, too.

But I actually also worked in logistics with LeachMirror, which is owned by Montgomery Ward. That was almost 30 years ago. So I do have some supply chain LP experience. So, you know, yeah, it's good first day. Um, you know, interested to learn, learn what I think the, for us, obviously from a vendor standpoint, this is all about just understanding what, what people are dealing with. Right. So we can ensure that our product continues to evolve, to, to, to meet the needs of our customers basically.

So we want to stay involved in the industry supply chain is a big part of that. So. Awesome. What do in the industry. Supply chain is a big part of that. So. Awesome. What do you, Brian, what do you say key takeaways you think are for the supply chain summit so far? Well, I think, you know, we've got a lot of first time folks here.

We've got a lot of folks that are new to the supply chain part of retail. And so if I'm challenging them or if I'm trying to think open-minded there's a couple things one is there's an incredible network of professionals here some experiences some new that provide either new dimensions of understanding or some battle-tested experience that you can kind of lean into so networking is probably one of the biggest ones the other is you know

we've got a huge opportunity to come together as a sub-industry within retail to consider what the future should look like. And so coming together and brainstorming how do we tackle some of the big problems that are addressing and the pain points that are addressing or impacting our retail supply chain and our carriers. Awesome. Yeah, I think the networking piece is great. And I always am uh excited when it's the first one this is i think this might be my first supply chain summit i may have been at one other one i feel like one time but um pre-code pre-code yeah but um we're both uh from a controls exam and from just my you know personally i i'm really excited to be here i know that the group's really active and some folks in the group's really active.

And some folks in the group asked me what I thought about the LPRC as they were newer. And I continue to say it's different. And I think we did an icebreaker, and it was, I think, one of my questions is, what's the best method to battle shrink? And I think it starts with sharing information and learning and understanding. And I think the LPRC is the perfect platform for that. Pat, what do you think? This is your first exposure to the LPRC, right?

Second, I believe. I think I've been to one other event, but just piggybacking off what Tony said, being a vendor, listening to the pain points that, you know, some of the people in this room are going through. After walking through the facility, seeing how streamlined the process REI has, you know, kind of gets those minds turning and questions turning to come together and try to find solutions for you know people in the industry that's exciting yeah I can't help but I think two weeks ago or three weeks ago in this point everything molds together at this point we always talk about being prepared and being ready and Brian has three phones with three different service carriers so I have two with two different service carriers and

I'm half joking about right now actually one of the things I would have talked about this week is a little bit of a hybrid of what I normally do. Last week, there was several federal agencies that talked about confirmed attacks on infrastructure. Specifically with water, water and sewage was what was coming out. But two weeks prior, it was utility and health care. So half joking, half serious. I love that there's three and not two because just – if you know Brian, Brian is always bigger, is better. He's always going to have more than everybody else.

The iPad is still back there. And the iPad is back there, yes. Yeah, yeah. We might have to get a – we might have to open the bag and count. I'm sure he has two laptops as well. So, yeah. So, yeah. get a device we might have to open the bag and count i'm sure he has two laptops as well so yeah so yeah but but in all seriousness i would say that if you're in or if you're in this profession today or if you're a heavy traveler you do really want to have a backup mode not just because there

are some of these heightened attacks but also just from a standpoint of as we evolve there are things that are going to occur. And this year is going to be an interesting year. So I'm always trying to figure out the right number. I know that there are 61 countries that are having elections this year that are major elections, but there's actually 100 countries that have some form of political election this year. And in the larger countries, they are rather polarizing. Some have already happened, you know, some have already occurred. Russia just had their election

two weeks ago. So there's a lot going on. And we have conflict, we have conflict in the Middle East, we have conflict in Ukraine. And so I think it's always good to have a plan. I obviously half joking with Brian, but because when I saw it, but the reality is I would encourage you to have two different carriers if you have a need. And today we're fortunate. You don't actually need two or three different phones. Most modern phones have the ability to have more than one carrier on them. And if you're in this field, a lot of us have a work and personal phone anyway, but I can tell you that I think we're going to get some it's going to be a very interesting time diego what what's going on at the lprc the man behind them

first of all the man by the curtain diego's why the podcast is happening and and it is a it is a no small feat to get three people together that travel as much as tony myself and read and be able to get the recordings in. So you do an awesome job with it. I'm super excited to be here with you. What's going on the LPRC? We'll probably wrap up with Diego today. No, I appreciate it, Tom. LPRC-wise, we've got a lot of things that are cooking and getting ready for kind of our big event impact. Starting kind of like the summit train with the Supply Chain Protection Summit, so appreciate you guys showing up for the LPRC and being able to kind of contribute to

those conversations that I think are critical for what we're trying to do within the industry, especially with pushing some of the supply chain protection issue as it's growing even more and more of a critical infrastructure issue, much larger than just kind of like the LP AP space but we've got our supply chain protection summit coming up we've got our violent crime summit up check us out at Rila we're gonna have a booth there as well check us out at NRF we've got our product protection summit registration opening soon we do that every year that's a virtual event where we have finalists from six

different categories being able to kind of show what's new in the technology world for kind of those products that are coming out in those different six categories, announcing everything at Impact. Impact is shaping up to be something that we're taking our creativity to a whole new level of interaction, of the research. We're taking kind of all a whole new level of interaction of the research we're taking kind of all this talk and putting it into action making sure that we've got that evidence putting that data that everything that we're our research scientists and our research team that's continuously been growing kind of at an exponential pace getting ready to be able to release all that critical information and data out to our members

because as we are growing in our kind of membership community, we're growing with our team, LPRC is going through kind of an unprecedented growth, and we're just ready to be able to take it to the next level. Well said. I'm excited for kind of day two tomorrow for kind of the the LPRC supply chain protection summit we're going to be covering kind of that cargo theft aspect access control workplace violence trucker identification and all those major critical supply chain issues that we've been talking about since for a long time and a long while. But being able to bring that to kind of first timers coming into the industry, first

timers coming into supply chain as an issue, being able to kind of share and benchmark off of these different critical topics, I think is going to be huge. Here, kind of representing the LPRC, it's not just myself. I'm accompanied with Dr. Christina Burden and Josh Bush. Josh, Christina, you can talk. Say hello. You're allowed to talk. So we got the LPRC representing pretty strong here. And it's always great seeing kind of our members showing up, especially our newly appointed board of advisors members. Wanted to give a shout out to Brian, Tony, and Adam joining in kind of on that, the new LPRC board of advisors. So want to give that extra kudos to them for taking the next step in kind of the LPRC engagement. Who knows what you're going to think?

Well, it's awesome to be together. A couple of things is, one, if you're wondering how to get involved in any of the summits, you can reach out to really any of us and we'll help get you directed. If you're not a member and you're listening to the podcast, I'm confused. So hopefully everybody that's listening is a member. If you're not, learn how to join the Lost Prejudice Research Council. But we're here to help. And if you're wondering how you get on to the podcast as a guest, you could reach out to Diego or myself, and probably that will be all it will take. Normally, it's a lot harder for people to come

on because of approvals and they have to jump through things to be able to get on. So I know sometimes that's a little bit challenging, but we're here to help and we can help in any way. And so although Adam cannot talk and he's there, I congratulate him for joining the board of advisors as well. He's in the background, he's nodding and he's there as well. And we're signing off. Over to you, Reid. And he's there as well. And we're signing off. Over to you, Reid. Thanks so much, Tom. Great stuff. We really appreciate the insights. We appreciate all the interaction and all the energy and ideas that you also help bring to the LPRC team members for helping along with the leadership from that working group. Such an excellent program hosted again by REI at their brand new distribution facility there in that Tennessee area. Thank you so much for that. I want to thank everybody

out there for tuning in. So everybody, please stay in touch and stay safe. out there for tuning in. So everybody, please stay in touch and stay safe. is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for legal, financial, or other advice. Views expressed by guests of the Crime Science Podcast are those of the authors and do not reflect the opinions or positions of the Loss Prevention Research Council.