LPRC - CrimeScience – The Weekly Review – Episode 182

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

LPRC Violent Crime Summit had a great attendance and strong support! This week our hosts discuss some of the newest and latest trends, technology, and LPRC news! On this episode, our hosts discuss the state and growth of retail RFID, the LPRC's amazing showing for the Violent Crime Summit, the use of technology and it's role in operations, RFID and the store employee, and a discussion of the SaferPlaces initiatives. 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, the podcast from the LPRC. This is the latest in our weekly update series, and I'm joined by Tom Meehan and Tony D'Onofrio, and again, world travelers both. We'll touch on just a few things. One, the LPRC's Violent Crime Working Group Summit. It is this week in Albuquerque, New Mexico, facilitated and operated by our Director of Research at the LPRC, Dr. Corey Lowe. And he has 106 enrollees so far, which means probably 95 to 100 top flight executives from leading retail corporations. We've got law

enforcement officials from the federal level, the state level in New Mexico has special agents, as well as we've got sheriffs, deputies, law enforcement officers from APD or Albuquerque PD, and prosecutors. So all those working together with Top Flight Anti-Violence Solution Partners, SPs here at the LPRC, and boy, we have a bunch of them. We have 128 of the best in the world organizations working with us year-round, as well as now 97 retail corporations. The LPRC continues to grow and seems to be racing toward 100 retailers. So we're excited about the growth, the opportunities, but most importantly, the opportunity to work together year round on reducing, suppressing, better managing theft, fraud and violence. It's just pervasive. It's everywhere.

We've had another city hall reach out to us, very well known, one of the biggest in the world, and want to confer and work on things. We've had universities reach out. So a lot going on here. Last week, very, very active at the LPRC. I had the pleasure, the opportunity, the honor to work with the Southeastern Conference, the SEC Athletic Conference. All of their police agencies, all of their emergency operations groups came into Gainesville to the University of Florida, hosted by University of Florida Police Department and Emergency Operations, and got to talk about what we're doing at the University of Florida Safer Places Lab and at the LPRC, the Lost Pension Research Council, and demonstrate our approach, the bowtie model, trying to detect, affect, and connect to reduce theft and fraud and violence,

but by understanding, by detecting and affecting the best we can an individual or a group of individuals that are out to harm, to victimize. So, how do we detect their movements, their intentions, their capabilities, their location, how they attack, how they distribute or get rid of stolen goods, and so on. That's all that detect and affect portion. And then, of course, the connect place during emergent situations and during routine activities. How do we individually and as a group work together? So, great session. I got to interact with a lot of leading law enforcement experts. We had the pleasure of interacting with groups from all over the southeast, but also we had Northeastern University

came in and described a horrific active shooting situation that they had on their campus, how they did detect and affect, how they recovered from that, working with their partners at all the levels, what they knew and didn't know, what they would do differently and better and so on. So getting that opportunity to look behind the scenes and understand and deconstruct. And I'll mention again, we're working with three retailers to do the same thing, to extract an active shooter situation, three different events, three different retailers, what they knew, what they did before, during, and after the actual assault, the assailants shooting, in this case, of others and themselves, in many cases,

we'll do those deconstructs. So we'll get into that later. What we'll do next, I went up to New York City and got to work with AT&T Business, largest connectivity group in the world, and went through what they're doing to support retailers. The retailers, there were leading retailers there describing what they're doing now, where they're headed, how they're leveraging connectivity and all types of Internet of Things, what they call the wire. things, what they call the wire. In other words, using fiber and cellular or mobile mobility to connect their people to get better and better, to create better shopping experiences, employer works experiences, be more efficient, and of course, cost-effective and profitable. Again, my role was there to describe before, during, after the events, how connectivity, but how technologies, excuse me, and protocols, partnerships come together before, during, and after. So, a big week, we also rode around with the Gainesville Police Department with a corporal who's been working the streets of Gainesville for 16 years. with a corporal who's been working the streets of Gainesville for 16 years.

She was there as our guide, as well as Byron, who is a civilian of the Gainesville Police Department. He's embedded in the community and works closely, particularly with youth, to help get them and keep them on the right track so that they have fantastic life courses, track so that they have fantastic life courses, that they are out there productive, happy, contributing to the community rather than harming or taking away from the community. So we got to go to each nook and cranny that they knew about that we should know about, about where there were crime generators, risk factors, also protective factors. We saw a barbershop. We saw different churches. We saw different entities and where people were, where they were making a difference, that place was making a difference, and reducing and suppressing crime problems, helping youth and adults get on and stay on the right pathway rather than the opposite. We also spent an inordinate amount of time,

of course, going to those places that were crime generators that generated risk because individually or who they're co-located with those places and people create problems. We went to Grace Marketplace that's designed and set up and operated by the city to assist homelessness, homeless, and to help reduce homelessness. There are training programs, screening programs, counseling programs. There are go-to-work programs, things like that, where that group is trying to make a difference with individuals that are itinerant. Some are being victimized, some are victimizing others, or even both victims and offenders themselves. We got to go through that process with them, but it all adds depth and richness and understanding for our research team so that

we're not just working with a very powerful and very useful mapping platform. We've got both. A very powerful and very useful mapping platform. We've got both. We can zoom in and out with a map, with aerial imagery. And by the way, with LOWERS, we've planned the final three drone aerial mapping and imagery missions. We've got the mission areas. They're getting the clearance. We're going to go through in-depth planning this week before we launch those missions. But those videos, clips,

and that imagery will go into embedded in the ESRI map dashboard that we put together for the Gainesville initiatives, east side and west side. So a whole lot, a lot going on here at LPRC. We've got ITAB in the labs this week going through some of their front end, that transition between Zone 4 outside the parking area and Zone 3, the inside area, or the opposite, going from inside to out. We've been putting together for the east side in-depth now for body-worn cameras. We've got one, maybe two retailers that will be participating. We only want one or two right now in the Eastside initiative testing the body-worn cameras. We've got Axon and Axis involved, even though we also have Reveal Media and Motorola standing by for further testing. We're going to be looking at placement and all host of things. How do we use them? What what are the protocols we've got versions with without warning

signage and stickers we've got charging protocols to look at so that we're getting ready to launch that we've also doing the same thing on the warn and inform right in this case the two-way radios from motorola the tlks 100s 105s where we've got earpieces. We're working again on how they be used by an individual in a store, a large store format, a small store format. So that's being tested right now before we deploy into the actual store locations. We'll be running mock scenarios first, refining what we learn, and then going broader uh gainesville police department's real-time intelligence center that are arctic is also of course as we mentioned a former participant in the program so we'll be working through those protocols we've got 12 radios ready to go

and are being used for the in-lab testing to simulate these things before we head out to the field into the wild. We've got offenders in again this week, just like last week. So Dr. Justin Smith continues with our team, Tiffany and others, to do systematic interviews with active criminal offenders, evaluating different systems and approaches. We're working with one particular retail group and a couple of solution partners on some we think some pretty innovative ways to reduce stuff in this case uh more at the door um that transition again between zones three and four inside out and outside it um so a whole whole lot of things going on, more planned, more coming up. I think we've got 20 different options we're going to be testing in the field initiatives, particularly in the

Gainesville East side. So that planning and that execution is already underway for the West side as well. The Atlanta and Albuquerque areas, we're working with the retailers now doing the planning and solution partners just that it's a thousand different logistical actions that need to be taken for everything and a whole lot of clearance, permissions if you will, MOUs, things like that

so we'll continue to update a whole lot of exciting things we want to invite each and every one of you spread the word like us, let people know about the Crime Science Podcast, and keep us informed what you need and what you want. Let me, with no further ado, go over to Tony D'Onofrio and tell me, and Tony, if you could take it away. Thank you, Reed, for all those great updates. This week, I want to focus on my latest article on the state of Retail RFID. I titled it Retail RFID, Table Stakes or a Game Changer Technology.

According to the latest RIS News Store Experience Study, the top five technology priorities for retailers in 2024 are personalizing customer experiences, upgrading customer relationship management and loyalty systems, empowering store associates, inventory visibility, and refreshing the point-of-sale infrastructure. Note that the top priority for retail industry leaders, and these are retailers that are growing 15% or more in the previous year, include empowering store associates, optimizing customer journey, personalizing the customer experience, and inventory visibility. So even the retail winners or the industry leaders are focusing on store associates. Also interesting from the RIS News report is the top three emerging technology of 2024, which are voice and walkie-talkie in stores and parking lots, 5G tech at store level, and RFID. 5G tech at store level, and RFID.

Interesting, if you were at the NRF Big Show in New York earlier this year, it confirmed that we are all past the discussion of RFID just being an emerging technology. As one of the NRF industry panels that was present at NRF, Joe Colu, Macy's vice president of vascular protection and operational strategy, he called it a game changer. While another, Bill Hargrave, who founded the RFID lab at the University of Memphis, where he's now president, he called it table stakes. In other words, is it a game changer or is it table stakes? What I did in this article is update the latest data and let's talk about that. So the estimated global market size for RFID is estimated to be $23.8 billion by 2030. 61% of retailers plan to implement RFID in their stores by 2026.

RFID technology empowers retailers to create a serialized data archive of products in-store, online, at every step of the supply chain. RFID assigns unique identification codes to each item, streamlining inventory tracking and enhancing accuracy. This allows retailers to efficiently manage stock levels, reduce errors, and gain visibility into their supply chain. For multiple retailers, RFID has now become a crime-fighting tool through solutions such as Smart Access. The visualization of each individual product allows detailed visibility to what is leaving the store and comparing it forensically to what is paid for. Video images can be integrated into exceptional reporting

to highlight potential theft events and expedite investigation. In my future of retail keynote presentation, I strength the importance of digitally powered associates. The smartphone as the third mega trend that evolved retail forward has dramatically enhanced consumer shopping power. In fact, today 77% of associates, which is up from 67% in 2022, feel shoppers are better connected to information than they are. I summarize in this article the latest Zebra shopping study, which again provided clues on how to maximize and improve that associate timing engagement with consumers inside physical stores. A key highlight of that

was empowering those stores associated with technologies, and those technologies should be targeted at real-time inventory visibility. NRFID was cited by 82% as being very important, followed by electronic shelf labels also at 82%. In 2023, also interesting, according to the iShell Group, companies are using RFID in their retail operations. Average retail profit that was 57% higher than those which did not. For 2024, the same companies are expecting profitability

to be 88% higher than those not already using RFID. Retail winners, which again were those that saw 10% plus growth in 2023, are 32X more likely to be using RFID technology which again were those that saw 10% plus growth in 2023, are 32x more likely to be using RFID technology than the below average retailers and 20.5x more likely to be planning to deploy it in the next 12 months. Similarly, the 2023 profit winners are 19x more likely to be up to date on the deployment RFID technology than below average retailers and are deploying RFID technology at a 4.2x higher rate within 12 months than below average retailer. below average retailer. The same trend holds true for the 2024 expected sales

and profit winner. So what does all that mean? In today's fast moving retail environment where consumers can instantly buy from your competitor even while they're standing in your store, RFID is both table stakes and a game changer. As Bill Hargrave said at NRF, if you do not have RFID, if you do not have serialized data on your products, you cannot compete. It is stable stakes because consumers are increasingly demanding accurate inventory management, improved product availability,

and more efficient, engaging shopping experiences. RFID is a game-changer technology because it provides real-time visibility into inventory, slimlines operations, enhances customer experiences, and reduces shrink. Ultimately, RFID is a technology tool that generates substantial valuable information. The values in the utilization of the data to improve operations and craft exceptional consumer experiences. RFID technology is an enabler and not an automatic panacea that's going to solve all your problems.

It can very effectively address the technology priorities that I talked about earlier in terms of the technology priorities for 2024. Properly implemented is that it's a potential to revolutionize retail operation and optimize the profitability of the retail industry. So interesting research, brand new research just published in terms of profitability and the state of RFID that I thought I would share this week. And with that, let me turn it over to Tom. Oh, thank you, Tony. And thank you, Reid.

Last week was RILA and it was a great turnout. I know that the LPRC was present as well as I was there and many others. I think there was over 1,400 people that attended. Don't quote me on that number because I got mixed numbers, but a very large turnout, a great group of individuals, phenomenal content and partnership, and it was really good to see each and every one of you there. I wanted to just talk a little about some civil disturbance that's occurring throughout the United States at universities all over the United States, Columbia University, the

University of Minnesota, University of Michigan, Berkeley, UCLA, NYU, just to name a few, Cal Poly, and I'm not naming them all here, but there are protests around the Palestine and Israeli conflict that's occurring. And these protests are largely anti-Israel based. I want to be careful when I say anti-Israel based. What they're demanding for these protests are that these universities and other companies divest any interest in Israel. So very, very politically charged, very polarizing in general because of the unfortunate conflict. But some of these protests have unfortunately turned violent and turned into riots. There is a tremendous

amount of news out there, specifically in Columbia University, where I would say it was one of the less violent protests, more just a protest, 100 protesters arrested there's a tremendous amount of video out on social media and actually i'm taping this later in the week to this week because i was away and i just kind of learned that there's actually a protest occurring right now in atlanta in emory university so a lot of different protests i want to be careful when i say civil disturbance it doesn't always mean riot and violent. I would say that the Columbia protests were pretty organized. They even had a media kit put out. So, this was a thrown, bottles were being thrown, and the unfortunate side of when a peaceful protest transitions into a riot or a violent event. So we'll continue to moderate through the fusion net, but when you have mass protests of this scale, there's always risk

that they will bubble over outside of universities. So this is something to really keep an eye on, because right now you have multiple events occurring all at once that could in fact create a scenario where protests will occur. So I definitely think that that's something to be mindful of and be aware of. news. If you're paying attention, the criminal trial for Donald Trump is well under its way. And there have been very, very minor, small pockets of protests around that. But when we talk about civil disturbance and the bubble over effect, I'm always cautioning the listeners to be prepared for just about anything, especially in and around major metropolitan cities. If you're in New York City, the NYPD has a really good handle on it and is communicating very effectively. Last week, there was yet another TikTok ban in the news. This time, it did actually pass the House, so the bill is actually in effect.

And just to add some clarity on the TikTok ban, So the bill is actually in effect. And just to add some clarity on the TikTok ban, this isn't you're going to log on to your computer and your iPad or Android device tomorrow and TikTok is going to be gone. That's not actually what this means. It gives ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, one year to divest its Chinese interest and sell to a U.S. entity or switch completely over to a U.S. entity. So TikTok is not going away anytime soon and expect there to be some opposition on this. What does this mean for each and every one of us? Well, it's kind of hard to say what I can tell you already is that Instagram, the parent company,

Facebook meta, and YouTube, which is Google's parent have already really come up with very, very, very similar offerings. And those are out and about. So I think we'll continue to see the consistent charge to try to take the base off of TikTok to other ones. And this is a really loaded, charged subject because there are a lot of folks talking about First Amendment and the freedom of speech and how this is taking it away. There's also some back-end conversations about spying. a actual real legitimate concern here because of the fact that tiktok has ties to the chinese government and we we've covered here many many times before that there is this feeling or thought process of the chinese government and wanting to get information on u.s citizens we know that this

is happening i want to be very very frank with i. We know that this is happening. I want to be very, very frank with that. I don't believe that this is just the Chinese government that does this, but it's the position of the Chinese government and what it means for everybody here. So definitely a story to watch, although I think that this is not one that will be hot and heavy in the news all the time because it will come fade in and out as we still have a year to really think about

what will happen. And if you recall from several, several months ago, we talked about this and Microsoft attempted to buy it TikTok and was blocked by the FTC. Not sure with this new ruling that will occur or not. One of the interesting things about TikTok is their algorithm. Their algorithm is quite possibly the best algorithm at predicting what you want to see. And there's some real risk in these algorithms because it can in fact create a narrative. And this isn't just with TikTok on social media where it thinks it knows what you want to see, and it can really push the confirmation bias window, especially with some of the things that are occurring now. And last but certainly not least, some really interesting developments in AI.

Microsoft announced Fi3 Mini, which is a large language model that isn't so large. It can run on an iPhone and does not need to be hooked up to the Internet. One of the interesting things about this model is that it can be extremely fast yet very lightweight, and there's less privacy concerns. They also release PHY small and PHY large, and mini is the smallest,

the large would need to have some interconnectivity. But what does this really mean for us is that these models are getting smaller, and being able to run on device which allows for everybody to use them, they use the same open source model as llama, which is the meta engine, which allows developers to easily use it. And what in early tests, it shows that it's just as capable of chat GPT 3.5, so much, much lighter weight.

I believe it takes less than two gigabytes of storage on a device. And if you're asking how that works, basically, you would still have some connectivity to the cloud for certain things, and that's where that small comes in. all comes in. But you basically can do a bulk of the processing on the device and then it would use some web data to kind of validate it. Early indication here is that this is a really, really good development for each and every one of us, especially if we're using generative AI on a daily basis and we're concerned with privacy concerns because now we can control where the data goes, which is going to be a big win for all of us. Also, there are multiple devices out there in the AI space that are being released that are really, really interesting. And then finishing up with this meta glasses, they used to be Ray

Vant stories, did another upgrade to integrate AI, really exciting stuff. You can do live streaming from the glasses before, but now you can actually use the camera on the glasses to make and receive phone calls and actually have a first-person type view for the other person. So really, really exciting developments in the AI world. And I think they're going to help each and every one of us once we kind of get through this AI storm and understand what's left, I think it's going to be great productivity tools for each and every one of us. And with that, I will turn it back over to Reid. All right. Thanks so much, Tom. Thanks so much, Tony. As always, a lot of good information.

I want to thank Diego Rodriguez, our producer. I want to thank you all for tuning in and spreading the word. And please, at lpresearch.org, let us know what you think, what you want, what we can do better, how you might get involved, and so on. So we're here. Stay safe. Stay in touch. Thanks for listening to the Crime Science Podcast, presented by the Loss Prevention Research Council. If you enjoyed today's episode, you can find more crime science episodes and valuable information at lpresearch.org. The content provided in the Crime Science Podcast 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.