LPRC - CrimeScience – The Weekly Review – Episode 201 Ft. Christy Bauswell

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

LPRC CrimeScience Episode 201 with Guest & LPRC Team Member Christy Bauswell This week our host discusses the latest in LPRC news, research, visitors, and events! In this episode, our host and guest discuss Christy's journey from Sensormatic to her current role. They also emphasize the LPRC's unique contributions to retail crime prevention, the value of the LPRC's research and working groups for solution providers, and her goals to deepen member engagement. They also discuss the benefits of the LPRC Innovate program, which fosters collaboration between solution providers and retailers. They discuss all these things and so much more! 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 the latest in our weekly update series from the LPRC and join our producer Diego Rodriguez and our special guest, Christie Boswell. And we're gonna talk a little bit about the LPRC, Christie's new role, background

and what she sees going forward. Thanks for having me, Reed. Perfect. So, and welcome. And let me, so let me just ask you, Christie, you know, what have been your thoughts? I start a little bit differently. What have been your thoughts about the LPRC over the years? When were you maybe first aware of the LPRC or became aware? And what were your perceptions then? And maybe contrast that with now if there is a contrast. out with now if there is a contrast? Yeah, absolutely. So I became aware of the LPRC back when I was with SensorMatic. So that was, we won't go too much over a couple decades. I know the LPRC has been around longer than that, but I'm not going to date myself any more than that. So when I was with SensorMatic, I was

aware of the partnerships and the contributions, but I wasn't myself directly involved in it. I heard of all the positive things that were coming from the LPRC and the research, but honestly it wasn't until several years later, probably about six, seven years later, where I got involved with the LPRC. And once I was involved, seeing all of the different models and the research to really target the crime that was going on out there, the safety issues, the theft, it was kind of eye opening

because no one else was doing that. So I stayed close to the LPRC, as you know, since then. When I transferred over from the integrator side, I worked there for about 19 years. First, I was in the retail space. Then I went over to Sensormatic for about 19 years. And then I went into another set of the solution provider side, more the manufacturer side.

And every time, because I've learned the value of the LPRC and what you guys are doing out there, you know, I made sure that we were part of that because I know how important it is for the community, for the retailers, just bringing all of those solutions together and really understanding what you can do differently to help solve a lot of this crime that's going on. Whether it's proactive or reactive, there's just a lot of different solutions out there and you guys did it in such a unique way, there was nothing else like it.

So I've definitely seen how much it's grown, how many changes, you know, you guys kind of change with the tide as the needs change. That's one of the remarkable things about the LPRC is, you know, when I was first in retail, you know, yeah, we had some theft, but we did not have the safety issues or the violence. And, you know, just seeing as those needs come up, how the LPRC pivots to really target

the things that are affecting those retailers. I think that's probably one of the biggest things along with the growth of the LPRC that I've seen. That's fantastic and you know the history of LPRC does go back quite a ways into the 90s and Sensormatic ended up resourcing funding the initial and for just I think for the first few years of the National Retail Security Survey that myself and Professor White and then with Professor Hollinger put online in the early 90s and so it was because of Sensormatics providing the initial funding for at least three years, maybe it's more, it's been a while,

that allowed us to go do things the right way. We had hundreds and hundreds of retailers that responded, even to the first instrument or questionnaire that we sent out. The NRSS became a mainstay with Dr. Hollinger talking about the results and possible implications for quite a few years at the National Retail Federation's annual loss prevention conference now called PROTECT.

And then it continues this day with the National Retail Federation, the NRF, carrying on that study with LPRC conducting most of the research for that as well as by the way up in Canada for the Retail Council of Canada's somewhat similar study that the NRS is molding. But Sensormatic also provided seed money for three years for the LPRC team to move out of the Sears store in Gainesville, had an office area and they gave us part of that, a storage area, that was large enough to accommodate three LPRC team members, including myself. But Centromatic provided that cost coverage for us to move into our first lab and we grew to doubled in size to six people which continued for several

years until really just about four years ago. So we'll always be grateful to that relationship but it's exciting to hear too that you learned and saw and saw value for solution partners. So let's talk about a solution partner for a minute. What kind of value can an SP, as we call them, those that provide the technologies, integrate the technologies, provide manpower, if you will, if it's security officers or if it's analytics type packages, what's the value for an SP to being involved,

engaged in LPRC from your perspective? for an SP to being involved, engaged in LPRC from your perspective? Well, from that, if I put on the solution provider lens, there's many. It just depends on what they're seeking. So not just, I know I've already mentioned the research, but there are a lot of things when the LPRC, because you're unbiased, you're just trying to get the information out there, right? The research and the information. So the research itself is helpful to the solution providers and not just the retailers. I've had several conversations with various SPs that they've looked at the research and said, hey, our product, we were gonna take it this route, right? But we realized that there's this other need

that we didn't even think about. So just the information to be able to figure out how to go to market sometimes, just if we're looking at it from not just the safety and resolution side, but the actual business side of it. That's one route. The other thing is to really be part of these meetings that the LPRC holds, the working groups are phenomenal.

When I was on a couple different of the vendor side that I was on, learning and listening to the retailers and some of the problems they're having, some of it was very eye-opening. You get to, sometimes as a solution provider, you start doing what you're doing every day, right? You have your lens, you're focused on what you're focused on, and sometimes you're not looking beyond that. So these working group calls really gave me a lot of information

about the needs that were out there for a lot of the retailers that I would never have thought of. So that's another portion of it. Also being able to interact with other solution providers, that's huge. You know, day to day, you're not going to have access to all those solution providers to really look at a holistic type of solution for a customer.

And a lot of our retailers, as we've heard, that's really what they're looking for. They want that holistic solution. They want not just one thing that's going to target maybe theft. The LPRC allows the solution providers to really get together in a very safe way to test things and see what works out there. So, you know, there's even more than that, but I think those as a solution provider myself, those were some of the things that I really took out as value. Those are really good points that, one, you kind of described being in the tent. You know, if you're in the LPRC, you're in the tent.

You've got these year-round engagements, working group calls on teams. Some of the groups, three of them, maybe now it's four, have an annual, separate annual summit to get together. And then of course, the impact. That's a great opportunity with 600 executives to share and learn. But I thought that was interesting too,

not just integrating and engaging year round, elbow to elbow with retailers, customers, prospects, learning. It sounded like you were describing, wait a minute, I'm in here. I'm hearing about new opportunities or new ways to use our technologies or things we could augment. But then, hey, what else do we need to make things

bigger and better, more impactful, more affordable to execute? And so it may be something you want to do internally, I guess, as an SP or, and or you could work with other SPs to build that comprehensive program out. Is that kind of what I was hearing? I was in summary. Yes, absolutely. You have it spot on. And with LPRC kind of brid I was hearing was in summary? Yes, absolutely. You have it spot on and with LPRC kind of bridging those relationships, it's very helpful. And the testing that you guys do in the labs and in the research, that helps it as well. Perfect. So, all right, well, I appreciate that. And I think, you know, to extend to, and I know you know about this, we do projects for testing, improvement, demonstrations for retailers in that case as well

for the solution partners, the SPs. And so let's go from there real quickly, and we'll come back. But what are you going to be doing with and for the LPRC and for the LPRC community? What's your primary role right now? And like any role, it'll evolve and enhance, adjust a little bit, but what's it going in for you, Kristi, right now? Yeah, absolutely. Well, I was really very excited when you guys, when we had our initial conversation,

because again, I've always respected the LPRC and loved the work that you guys do. And even as an SP myself previously, I, you know, I saw the value, like you said, Reid, and the projects, the research specific to what, you know, I was doing as well. So I'm going to take some of what I've learned and really talk with the current members, make sure that they are as engaged as possible. I think that will really help them to understand all of the tools and the opportunities that the LPRC can provide to them. You know, there's always that community benefit as well, right? When we're doing all of this work, I'm very excited about, you know, the community just generally benefits from that as well. So I'm excited to help with that. I'm also going to be working with

building out, you know, just just new members. I think as we grow the LPRC community, you know, it's just better for everyone. You know, there are so many unique solution providers out there that are addressing new things that are coming up that are problematic in the retail space and other spaces as well concerning safety and violence. So really looking at new members in those sort of areas and then as well with our retail partners because the more retail partners that we have on board, the stronger that we can be, the more we can understand about this and do the research and really target the things that are occurring in their stores every single day.

Whether it's the violence and the safety issues or the theft or, I mean, you name the issues. There are so many out there, but we learn more that way. And the more people we have, we're stronger. So that's what I'm gonna be looking to do. And like you said, I'm sure as we go, it will change a bit, but I'm really excited to get started down that path right now.

That's great. And really for years now, my team's always looked at me when I said it, but we describe this role as sort of tell them, get them, keep them. And so we tell the world, we tell our membership about what we're doing, how we're doing it, the opportunities for them,

and the opportunities for them to help us shape and execute what we do to help us shape and execute what we do to better enable them. Then the other part being get them is that is helping get high quality members on board into the community and working elbow to elbow year round, elbow to elbow year round with retailers and SPs alike and solve problems, create deep and wide relationships and do all the above faster and in a research informed way.

So, but then to keep them is we need to keep our all of our members in as engaged as much as possible and we've often described it's makes sense or not as the LPRC is a gym there's a whole lot of machines to get in shape and stay in shape but but you got to join the gym you've got to go to the gym and you've got to get on and use the machines and so the the more we can help retailers get in and engage across the working groups and the events and in research projects come to the lab, use our online solutions director. We have hundreds and hundreds of tech

and service solutions all in one place. It's keyword searchable. It's open to everybody in the world at all times and read our connect weekly e-newsletter. It's short, we like to say big pictures, small words, but in links, but it goes to what you need to know. Our team's putting out five research reports as a minimum per month. The solution directory continues to grow and the online knowledge center for members is now over 500 research briefs and growing by five a week, excuse me, five a month.

And so yeah, that's part of that, you know, tell them, get them and keep them, get them engaged. And that seems to make the wheel go round. So we appreciate it. So in your role, as a director, you're going to be playing such a prominent part of that, tell them, get them and keep them to continue to go and to grow as an organization. Talk a little bit about we have an LPRC innovate program. We've got 36 major retailers in that program of all types of retailers, from dollar stores to auto parts stores to department stores to super to supermarkets and drug stores and beyond. And then we've got so far 16, maybe it's 17 solution partners

that are part of that Innovate program. What can you tell us about it? Because you were instrumental in as a solution partner, member of the LPRC and getting your organization at that time engaged in the LPRC and getting your organization at that time engaged in the LPRC Innovate program? Absolutely. So yeah, the Innovate program is pretty impressive. There's a lot of, and I'm going to talk maybe a little more from the business side now, from an SP lens, again if you will, the Innovate program provides a lot of different avenues

to really get involved and to really advance those relationships and the networking and the connections within the LPRC community. There's a lot of different things. One of the things that I was really excited about within the innovate program as a solution provider was, you know, like I said, you learn a lot of things being on the working group calls

throughout the year, just listening in, attending impact, attending all the meetings. And sometimes, you know, things come to light, you go, hey, I might need to pivot with my product, or I need to look into this need a little more. And the fact that the Innovate program also allows for projects that you mentioned earlier, Reid, that's a really big part of the draw as well for a solution provider, because you can get very specific to say, hey, I really need to understand this better. What does this look like?

Whatever that might be. If you're looking to solve a certain issue that's happening out there in the community, particular to your product. And the LPRC being able to utilize the labs and these, all of your research scientists, which I had the opportunity to meet all of them and their wonderful, wonderful, brilliant people. Just their ideas alone helped me expand where I wanted to go down that avenue.

So I think that's also a really big part of the Innovate program through that solution provider lens. I appreciate that description and for those that don't know, the program is only four years old and with the resources that the solution partner members of the advisory panel, the Innovate advisory panel, put in every year. They do. They get custom project or two, depending on the tier. They're engaging 10 times a year, plus at an event exclusively with the 36 retailers at the event with now about 80 retail corporations. They get branding and so on.

But most importantly, they are fueling LPRC research and innovation, the R&I that we have on our board of advisors. Right now we've got Mike Jesse. Mike Jesse is our new vice chair of the LPRC board of advisors for research and innovation. So he's the R&I guy. Innovate reports up through Mike and his committee of BOA members.

All of our BOA or board advisor members are in one of four committees that they've set up, finance and they've got events, operations, and R&I research and innovation. And those all help us think about and improve operations and delivery of research and events translation is what we call it in science to our members to help improve what we're doing and how we get it to you all out there to use it in a practical and meaningful and hopefully even a cost-effective way,

but also how to help us operate more efficiently and effectively those that are on the BOA. So the point is this group, LPRC Innovate Group, are not just there to provide resources, even though we have hired eight incredible research team members, incremental eight team members, because of the funding that we get dollar for dollar goes into getting and maintain the best and brightest out there as far

as research scientists project coordinators and associates but that's allowed us to get eight new team members in there and I know the program's growing and going also the LPRC's integrate program coming up in this case March 24th in Gainesville on campus, that is driven by, shaped by members of the Innovate Advisory Panel, retailers and SPs alike, with our team, highly realistic simulations where we're integrating multiple, multiple detect, affect, and connect technologies across the five zones, from the community out all the way to that shelf, from the shelf all the way out to the

community, and with across retailers and across retailers and their law enforcement partners. So it's a lot, but this Innovate group helps us shape and drive that. And then they come in, that group, the day before the Impact Conference, which is 25th and 26th this year of March in Gainesville. So I know I'm adding a lot of narrative here, but I appreciate that teeing up,

in particular perspective there, Christie of Innovate program. So in a perfect world, do you have any goals you can share in public, online, about what you'd like to get done, how you'd like to see the LPRC community go and grow? Oh, yeah, no, absolutely. I have a lot of ideas, especially

spending the last week in Gainesville and speaking with everyone, right? I really think, like I mentioned this, I think that there are just so many unique and different solutions out there that can really benefit our retail partners. I think really looking for a lot of those to really educate them on what the LPRC does and can do.

Like you said, tell them, get them, keep them, right? And to be able to speak to all of the advantages of the LPRC, all that the LPRC brings to the community as a whole. I'm really excited about that, as well as the retail side. There are a lot of retail segments that we have not brought on board yet.

And I'm really very excited to get to talk to them, really educate them on what they can do and how to get engaged with the LPRC so we can grow that LPRC community, as well as looking at some of the other areas, maybe even some different like verticals that, you know, are having some issues. We all have issues right now, right, with violence and safety particularly.

And utilizing your, you know, the bow time model and across the five zones, what can be done proactively and even what can be done reactively. I don't think there's anyone that wouldn't be interested in that. So I think right now an initial goal getting started is to really look at all of the different segments that we could help and kind of fine tuning it from there. Those are great lofty goals and we're excited.

Christy, you've joined the LPRC team and embedded in the community to help us all get where we need to go in a rapidly changing evolving world as far as theft, fraud and violence are concerned in particular. So I want to thank you for joining Crime Science, the podcast today, telling us a little bit about it. How can everybody get a hold of you, Christy, that's looking to know more about the LPRC community and what role they might be able to play? Absolutely.

Thanks, Raiden. Thanks for having me on. It's been great chatting with you about this. You can reach out to me a number of ways. So LinkedIn, if we're not connected, please connect. And you know, you can always message me that way. My email is christy at lpresearch.org and that is c-h-r-i-s-t-y at lpresearch.org. Or just give me a call. I love talking to everybody so it's kind of a lost art these days. So my phone number is 317-258-6273. So I look forward to the phone calls, texts,

or messages and really look forward to growing the LPRC with you all. challenges and really look forward to growing the LPRC with you all. Fantastic. And again, thank you. And thank you to Diego, our producer, and to all of you out there. Please stay safe and 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.