Eyes in the sky keep close watch for shoplifters

Published Feb. 16, 2011
By Steve Hoffmann
81st Training Wing Public Affairs

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Behind an unmarked white door, somewhere in the exchange, in a tiny, dark office sits Bill McCoy, Army and Air Force Exchange Service safety and security associate at Keesler. He and a handful of other security associates sit vigilant behind a deck of video monitors. They are watching the store aisles waiting for the telltale signature movements of a shoplifter.

"We try to watch their body language, what type of items they're looking at and where they are looking," explained Mr. McCoy. "A shoplifter will often look around to see if anyone is watching. Then they'll take an item to a secluded area where they think they aren't being watched."

But they are being watched. The Keesler exchange has more than a hundred tiny cameras inside dark orbs on the ceiling of the store. These cameras are called pan-tilt-zoom cameras or PTZs that can zoom in close enough to see the hairs standing up on the back of a shoplifter's neck. They are the compound eye of the store and are controlled by a joy stick that Mr. McCoy wields in the palm of his hand to cover every angle in the store.

"I catch a lot of kids in this zone stripping video games out of their boxes," Mr. McCoy illustrated as he maneuvered his camera into place. The store is divided into zones that Mr. McCoy can peer into at will. Video games, computers accessories, electronics and cosmetics are the hot zones and offer the goods shoplifters covet the most. But they are often not where the lift takes place.

"The younger kids, the first-time shoplifters, will just try to conceal the item and head for the door." explained Mr. McCoy. "But the older kids and students will leave the area and head for the dressing room or some other secluded area where they can strip the item out of its box and then try to leave."

The younger dependent is the most common shoplifter, but according to Mr. McCoy, just when you think you know who will and will not shoplift, someone comes along who doesn't fit the typical profile.

"We've caught active-duty new students to permanent-party officers and shoplifters from age 8 to 71," said Mr. McCoy. "You might think that a certain person wouldn't be the type to shoplift but they'll surprise you."

To make a stop, the camera must be on the shoplifter during the entire event, from the time they conceal the item to the time they begin to leave the store.

"We work with the sales associates on the floor. If we see someone enter a dressing room with an item and leave without it, we'll have the associate check the dressing room." explained Mr. McCoy.

"But most of the time we know they have the item when they leave and their pockets and purses are a little puffier."

But according to Mr. McCoy, stopping someone for shoplifting who really hasn't shoplifted is just a bad as shoplifting itself.

"So when we stop someone, we know they have the item and we let them know we know, and they know they've been caught," he said. "You can see it in their eyes."

Mr. McCoy estimates that between $500 and $600 dollars worth of merchandise gets stolen from the Keesler exchange every month. It's nearly three times that during the holidays. So AAFES has invested in having highly trained individuals who know how to catch a shoplifter.

It takes precision technology, timing and training. Mr. McCoy and his fellow safety and security associates have all undergone extensive training and multiple levels of certification to be able to do what they do. And having customers know that they know how to catch them should they decide to shoplift is also part of the equation.

"It's a pretty huge deterrent," said Mr. McCoy. "We want them to know our capabilities. It'll make a potential shoplifter think twice."

During the grand opening of the exchange, customers were invited in to see the monitors and the cameras and every new hire is shown how this technology is used to catch shoplifters.When Mr. McCoy zooms in on the register and can tell if an item is being scanned, what's being scanned and for how much, it has a tendency to deter internal theft.

"It's called 'sweetheartin'," described Mr. McCoy. "When the cashier clerk pretends to scan an item for a friend and just bags it, or they give a generous discount with a price override, it's called 'sweetheartin'."

AAFES-wide, 33 percent of merchandise loss was due to shoplifting and 47 percent was internal theft. However, Mr. McCoy says those numbers are trending downwards due to AAFES' investment in implementation of new technology and security personnel.Nearly $1,000 was recently recovered following an investigation at Starbucks, where an employee was videotaped taking money from the register.

But even with all the new technology, cameras and electronic sensors, Mr. McCoy admits that he and his fellow security associates can't catch everyone all of the time.

"But when someone starts stealing and gets away with it once, chances are they'll come back and do it again," Mr. McCoy warned. "And that's when they get caught."