Downturn boosts Northern Security's retail operations

08 Jan 09

Northern Security has stepped up its recruitment of security officers in line with retailers’ desperate attempts to quell Britain’s shoplifting epidemic.

By Brian Sims

With the ongoing downturn in the economy, High Street supermarkets have been hit by a shoplifting epidemic. Tesco, for example, caught more than 43,000 shoplifters in the first half of last year – representing an increase of 36% on the same period in 2007. Iceland and Marks & Spencer – which has just announced the closure of several Simply Food outlets and many job losses in its fashion division – have also revealed that criminal activity is on the rise in their stores.

This bad news for retailers has translated into a jobs boom at Northern Security in Carlisle, the provider of professionally-trained and licensed officers to patrol stores, shopping centres and malls. According to managing director Paul Hopper, many retailers regard security officers on the front line as the very best form of defence against shop thefts (which, overall, are said to be up by over one third on last year).

“To ordinary shoppers, the presence of a uniformed officers is simply a reassurance,” stated Hopper in conversation with SMT Online, “but to would-be shoplifters, it shows that the store is being vigilant and taking its security responsibilities seriously.”

Awareness of thieves’ tactics

New officers are currently being taken on and trained at Northern Security’s headquarters in Cumbria, and at the company’s Manchester and Middlesbrough regional offices. Training given to the company’s retail patrol teams includes awareness instruction relating to the wide range of techniques now being used by thieves who target shops. Operatives are told to be particularly wary of people wearing baggy clothes or walking unnaturally. Both could potentially mean that the person concerned has concealed goods about their body.

Officers are on the look-out too for attempts to swap price tags, and for shoplifters who work in groups and create a distraction – usually near the shop door – so that colleagues can slip out unnoticed. Other ploys include foil-lined compartments in bags which the shoplifter hopes will block the sensors on security tags which trigger an alarm at the exit. Thieves have even been caught trying to obtain refunds using fake receipts they’ve printed themselves, or by attaching false bar-codes to products.

Hopper suggested that very few retailers are asking for short-term guarding contracts, and suspects that many will be keeping their tighter security arrangements in place following the Christmas period. “Retailers tell us that it’s not just luxury goods which are being targeted by the type of thieves who traditionally steal to order around Christmas time,” said Hopper. “Food, for instance, is now on the list of non-professional shoplifters – which is why it’s now common to see security tagging on items such as joints of meat.”

Pressure on owners to stay alert

Hopper added that extra staff are also being recruited into the company’s divisions concerned with the design and installation of alarms and CCTV systems – suggesting that the economic downturn is putting more pressure on premises owners to stay on full alert.

As a company, Northern Security marked its tenth anniversary in 2008 and opened the aforementioned offices in Manchester to handle great demand from clients in the North West.