Tech to the Rescue
Retailers have been making investments in technology for years, mainly as a means of improving the customer experience. However, as more shocking incidents, such as active shootings, take place at retail malls, new technology investments focus on solutions that ward off violence.
Active shootings, or individuals actively attempting to harm people in confined and populated areas, are becoming more commonplace worldwide, especially across “safe areas,” from movie theaters and concert venues to schools. But if the 2013 terrorist attack at Nairobi’s Westgate Mall and the January 2015 tragedy in France’s Hyper Cacher supermarket taught the industry anything, it’s that individuals conducting random acts of violence don’t discriminate, putting retail stores and malls increasingly in the danger zone.
Hosting large crowds on a daily basis, retail stores and malls are in the hot seat to protect their customers and employees — not an easy task when tragedy increases the stress levels among guests and associates, and the physical layout of retail spaces could impact their ability to hide or escape.
Gap Inc. knows this pressure all too well. Since starting its workforce protection journey in 2007, it has evolved its best practices from a simple “lock up and hide” protocol to training store-level teams on “run, hide, fight,” a practice that urges individuals to default to their highest level of training.
“Whether it is a robbery, an event across the mall, in the center of the street or four miles down the road, our priority is keeping customers and employees safe,” said Debbie Maples, VP of global loss prevention and corporate security at Gap.
“Best practices are gleaned from loss prevention development meetings that include everyone from entry level agents and store detectives to loss prevention personnel and leadership,” Maples added. “The key is to create protocols, and teach the processes needed to stay safe.”
As more unprecedented, shocking incidents take place, retailers are incorporating technology solutions into these processes — a move that allows retailers to proactively protect the security and safety of employees and customers. Here is a rundown on some recent innovations:
• Next-generation closed circuit television. CCTV is standard across retail, but it’s too passive to detect active shooters. To bolster the technology’s acuity, some are linking these cameras with more sophisticated software, including facial recognition solutions that can analyze and compare facial patterns, and identify a specific individual via digital images.
Others are integrating geo-fencing technology that uses GPS or radio frequency identification to define the virtual geographical boundaries needed to detect suspicious devices, such as bombs or drones carrying explosives. By integrating video analytics into the mix, retailers can more easily identify events, attributes or patterns of behavior within these monitored environments.
• Mobile access to blueprints. During and following a crisis, retailers must work with law enforcement to ensure they have access to every potential hiding place that could be concealing a criminal — or hostage. More retailers and mall operators now use smart devices to access digital blueprints of a property’s store designs and layouts, as well as software that supports remote access to store-level IP-based camera surveillance systems, Kavanaugh said.
• Acoustic gunshot detection platforms. The key to protection is “the ability to get the earliest warnings possible, a move that enables the staff to act quickly and accordingly,” said Anthony Mangeri, director of fire and emergency services outreach at the American Public University System.
Acoustic gunshot detection platforms are a good start. Using a combination of strategically dispersed acoustic, optical and other sophisticated sensors and microphones, software collects and measures ranges of impulsive, explosive sounds. Overall, the solution helps malls define the scope of illegal gunfire.
• Active-shooter alarm systems. Similar to fire, weather or other emergency systems, active-shooter alarms are making their way into retail. “Like sounds that define an active emergency, this alarm prompts guests and associates to seek shelter or evacuate,” said Malachy Kavanaugh, senior VP at International Council of Shopping Centers, New York City, adding that ICSC and other groups are lobbying for a standard federal alarm that can warn associates of active-shooter events.