Stores deploy wire outside stores to deter ‘smash and grabs’

Retail Stores are desperate to stop thefts and have resorted to deploying coiled wire and other protective measures to deter would-be criminals.

At The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles — whose Nordstrom store was targeted around Thanksgiving — yellow, coiled wire akin to something you would see guarding a prison has been erected outside, according to Newsnation Now.

“If somebody’s running, trying to get through something quickly, they are going to have to navigate it and get tangled up,” Josh Nielsen, the vice president of Adamson Police Products, told the media outlet this week.

In mid-November, the National Retail Foundation industry group said “organized retail crime now costs retailers an average of $700,000 per $1 billion in sales, and three-fourths of retailers saw an increase in ORC in 2020, according to NRF’s 2020 Organized Retail Crime Survey.”

The report listed the top 10 cities most affected by organized retail crime as Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Baltimore, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Sacramento, in that order.

“The NRF report found that half of retailers are allocating additional technology resources,” to deter theft, the group added, “while another 50 percent are allocating capital to specific loss prevention equipment.”

In San Francisco, officials recently announced a new traffic patterns near high-end retailers in a bid to make it harder for thieves to park, commit crimes and race away, NBC News reports.

“We will do what we need to do to put an end to this madness,” San Francisco Police Chief William Scott was quoted as telling the media.

Source: www.lawofficer.com