Michael Craig Budden - Preventing shoplifting without being sued: practical advice for retail executives

Cover

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Preventing Shoplifting
Without Being Sued

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Practical Advice for
Retail Executives

Michael Craig Budden

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Budden, Michael Craig.
Preventing shoplifting without being sued : practical advice for
retail executives / Michael Craig Budden.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1567201199 (alk. paper)
1. Shoplifting. 2. ShopliftingPrevention. 3. Retail trade
Security measures. I. Title.
HV6652.B83 1999
658.473dc21 986020

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.

Copyright 1999 by Michael Craig Budden

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without
the express written consent of the publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 986020
ISBN: 1567201199

First published in 1999

Quorum Books, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.481984).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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This book is dedicated to Connie, Heather, and Staci,
who taught me the meaning of life,

and to the memory of
Cheri Budden Dunlap,
who shared hers so well.

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The taking of retail merchandise without payment is known as shoplifting. Costs to U.S. retailers from shoplifting total in the tens of billions of dollars annually. It is one of the costliest crimes directly impacting businesses. The crime of shoplifting presents a variety of challenges to retail professionals as they attempt to minimize its impact on their operations.

In attempting to deal with the problem of shoplifting, retailers find themselves fighting a major war on two fronts. First, shoplifters are stealing merchandise with a total worth that currently amounts to over $21 billion annually. Add to these billions of dollars in lost revenue and the millions that are spent trying to prevent such illegal actions, and one finds that the direct costs of shoplifting, in the tens of billions of dollars annually, is of major concern to retailers. The second front, and the one that concerns this book the most, is the potential liability attached to actions arising from the efforts of retailers dealing with the problem of shoplifting. Shoplifting suspects increasingly are suing individuals responsible for their apprehension and/or detention, and worse, sometimes are winning judgments, seemingly with alarming regularity.

In looking closely at the legal impact of antishoplifting efforts, one finds that retail stores, their employees, and others involved in the apprehension and detention of shoplifting suspects are sometimes caught between the proverbial rock (pursuing the property rights of retailers) and hard place (suits for false arrests, illegal apprehension, etc.). Store managers and others involved in the protection and management of retail inventory need to be aware of the law as it applies to their anti-shoplifting activities and proceed accordingly. As will be seen, the law does offer liability protection to merchants, their employees, and, sometimes, others involved in retailing who act according to the law.

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The material in this book and the legal case summaries presented should not be construed to be legal advice; they are not. The information contained in this book should serve as a basis for a discussion between merchants and competent legal counsels on how best to pursue their property rights in their daily business operations. The importance of securing competent legal counsel, given that shoplifting prevention strategies and merchant protection statutes involve questions of law, is paramount.

The steps in the plan presented are paired with summaries of legal cases concerning various questions related to shoplifting apprehensions, which serve to explain the importance of each step. For those desiring a more in-depth discussion, full case discussions are available in West Publishing Companys Reporter series, available in law libraries and many university and public libraries possessing legal collections and from West Publishing, St. Paul, Minnesota. The author encourages those desiring more information to seek such information in the Reporters , as case summaries included in this text are necessarily brief. The plan used as the basis for the strategic plan presented in Chapter 1 was first discussed in Merchant Protection Statutes: Management Safety Nets or Tightropes, by Budden and colleagues ( Journal of Managerial Issues 3, no. 1, Spring 1991, pages 6276).

I would like to thank my parents, Rowland and Wava Budden, for instilling in their children an appreciation for education. I would like to thank my teachers at Broadmoor Elementary School, Broadmoor Junior High School, and Broadmoor High School in Baton Rouge for sharing their knowledge and skills with so many for so long. I want to thank Eric Valentine, my publisher, for his support, and David Palmer and Jackie Remlinger, for exceptional editing. Finally, special thanks to Professor John W. Yeargain for helpful research assistance, for his mentoring of my writing in the area of shoplifting law, and for his encouragement.