Bratton to Headline NRF's Loss-Prevention Convention in L.A.
Security in tough economic times will be a theme of the upcoming Loss Prevention Conference and EXPO produced by trade group National Retailers Federation.
It is scheduled for June 15–17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. William J. Bratton, the Los Angeles Police Department chief, will deliver the keynote address on how he helped change the police department of California’s largest city.
Indeed, the crime rate in Los Angeles has fallen nearly 7 percent in the last year, according to the Los Angeles Police Department, and many observers credit Bratton for the decrease.
The rest of the event will offer retailers seminars on combating shoplifters and organized retail crime, when gangs of thieves steal merchandise to sell online or at flea markets. According to the NRF’s 2008 “Organized Retail Crime Survey,” 85 percent of retailers claimed to have been victims of organized retail crime in the past 12 months before the survey was conducted.
(NRF represents all retail channels of distribution—including specialty, discount, catalog, e-commerce and chain stores—but the bulk of its members are large-scale retailers with multiple outlets.)
Other seminars will address topics such as guarding against fraudulent returns, a common practice in which thieves attempt to return stolen merchandise to retailers.
Other seminars will address topics such as guarding against return fraud, when thieves try to return stolen merchandise to retailers. Another topic will be new angles on investigating organized retail crime such as monitoring social networking sites and how to help police prosecute crimes against retailers. Other speakers from national retail chains, including TJ Maxx and Gap, will discuss how to prevent shoplifting at a store.
Full registration fees, which include luncheon and admission to addresses as well as the expo, are $895 for NRF members and $1,095 for nonmembers. For more information, visit www.nrf.com/lp09. —Andrew Asch
