Theft-Prevention Site for College Stores
Will Wood, technical service, asset protection director for a SB University, has been perfecting theft prevention in the college store since 1997. Now, he's set up a web site to share his knowledge with other college stores. Following an 14 year career in law enforcement in both Idaho and California, Wood was asked to run a theft-prevention program, called Asset Protection, for a campus bookstore. It all started with about eight cameras and a VCR to tape what they captured. The store now has more than 150 digital cameras and 10 student employees who monitor them for any suspicious activities.
Wood's program is so successful it's been featured on local and national television shows. He has always been willing to share his thoughts on theft prevention and decided to create the web site to help college store professionals keep track of their merchandise and swap experiences-for free.
"In fact, if other stores want to be on the site, we'll be glad to take their pictures and put their information on the site," Wood said. "This site is to make things easier for college stores. We don't really have a central place to exchange ideas."
Asset Protection's web site, www.santabarbaraap.com, features live video samples and describes how Wood formed the AP unit, gives tips about catching shoplifters, includes AP forms that can be downloaded, details highlights of particular cases, and provides a complete retail employee manual.
"I hope to use the site as an exchange of ideas relating to loss prevention and college stores," Wood said. "I have the steps we took starting and expanding our program. There's a blog forum to exchange loss-prevention ideas, since our programs are different than the normal retail store."
It's also a learning environment for the student employees as two have gone on to careers with the FBI, and about eight others have gone into police work.
Wood said a college store is so different from a regular retail environment that special factors have to be taken into consideration. More warnings are given to students caught shoplifting and the store does everything it can to keep law enforcement out of the equation.
Students who do get caught are given the opportunity to offer restitution, Wood said. Since simple shoplifting carries a $50 to $100 fine, while stealing more expensive items can garner a $500 fine, the most allowed by the state, most students are more than happy to pay the restitution to avoid prosecution. The store uses the money to offset its expenses for the theft-prevention program.
"A lot of these kids just come in here and make a stupid mistake," Wood said. "Most of them don't realize that future employers could see that on their record and not offer them a job. We look at it as a part of the educational process."
California law allows restitution whether or not a store prosecutes. Although it has to be documented, the record is not in the public domain.
"If somebody doesn't pay, then you would have to take them to civil court. They realize they're getting quite a break," Wood added.
"I think we have one of the best theft-prevention systems in the industry," said the Bookstore director.
It's only natural to want to share that system with others in the same industry.
"When we get other stores involved, I think it's going to be a great resource to exchange ideas, especially for someone starting a security program. The site has manuals and things like that so someone doesn't have to re-create everything," Wood said.
—Dan Pender
