Target Stores: Putting Technology to Work to Solve Crimes

Once a month, I receive a series of emails from the community service officer with the Minneapolis Police Department reporting on criminal activity in the five neighborhoods closest to my home. The reports are delivered as screen shots from a crime reporting system called GeoMaster:

Longfellow Neighborhood, Minneapolis Feb 1 - Mar 6 2006

Each mark on the map signifies a reported crime. Crimes marked in red (Homicide, Rape, Agg Assault, Auto Theft) are worse than blue crimes (robbery, burglary, larceny) and arson is green. This particular neighborhood consists of commercial zoning to the West and residential to the East with the exception of Lake St, the main E-W thoroughfare, which is also commercial. It would be nice if they'd switch to using Google Maps, but that's probably not going to happen any time soon.

Notice the tight grouping of blue dots left-center on the map. What makes this such a hot sport for crime? That is the location of a Target store. And that means a lot of people have been caught shoplifting over the past month. And the same thing happens month after month after month. They should post a sign on the door that says, "Don't shoplift here. You will be caught. We're really good at catching thieves."

Don't Mess with Target

While Target is better known as a discount retailer of household goods and Isaac Mizrahi fashions than security, they know a few things about surveillance and forensics as well. They use high tech surveillance to control losses from their stores. And, as Anderson Cooper reported on his blog, Target also puts their surveillance expertise to work fighting crimes unrelated to their retail business:

"Turns out Target has one of the most advanced crime labs in the country at its headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was initially set up to deal with things like theft, fraud, and personal injury cases in their stores. Now, Target also helps law enforcement agencies nationwide solve crimes, even murders. Target has worked with the Secret Service, the ATF, and the FBI, to name a few."

The Washington Post wrote about Target's police work last month:

"Besides running its forensics lab in Minneapolis, Target has helped coordinate national undercover investigations and worked with customs agencies on ways to make sure imported cargo is coming from reputable sources or hasn't been tampered with. It has contributed money for prosecutor positions to combat repeat criminals, provided local police with remote-controlled video surveillance systems, and linked police and business radio systems to beef up neighborhood foot patrols in parts of several major cities. It has given management training to FBI and police leaders, and linked city, county and state databases to keep track of repeat offenders."

That makes me wonder why we haven't hired Target to run our ports. But should they?

Does this tell us that corporations can do a better job than police at crime fighting? That police departments are far more underfunded and understaffed than this Fortune 100 company? Is corporate police work the most appropriate way to fight crime? There are some who cringe as such tight relationships between corporations and government. The Minneapolis weekly, CityPages, warned against Target's proposal to donate security cameras to Minneapolis for use in an area nowhere near their retail store in an article titled Big Brother's Corporate Sponsor.

What are your thoughts on this new trend in corporate crime fighting? Share them in the comments below.

Listen to this article posted by Ed Kohler on March 6, 2006 9:33 PM | Permalink
More posts about Mapping , Security , Target

                                             

Ed, I am so thankful to you on the information you provided. I'm completing my MBA and had a research paper on Target...this is the most difficult company to locate substantial information. You provided so much depth and breadth of information. I sincerely thank you because I don't know what I would have done without it.

Hi,

Thanks for the insightful information. I think that big boxes should be responsible for policing their stores, and reimbursing local police departments for time spent in courts.

Nancy, are big box stores responsible for a higher percentage of crimes than would otherwise occur in an area? It seems like the high crime rate near this Target store may be caused by Target's better ability to catch shoplifters.

I've resently have been a victim of fraud at two different target stores where their security failed to simply as for ID for purchases well over $1000. How can retailers expect to keep loses low if the put the credit card machine in a self serve possition? Why not ask for ID? I think some Target Store are falling between the cracks and are contributing to their losses!

I am amazed at this article on Target. I fell in Target Store in Largo, Maryland in 2004, but they claim their great surveillance did not pick up the fall. So, they destroyed the video of the day I fell. I am left stuck with $100,000 worth of medical bills due to surgery and a permanent injury from that fall. The manager heard the fall and a customer witness the fall. However, Target says they were not aware of a dangerous condition in the store (namely the lotion that was in the floor), that I wasn't aware of either. I slipped and fell on that lotion. I am sure that this will not be printed because when it comes to the consumer, the media would only be interested if the consumer was shoplifting, not that the consumer was injured. There is a Maryland law that if the retailer is not aware of a dangerous condition in their store, they are not liable. It would seem that this high tech surveillance that everyone is raving about would truly indicate awareness of when a dangerous condition occurred in your store.

This whole hype with Target being so "tuff" on crime and shoplifting, is just that...hype....It is a ploy designed by the corporate big wigs to diversify Target corporation in order to help them survive against Wal-Mart...because let's face it...no one can compete with Wal-Mart.
Target executives want to have the police, fbi, etc. consider them as equals in fighting crime...their ultimate goal is to have a privatized police investigation force...much like the concept of private prisons...Yet another example of the corporations trying to dominate our lives....DON'T LET THEM...
Steal everything you can from these monsters...Use disguises...use weapons...think 2, 3, 4, hell, even 10 steps ahead...Use diversionary tactics so their security is busy on the other side of the store while you steal...things like that.
I recently testified at a deposition for a theft case where a little old lady was being railroaded by the MIGHTY CORPORATION that is TARGET!!! I didn't end up testifying in the trial but I still lied under oath.
As you may have guessed, I work for the beast. And, I must say I have seen some pretty shady things. The lady I am talking about was featured on MSNBC with her son for an iPod scam. The thing is, we broke the law in order to get these people charged. Two members of our forensic team doctored up the time stamps on the surveillance videos in order to place the old lady in the store at the time our journal rolls said that a fraudulent purchase was made. I fell just terrible about this because the lady was found guilty, and we all knew she was innocent.
I can't afford to lose my job but this is tearing me up inside...does anyone have any suggestions on how I can correct this mistake without losing my job? Should I contact the lady's attorney? Should I just kill myself? What should I do??? This company is PURE EVIL...they are worried about less than $2000 in merchandise to the point of lying and deceiving the courts and ruining an innocent lady's life...and yet, we as tax payers sit back and allow our legislatures to steal BILLIONS upon BILLIONS of dollars from us, our kids, and our grandkids???? What kind of sense is that?
Suggestions please.

Scott, is there any reason why we should believe what you've written here?

I ask this because you use the name of a Target employee in Minneapolis in your post, but you commented from an IP address in New York.

I was recently in a Target store in CA and was falsely accused of shoplifting by 4 overly vigillant security gaurds/LP. I'm 39 weeks pregnant and was just shocked beyond belief. I was at the costomer service counter when I was aprehended, after entering their office I was screamed at to throw everything down that I'd stolen, I tried to explain that I hadn't stolen anything and was just making a return & exchange for items already paid for. They never allowed me to explain, yelling at me that they'd call the police so I be arrested. I told them to go ahead and call, then they started to check my reciepts a saw that I had paid for items but kept me in their office interrogating me for two hours saying that I couldn't prove that I'd brought items into the store with me, after I bit I just said "do whatever you need to do I can go home" being so pregnant I just wanted to get out of there asap I signed an agreement that I wouldn't return to that store for a year and was told that nothing else would happen. They also gave me all of my items back I was so shaken up by this experience & didn't want to overstress
while pregnant, but when I got home & got a chance to calm down and tell my family what had just happened everyone was furious. My dad when to Target the next day to confront them but was lied to and told that I'd confessed to stealing and that all the stolen items were confiscated from me. A huge lie. They also would not give me a copy of what I signed and wouldn't let me call anyone, including the police. I can't do much right now because my baby is due anyday, but per my lawyers advice I'm writing to the corporate regional AP/LP manager to see if they will rectify this situation. If they don't Im taking them to court!!!!!!! I know they have to do their jobs to aprehend the real thieves and prevent theft in general but to harrass a pregnant woman and keep me for two hours trying to coerce a false confession then dimming up one to cover their pethetic asses is just wrong. At the least I want an apology as well as any personal info they took from me deleted from their systems. But if corporate won't at least do that, my family will go after them with everyhing we've got.

Target cashiers routinely (try to) scan the embedded information on their customer's drivers licenses. They do not disclose in posted, published form what information is being collected and how it is maintained, secured, shared, protected/encrypted, or exactly why they want to collect this information and what they do with it.

I am almost sixty years old with no criminal history. I refuse to allow them to scan my DL information and they refuse to sell me beer or wine. It's their loss, not mine,

But it disturbs me as well as to why there's so little push back from the general public on this topic. Why are so many so trusting?

• Leaving Classmates.com
• The Blind Respond to the Author's Guild Kindle Position
• My Killer iPhone App: Instapaper
• Replacing a MacBook Pro Fan
• Restaurant Web Design Done Right