Retail Security: Your Employees Should Be Able to Focus on Customers
By Mike Moglia, Founder of Columbia Protection
Your employees were hired to run your store, serve customers, and help your business succeed.
They should not have to become the security team every time someone becomes threatening.
When theft and disruptive behavior become routine, the cost extends beyond merchandise. Managers get pulled away from operations. Employees become apprehensive about their shifts. Customers encounter problems that have nothing to do with why they visited.
At Columbia Protection, our job is to help protect the conditions your business needs to operate.
People first. Property second.
Protecting inventory matters. Protecting the employee standing beside that inventory matters more.
A security plan that pressures retail staff to improvise dangerous confrontations has its priorities wrong. Staff need clear procedures, a way to request assistance, and support from people prepared to handle the security role.
Our armed officers bring protective equipment and response capabilities. Training and experience help determine when to communicate, when to step back, when to call for assistance, and when protective action is appropriate.
The objective is to resolve the situation with the least escalation necessary while protecting the people involved.
Effective security follows the actual threat
It would be easy to build a sales pitch around the claim that retail crime always gets worse. The evidence deserves more honesty.
The National Retail Federation's 2026 survey found that participating retailers experienced a 12.4% decrease in shoplifting incidents in 2025 compared with 2024, while other forms of external theft and fraud increased. The survey covered 66 retail companies and primarily reflected large businesses; it was not a measurement of Spokane stores.
That tells us the threat changes. Your security plan needs to change with it.
A national statistic cannot tell us why the same person keeps threatening your staff, which parking area needs attention, or what happens during closing. We need to understand your location.
A camera alert needs a response plan
Cameras provide valuable information. Detection technology can bring attention to developing incidents. Neither automatically resolves the situation.
Who receives the alert? Who evaluates it? Who responds? What should employees do while assistance is coming?
We connect those pieces through coverage appropriate to the site: visible officers, randomized patrols, physical improvements, and detection paired with response where suitable.
Our experience helps us look beyond the immediate contact. If a problem repeats, we should examine the access, timing, procedures, and other conditions allowing it to continue.
Judge the service by what it changes
A guard can be present without providing the support your business needs. A report can describe a problem without moving you toward a solution.
Presence and documentation have value, but the client should also see a clear purpose behind them.
Are recurring disruptions declining? Do employees understand how to get help? Is management spending less time managing the same security problems? Are findings leading to useful changes?
Those are the questions I want clients asking.
At Columbia Protection, we work toward an environment where employees can serve customers, managers can run the business, and people feel comfortable visiting.
If security problems are interfering with daily operations, contact Columbia Protection. We'll discuss what your employees face and what support would make a difference.