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(714) 978-1145
1-866-514-5929

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1515 S.Sunkist St.
Suite D
Anaheim, CA 92806

Loss Prevention

Currently Special Operations International provides undercover Loss Prevention Agents to our clients in California and Nevada. With over 40 full time agents on staff we have worked many jurisdictions in both states and are familiar with law enforcement practices.

Experts state that "Theft from stores, including employee and vendor theft, cost retailers many billions of dollars per year. Independent retail studies have estimated theft from retail stores costs the American public 33.21 billion dollars per year. Depending on the type of retail store, retail inventory shrinkage ranges from .5% - 6% of gross sales with the average falling around 1.75%". Whole retail store chains have gone out of business due to their inability to control retail theft losses. And worse yet, the cost of these losses are passed on to us...the consumer.

Areas of Expertise

  • Loss Prevention Agents
  • Integrity Testing
  • Secret Shoppers
  • Surveillance Video and Cameras
  • Undercover Operatons
  • Grocery
  • Retail
  • Warehouse

Experts also state that "shoplifting losses will vary by store type, but can account for about one-third of the total inventory shrinkage. It is estimated that shoplifting occurs 330 - 440 million times per year at a loss of $10 - $13 billion dollars. Nationwide, that equates to 1.0 - 1.2 million shoplift incidents everyday at a loss rate of $19,000 - $25,300 dollars stolen per minute when you factor in employee and vendor".

To combat these thieves Special Operations International has Loss Prevention Agents who are specifically trained to observe these thefts, recover merchandise and take the offender into custody and if necessary conduct a private person's arrest.

Agents must observe the elements of a shoplift
  • Approach
  • Selection
  • Concealment or Carry Away
  • Maintain 100% observation of the suspect
  • Pass all points of sale making no attempt to pay
  • Exit the store

Utilizing California and Nevada law our agents are trained to observe, apprehend and report all thefts in the stores they are working. To date Special Operations agents have worked with every major law enforcement agency in Southern California apprehending shoplifters.

Civil Demand
  • Our company is also utilizes civil demand laws under 490.5 PC to civilly compensate stores for their monetary loss by the shoplifter.
  • California Penal Code Section 490.5
    Retailers have a qualified privilege to detain a suspected shoplifter. Penal Code section 490.5(f) contains the statutory privilege that allows retailers to detain for a reasonable time a suspected shoplifter for the purposes of conducting an investigation, including the use of a reasonable amount of non-deadly force to affect the detention of the suspected shoplifter. The qualified statutory privilege also allows the retailer to make a limited and reasonable search of bags or packages in the possession of the suspected shoplifter. The retailer's conduct is privileged provided they have probable cause to believe the suspect was shoplifting.

Tracking of Reports and Civil Demand

soi logoSpecial Operations International is a full service company. We will conduct Loss PreventionOperations for you and get results. We then go the extra step by logging all reports into our data base. We can run reports to show you statistics, weekly, monthly, yearly. Reports can show statistics by store or district or be listed by product. Reports can be custom tailored to then needs of the client.

Civil Demand is a benefit for the client. Unlike uniformed security, Loss Prevention brings a return on investment to the client. Getting suspects to pay civil demand penalties can be a problem. Special Operations works with Civil Demand Collection Agencies making the client's job easier. We will submit reports to Civil Demand and the client needs only to watch the results.