Tips for Preventing Crime

Protecting a professional office from crime is very similar to protecting a home: secure all entranceways carefully, pin the windows, and light the exterior well.  (See Tips for Protecting Your Home Against Crime.)  All that advice carries over to retail establishments, but stores and shops must also combat petty thieves and shoplifters. 

Do not consider security an afterthought. Rather, design your store to combat theft.  Shoplifters usually seek out some quiet, hidden area in which they can conceal merchandise.  Short, narrow displays will minimize such �blind spots,� as will keeping posters and promotional displays in the center of your aisles.  Wide aisles provide salespeople with good visibility and has also been shown to foil pickpockets, as it is more difficult for them to �bump� into your customers.

If you