Vent:Store staff told me they would search me

hollydays

What do you think to the comment that stores will have made sure their security staff are fully trained? You do seem to be,however.

NoSatisfaction

If that were to be the case, every shop in the country would have to employ an army of security personnel to follow each and every customer around the store, just in case. No thats what CCTV is for! Also they can walk around the store and watch people!

Setting off the alarm gives the security at the door reasonable cause to suspect that you MAY have committed a crime. Asking you to stop and answer a couple of questions would be a reasonable action for security to take.

The alarm only indicates that someone has gone through with a tag that has not been disabled. It does not indicate theft!

Refusing to stop and answer questions would certainly create a higher degree of suspicion, possibly allowing the security to exercise reasonable measures to prevent the commission of the suspected crime.

Only in those with suspicious minds. Not answering questions is not illegal and certainly should not make one a suspect. Also, innocent until proven guilty!

This wouldn't allow them to perform a physical search, but certainly might allow them to detain you for questioning and searching by the relevant authority.

No - you are wrong. Only witnessing a crime allows them to stop you. Anything else is beyond their and everyone elses powers.

Otherwise, what is the point of the security alarms or the security guards? What is the point of the tills or even the doors to the shops? We could all go shoplifting, secure in the knowledge that, as long as we were surreptitious about it, nothing could be done.

They are tools that need to be used appropriately. They do not give the users of these tools any extra rights to stop and search!

NoSatisfaction

JaymesKenin wrote: »

Hi, I just registered an account to reply to this thread.

I am a Security Officer for a large supermarket chain (it's been mentioned in this thread several times), I want to clear up a few things which I know to be true. I've been doing the job for nearly two years and last year we prevented £25k of shrink.

1) Security tags are there to deter theft.

2) E.A.S. (electronic article surveillance) gates are activated 99.9% of the time because the numpty on the checkout didn't remove the tag for the paying customer.

3) I have no right of search. I cannot touch you, or go into your pockets, bags or anything that you may be carrying. If you activate the E.A.S. alarm gates on your way in or out of the store, I may approach you providing I am 100% certain you were the cause of the activation. Upon approaching you I may ask you if you've purchased any items recently such as clothing or electronic articles that may still have a security tag on them, if you do, I will ask you to remove the item from whatever bag it is in yourself. I am permitted, once you have handed the item to me, to inspect the item for any tags and remove them for you upon you showing me a receipt or proof of purchase.

4) I will not detain anybody on suspicion of theft. I will know if you've stolen anything. I do not rely on you activating the E.A.S. alarm gates.
If you do activate the E.A.S. alarm gates and refuse to stop for me I will let you go if I haven't seen you take anything.

5) If you have stolen anything, I am allowed to use minimum force to detain you as required. This ranges from holding your arm (not gripping) to full out pinning on the floor.

6) If you have been detained, I will ask you to produce items you have removed from the store without paying for. You will (probably, most people do), deny that you have done anything. I will not go though your bags or clothing, and I will not touch you for purposes of a search, even though you invite me to. I will then just phone the Police and let them do it (although I was going to phone them anyway... ).

7) The most common reasons to E.A.S. activations are:
- Checkouts forgot to remove tag from purchase in store.
- Soft tag was deactivated in another store, customer had been entered our store, done a shop over 30 minutes and the tag has reactivated.
- Checkouts forgot to remove tag from purchase in store.
- Hard drive is purchased, manufacturer soft tags the inside of the box... swiping a magnet over a hard drive... hmmmm... bad idea.
- Checkouts forgot to remove tag from purchase in store.
- Customer purchased make up, the soft tag is still on there 4 months later.
- Checkouts forgot to remove tag from purchase in store.
- Items have been removed from store without making payment for them.

Too right!

JaymesKenin_2

hollydays wrote: »

What do you think to the comment that stores will have made sure their security staff are fully trained.

No they will not. You're lucky if a Security team are even competent at their jobs. My team isn't SIA licensed (we're directly employed), nor do we have any real form of training in store or out of store.

We are, however, competent. We know what we're doing, how to do it and what not to do in any given situation which, in the current climate of the security industry as a whole, is pretty damn good.

NoSatisfaction

JaymesKenin wrote: »

You're lucky if a Security team are even competent at their jobs.

I have seen security guards dragging a teenager screaming and kicking by the hair. The police attended and arrested the guards and took the store CCTV as there was excessive force used. An off duty police officer had to intervene as he was horrified at their actions.

The lads crime was eating a doughnut for which the mother had paid for and left the teenager to go back to the car.

One magistrates court later the guard got 3 months.

Not saying all are like this, but some abuse their position.

hollydays

In reply then,to the ops original question.There doesnt seem to be anything legitimate, simply written, to explain peoples rights when being dealt with by incompetant security staff/sales staff.Ok,the law tells you who can do what,but the law doesnt say what can't be done,hence lots of confusion.The OP hasnt said what her response was when she entered the store yet,which would be good to know.

hollydays

NoSatisfaction wrote: »

I have seen security guards dragging a teenager screaming and kicking by the hair. The police attended and arrested the guards and took the store CCTV as there was excessive force used. An off duty police officer had to intervene as he was horrified at their actions.

The lads crime was eating a doughnut for which the mother had paid for and left the teenager to go back to the car.

One magistrates court later the guard got 3 months.

Not saying all are like this, but some abuse their position.

Not a case of abusing their position,but making the mistake of stopping the lad when they hadnt seen the whole alleged offence.This is why stopping on suspicion is not allowed.

Boomdocker

Following on from Hollyday's comment about not seeing the whole incident, when I worked in a supermarket it was always a case of you could not approach anyone unless you had seen the selection, concealment and non payment of an item. You had to see all three actions.

hollydays

Dr_Cuckoo3 wrote: »

The most common reason for the alarm sounding when leaving the store is the CCTV operator activating it from their little office , the CCTV operator will follow their suspect and activate the exit alarm when they leave under the pretence that a security tag has set if off - most people are ignorant of this :rotfl:



Oh jeez,ignorant is the right word,what are you talking about you numpty. sorry-misguided person.Someone told you that but youve got it slightly wrong.

hollydays

So you think theres a big switch in the CCTV office?Like the nucleur button?