Retailers Face Criticism over Use of Off-Duty Police Officers for Security.
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Oct. 28–ARLINGTON, Texas–A security guard at an Eddie Bauer warehouse sale sent a 16-year-old black youth home shirtless after suspecting him of stealing the shirt, prompting public outrage and allegations of racial profiling. The October 1995 incident involving an off-duty Prince George’s County, Md., police officer prodded Eddie Bauer and other retailers nationwide to reconsider hiring off-duty law enforcement officers for in-store security. “Asking police officers to think and act like a retailer probably isn’t appropriate,” said Dave Hiatt, Eddie Bauer’s vice president for loss prevention and internal controls. “Store management would never say to a customer, ‘Well, why don’t you take it off and come back with a receipt.’ You just wouldn’t do that.” National retail security experts say such incidents illustrate the problem businesses face when hiring off-duty police officers to combat $8.5 billion in shoplifting losses annually. Experts say the mentality of police may be incompatible with the concept: The customer is always right. “They are socialized to deal with street crime, drugs and violence,” said Richard Hollinger, a University of Florida sociologist who directs a national retail security survey. “Traditional loss prevention tries to be as unobtrusive as possible and bends over backward not to offend any racial or ethnic groups.” One retailer that hasn’t followed the trend toward civilian company security guards is Dillard’s. Although the Little Rock, Ark.-based retailer does not quibble with the notion that customers come first, the chain is at the center of some controversy because of its policy of hiring only armed off-duty law enforcement officers to provide security in its stores. At least five people have died after confrontations with Dillard’s security officers since 1994, including a man who was shot to death during a confrontation with a police officer in an Arlington store. Dillard’s has also faced dozens of lawsuits alleging that the retailer targets minorities as shoplifters. Two of those killed were black, two were Hispanic and one was Anglo. “Those incidents of injury or loss of life are extremely rare, isolated and regrettable,” Dillard’s spokesman Skip Rutherford said. “There are countless examples in stores across the country where police officers have protected innocent people and saved lives.” Rutherford declined to comment on the individual lawsuits but said, “Dillard’s does not… |