A new tool for the Loss Prevention Community...

In my opinion, the Loss Prevention Community has seen minimial advancements in products to impact shrink over the last 10 years.  Yes, the DVR was an awesome replacement to VCRs and the integration of video to exception reporting has been a huge improvement to reviewing cashier transactions.  A few large retailers are using facial recognition to identify repeat offenders but, this program requires a large financial commitment and beyond most retailer's budget. 
As we all know, losses at the front end due to "underringing" and "passing" have always had a large impact to the total shortage number.  The cashier that "underrings" leaves a small trail of evidence for the Loss Prevention Investigator to detect thru the reviewing of exception reports.  I have always felt that many field Loss Prevention Managers do not have the skills or commitment to analyze these reports effectively.  This has caused many large retailers to centralize this operation.    The cashier that "passes" mechandise to a friend or family member is more difficult to detect, especially if they limit their quantities and are selective in the times they do it.
A new vendor is marketing a very simple product to impact this area of losses.  It is called ScanCam.  As anyone who has reviewed hours of video recordings can testify, it can be difficult to determine if an item was actually scanned or just "passed" by the cashier.  ScanCam is a simple installation to each register where a small LED light is pointed to the camera near the register.  As each item is scanned, ScanCam flashes a small light to the camera.  This allows the Investigator who is reviewing the video to quickly determine if an item was scanned or not. As with all LP tools, cashier behavior can be adjusted as well if the tool is reviewed with the cashiers thru awareness communication.
You can see their product at http://www.scancamusa.com/.

Enjoy your day...