• Expensive, time consuming, and aggravating

• Drives business away to “safer” competitors

• Comprises 3% of US business crime cost, $14.7 billion

• Burglary amounts to $858 million in Florida business crime cost

• Fueled by the ever growing drug problem

• Motivated by the ability to get quick cash

• Overloaded criminal justice system

• Armed robber's only fear is of being caught

• Armed robberies average over $2,000 per incident

Short Stories:

• In the wake of a parking garage shooting this spring, Baltimore city Maryland is considering legislation requiring big-box retail stores to install digital video surveillance camera systems in their parking lots.
• Vandals cost the Dubuque Community School District $114,000 when they sliced the brake lines on 31 school buses.
• The intruder looked like he belonged. He walked into the business, nicely dressed, and smiled at the staff. They smiled back. He strolled away, popped into an office, and walked out with a laptop tucked under his arm. Nobody noticed.
• At a customer service center, a thief waited until dark, broke in, opened the computers, and left with the hard drives. Gone was the customer information database.

“Security is no longer a luxury to many businesses. With theft costing U.S. employers billions of dollars a year, and assaults and threats of violence against Americans at work numbering about 2 million cases a year, workplace security has emerged as a key concern of companies seeking to protect their employees, assets, and data.   --” Scripps Howard News 2/05 --