Store security generally focuses on avoiding theft, robbery and shrinkage. One potentially overlooked but important way to keep your store, customers and employees safe is to keep your cash safe. One way to do that is to secure the cash with a smart safe that keeps you connected to your money, while keeping employees safe.
“Smart safes have the capability to maintain an accurate account of the cash on hand, complete the end-of-day accounting process, initiate an armored truck pick-up and provide added security around overall cash handling for employees,” said Sean Sportun, manager of security and loss prevention for Circle K Central Canada. “The entire process has made it easier for operations to control cash losses, but most importantly, it is making the overall store environment safer for employees and customers.”
Loss Prevention Mindset
A 2018 National Retail Foundation (NRF) Security Survey showed that the top five loss prevention systems include burglar alarms, CCTV monitoring, armored car deposit pickups, digital video recording and POS data mining. These and newer means like artificial intelligence that can identify risk areas are helpful. But building in cash security measures is also vital.
“If you’re loading cash, you don’t want to be loading it by yourself. You want to have someone else there standing by watching the surroundings,” said David Tente, executive director of the ATM Industry Association. “Some things people are starting to do include putting GPS trackers into ATMs … If they do steal the whole ATM, it doesn’t take too long to get into the safe. There are ink staining devices you can put on the cash cassette, so if someone tries to remove the cassette without disarming it, it will activate and stain one-third of each note.”
Many ATM owners and service providers also have apps, alarms or sensors that can be installed on the ATM. And while mobile phones and cardless technology may eventually wean people off of cash, those days are far in the future. So ensuring your cash policies are strong enough to protect your store, customers and employees is of the utmost urgency.
“It really comes down to the organization’s cash-handling policies and procedures and the training provided to the employees,” Sportun said. “Every cash-handling policy should have a set minimum amount of cash on hand, when to make a cash drop and restrictions around safe access.”
