Loitering and illegal drug dealings at shopping centers seem to commonly occur simultaneously. Those involved with the sell and use of illegal drugs often choose shopping centers and their parking lots because it’s easy to blend into the crowd of shoppers walking to and from their vehicles and into and out of each retail store.
Additionally, the hustle and bustle of this environment can make it difficult to determine and separate criminals from shoppers. Live video monitoring can be an effective solution to help identify and deter unwanted activity and behaviors at your retail location.
Two People in an Illegal Drug Transaction at a Shopping Center
An alert, keen-eyed Stealth Monitoring security operator saw a group of people in a shopping center parking lot walking around a car appearing to engage in some type of transaction with the people inside the vehicle. Our operator activated the on-site speaker warning and continued watching as the situation played out.
Police officers were hiding out nearby, watching as the illegal activity took place. So, when our operator activated the warning speaker, within minutes, a police gang unit flooded the scene. This resulted in the arrest of two involved individuals.
Man Arrested for Smoking Illegal Substance in Stairwell
One of our security operators saw a man sit down on the steps of a shopping center’s stairwell. He had a glass pipe in hand. As he was sitting, he reached into his right sock and pulled something out, prepped his pipe, lit it and smoked an unknown substance. He then stood up and exited the stairwell.
Our experienced operator contacted local police and continued to keep a watchful eye on the suspect.
Minutes later, a police cruiser arrived, and an officer exited the vehicle. The officer arrested the suspect.
Broad Daylight Could Not Hide What This Group was Doing
A group of suspicious-acting individuals was spotted by a trained Stealth Monitoring security operator outside the entrances of a retail shopping center. They appeared to smoke. Our operator noticed their suspicious behaviors: pacing back and forth in front of stores; entering and exiting retail establishment’s doors; and unusual interactions between some of them. Our security operator contacted police.
A police cruiser arrived on the property with lights flashing. One of the suspects entered a retail establishment within the center while the others walked away. The officer pulled his vehicle into a parking place. The officer then exited his vehicle, went inside the retail store where the individual suspect had ducked inside, placed the individual under arrest and led him to the police cruiser.
Someone in Group Injecting Drugs into His Arm
An experienced Stealth security operator watched as two individuals loitered in front of the entry into a salon in a shopping center at night. One of the individual’s injected an unknown substance into his right arm. Our trained operator activated the on-site speaker warning. The suspect ignored it, so our operator contacted police.
Switching to a different on-property camera, our operator watched the suspects as they walked to the backside of the shopping center. A police vehicle arrived with two officers who made an arrest.
A Daytime Drug Deal Ended with an Arrested
During daylight hours, a Stealth Monitoring security operator, trained to determine suspicious behavior on a screen, saw a group of individuals loitering in front of a shopping center. Individual members of the group approached various cars in the parking center’s parking lot, appearing to partake in drug-related activity.
Our operator took immediate action by activating the on-site audible warning and contacted police. One of the individuals ran from the property after hearing the warning. A police cruiser arrived in the center’s parking lot within minutes. Officers exited the vehicle and arrested an individual.
Help Deter Illegal Drug-Related Behaviors and Activities
Seemingly innocent behaviors and activities that occur on your property – such as individuals gathered in small groups – can quickly turn into unwanted incidents like loitering, vandalism, theft, violent crime and even drug deals. A grouping of people present with the same goal in mind allows individual group members to do different activities to achieve a wanted outcome.
For example, a group of people loitering could allow one of the group’s individuals to actively scope out the parking lot, seeking unlocked vehicles to break into. Other individuals within the same group could be conducting drug deals while others are stealing from retail stores within your shopping center. This could all easily go unnoticed, seemingly hidden among shoppers and clients visiting your tenants’ stores.
Live video monitoring can help deter illegal drug activities and other unwanted behaviors that could spawn from drug-related incidents. Our security operators, who are trained to watch for, identify and take immediate action, can monitor strategically installed, analytics-based cameras on your property, safely from a remote location. Should anything suspicious be noticed, our operators can use audio communication to inform undesirables they have been seen and authorities have been contacted.
Stealth watches in real time. This allows our operators to proactively keep officers situationally aware of the location of suspects so that when they arrive, criminals can be easily found. It also increases chances that officers will arrive before suspects have a chance to vacate the premises.
Contact us
to learn how our trained security professionals can watch multiple areas of your shopping center at the same time for up to 60% less than the cost of traditional security guards to help minimize your liability, reduce your security spend and help ensure customers/shoppers feel safe and secure shopping at your retail center.
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