TalkLP

“Trust me, it’s working” probably won’t survive your next budget meeting. But how do you prove the value of something that never happened? Amber Bradley brings LVT’s Steve Lindsey back to the TalkLP hot seat to tackle prevention’s toughest sales pitch: getting your CFO to fund it. From testing technology to defending success when incident numbers flatten, they challenge how LP makes its case—and who needs to hear it.

Before you walk into that next budget conversation, give this one a listen.

TalkLPnews and LVT recently asked retail LP/AP professionals that very question through our Game Over for Guesswork research survey, exploring the economics of prevention versus prosecution.

Now it’s time for the results! Join us for a December 10th (1:00pm ET) webinar as we reveal what the industry had to say and what it could mean for your next budget conversation. Join us HERE.

Learn more about LVT here.

You caught the offender. Built the case. But did your business actually come out ahead? Amber Bradley puts LVT’s Steve Lindsey in the TalkLP hot seat to challenge how LP measures a win—and what gets overlooked when the focus stays on the catch. Then she asks the uncomfortable question: is catching criminals better for your résumé than preventing crime?

Hit play for a conversation that might change which numbers you’re proud to report.

Don’t forget to weigh-in on the “Game Over for Guesswork” research survey Take the 2 minute survey and help us define how to quantify prevention!

Learn more about LVT here.

What does effective deterrence actually look like — and how do you prove it works?

TalkLPnews host, Amber Bradley, and Steve Lindsey,  Co-Founder & Chief Technologist, LVT open a new series on deterrence and prevention, starting with a cold definition of what makes deterrence effective. Using the LPRC’s framework — “See it, get it, fear it” — Steve breaks down the psychology behind why some deterrents work and others lose their edge fast.

They dig into the TikTok era, where cameras have lost their authority. A recent Harris Poll found 75% of people still improve their behavior on camera — but 25% simply don’t care anymore. Steve explains the symbiotic relationship between accountability and deterrence: without consequences, the deterrent collapses.

The conversation moves from prerecorded messages that get ignored like motion lights to AI-powered talk-downs that call out what someone is wearing and doing — in any language, any style, any persona. Surfer dude. Teenager. Old English. The scalability problem is real, and LVT’s approach uses AI to filter noise before escalating to humans.

They also tackle the hardest question: how do you measure something that didn’t happen? Steve walks through a practical ROI framework — baseline your crime rate, apply deterrence, watch for that 70% reduction. But he warns: a solution that works in month one can fail by month three as desensitization sets in. The key is future-proofing with a dynamic system that adapts as fast as the red actors testing it.

This episode launches the “Game Over for Guesswork” research survey, debuting at Apex, with a chance to win a retro gaming system. Take the 2 minute survey and help us define how to quantify prevention!

Learn more about LVT here.

Matt Johnson spent 15 years inside retail, from catching shoplifters at a Target in upstate New York to running operations and the technology team at CVS. Four months ago he crossed over as VP and GM of loss prevention at siffron, a company he calls the biggest one you’ve never heard of.

Here’s his read on the industry – and it hits different.  (haha! Just kidding, AI didn’t write this – his read is pretty much spot on: Budgets are thin, so retailers are leaning back into mechanical solutions that scale to every store while everyone else talks AI. The two also got into mentorship, where Amber finally told the story about the industry legend who agreed to mentor her and then went silent.

siffron is at APEX for the first time this year, so Matt walks back into a room full of retailers he used to be one of.

Curious about siffron? Check them out here.

Is that a person behind your DC at 3 a.m., or a raccoon? Cameras have trouble with that call at night. Sunil Mudholkar, VP of Product for Physical Security at Octave, joins me to talk about the camera as a sensor that feeds inventory and POS instead of sitting in a security silo, lidar on the loading dock, and why he thinks the video wall stops being the center of the room.

Octave spun out of Hexagon and listed on the Nasdaq in May, but the physical security group inside it has been pulling data off cameras for 15 years. Oh, and by the way, I did return the favor for all the knowledge out of this one…..by providing a SPOT ON example of how all this works (yes, now you have to listen).

For more information about Octave – check it out here.

Keeley Knowles earned the title “Britain’s most prolific shoplifter” for a reason. She sat down with TalkLPnews Editor-in-Chief Amber Bradley for a raw conversation about addiction, repeat theft, and the uncomfortable truth that some offenders know your store policies, schedules and blind spots better than you think. And then there’s the security guard who changed everything. Save the shoplifter, save your stores? You decide. Give it a listen.

Connect with Keeley:
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TalkLPnews Podcast Host Amber Bradley chats with Chad McManus, Chair of the Georgia Retailers Organized Crime Alliance (GROC), about how fast GROC has grown up over the years!  More importantly, what lessons it has learned as an organization after 16 years of connecting retailers and law enforcement.

They get into intel sharing, courtroom prep, booster blitzes and why these partnerships matter way before a case makes headlines.

Chad also talks about ways GROC can be a resource to other ORC associations out there – he’s sharing the wealth of knowledge GROC has gained for free!  Take a listen!

Learn more about GROC here.
Connect with Chad McManus.

Mitchell Jacobs has worked cargo theft at Walmart, security at Halliburton and United Airlines, and now runs safety and security for Lennox. He sat down with TalkLPnews Editor-in-Chief, Amber Bradley, to talk about the thing that actually keeps him up at night: a whole trailer can vanish off your dock and you won’t know for hours. His fix starts with something most leaders skip, which is standing still on the floor long enough to watch two associates try to check in 30 trucks an hour while you ask them to be perfect.

He also has a warning. Criminals are already using AI to mine broker boards and build fake bills of lading, and LP is too slow to catch up. Plus the leadership lesson he got from a YMCA boardroom in the 1980s, and why a closed case stopped feeling like a win.

While American retailers are still asking “who’s actually implementing AI….that works,” Andy Edwards at Iceland Foods, a UK retailer with a thousand stores, is already using it — successfully. And guess what? He has use cases galore. He sits down with Editor-in-Chief of TalkLPnews, Amber Bradley, to share some of the most valuable including aisle theft alerts that hit a colleague’s device in real time, mis-scan detection at the checkout, and facial recognition built from concealment data.

Andy walks me through what’s actually working, what surprised him about customer behavior, and why his team isn’t afraid of being replaced. If you’re tired of vendors saying “we do AI” with no proof, this one’s for you.

Catch Andy in person at Apex, where he’ll be speaking on this exact topic. For more information about the Asset Protection Executive Xchange (APEX) conference, visit here.

For more information about the SAI Group that Andy references in this podcast, check them out here.

Tim Bartlett, Dollar General’s VP of Asset Protection, said that out loud, on the record, and meant it on the TalkLPnews Podcast with host Amber Bradley.
Six roles. Three promotions. And he’d make the same calls again.

Tim Bartlett spent 22 years moving sideways as much as up, through store ops, HR, and eventually LP, and has some strong opinions about why chasing the next title is the wrong obsession. This conversation covers lateral moves, building influence when you don’t have authority, and what he actually tells people who feel stuck.

Def worth your time.