While the law allows retailers to utilize many different methods for preventing and reducing shoplifting, each store will have its own set of rules for its employees. You might be interested to find out: what is the Circle K shoplifting policy?
Based on information from employees, the shoplifting/theft policy in the Circle K employee handbook outlines that employees should not chase, pursue, or attempt to apprehend anyone committing a crime in their stores.
Instead, they have other ways to penalize criminals and stop theft from occurring.
Is Circle K’s Shoplifting Policy Public?
Most of the time, we don’t know exactly what is said within a company’s policies because these documents are typically only accessible to internal employees. However, certain incidents have made details from the Circle K shoplifting policy known to the public.
There has been more than one occasion on which an ex-employee of Circle K has sued the company for wrongful termination because of the way their policy is enforced.
In these cases, an employee was let go because Circle K said that they violated the policy by attempting to pursue apprehend a potential criminal in some way.
In order to fight their case, information from the Circle K employee handbook is discussed in court and featured within the public record of the legal proceedings – and in many news stories as well.
That means that we do know a little bit more about how Circle K instructs its staff than we do about many other major retailers.
What Does Circle K’s Shoplifting Policy Say?
So, what is it about Circle K’s shoplifting policy that has caused these lawsuits? What does it say and why might it have been written this way?
Circle K’s shoplifter/robber policy has been described as a “Don’t Chase or Confront Policy”. In the employee handbook, it states that employees are prohibited from “chasing, pursuing, or attempting to apprehend, persons committing crimes on store property.” and that “[t]he use of force to prevent a crime is outside the scope of employment and may subject an associate to substantial personal liability.”
What that basically means is that employees are instructed not to follow or try to detain anyone who is shoplifting in a Circle K. The wording also makes the employee themselves personally responsible for any consequences of them trying to physically restrain a shoplifter.
In fact, from the resulting lawsuits, we know that multiple employees of Circle K have actually been fired for chasing or confronting a shoplifter.
Therefore, the standard practice in Circle K is that shoplifters should be allowed to leave the store with the stolen goods rather than be held by staff until police arrive.
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Why Does Circle K Have This Shoplifting Policy?
It might seem like a strange policy to have at first glance. Why wouldn’t Circle K want their employees to stop shoplifters from getting away?
Well, it all comes down to safety, liability, and risk management.
In the employee handbook itself, Circle K describes the purpose of their shoplifter policy as being “for your protection and for the safety of everyone.”
They do not want their staff to become injured trying to prevent a theft – which is precisely what has happened to some of the employees who were let go for a “violation of company policy”.
Of course, the other major reason for this (which is closely tied to their claims of “employee safety”) is the possibility of a lawsuit. Circle K does not want to be held responsible for injuries to their employees, injuries to alleged shoplifters, or other potential issues like wrongful detainment.
Because their policy states that their staff should never intervene when a crime is occurring, they can divulge themselves of any responsibility for what happens if their staff does try to stop a criminal in the act.
Are Staff Allowed To Detain Shoplifters?
On the other hand, there is a whole different side to the question of how staff at any store might handle shoplifters.
While company policy might determine what employees are supposed to do in the eyes of the business, the law will ultimately determine what they are legally allowed to do.
In almost every state in the US, private employees of any kind are allowed to apprehend and detain an individual whom they believe to be committing a crime. This doesn’t just apply to security staff or loss prevention either.
This kind of detainment would technically be considered a “citizen’s arrest” and any private citizen of the US has the legal right to carry one out. The specific actions that someone can use to detain a potential criminal in this way change by jurisdiction, as do the circumstances in which apprehending someone this way is legal.
In general, though, it is usually legal to hold someone who has committed a crime, or was about to commit a crime, until the police arrive.
You can usually use “reasonable force” to do so, and you can detain someone for a “reasonable” amount of time. What is considered “reasonable” is highly dependent on the situation.
Therefore, a Circle K employee would almost always have the legal right to try and apprehend a shoplifter if they wanted to. However, the company (as we have seen before) might choose to fire them anyway, since it is against company policy to do so.
Why Do Companies Have “No-Chase” Policies?
This policy at Circle K is far from unusual, and may actually be the norm for many major retailers out there. It is all about managing the risks to the company as a whole.
While they might lose some money in the value of the stolen goods, which they certainly take very seriously, they are preventing the loss of more money and resources through costly lawsuits and civil liabilities.
At the end of the day, it makes more financial sense for big companies to instruct their staff not to try and stop shoplifters who are in the act and, instead, use other means to prevent shoplifting.
How Does Circle K Prevent Shoplifting?
So, if their staff isn’t chasing after shoplifters, then how does Circle K stop shoplifters?
Firstly, just because a shoplifter is allowed to leave the store does not mean that they are getting away with the crime. Most of the time, Circle K will rely on law enforcement to do the pursuing and apprehend them.
Staff are instructed to call the police immediately and gather as much evidence as they can. Circle K stores have a lot of surveillance technology to track their customers, including CCTV, anonymous video analytics technologies, and other types of video cameras and sensors.
On top of this, they often employ loss prevention staff to monitor customers, report suspicious behavior, analyze theft patterns, and gather other kinds of evidence against criminals.
When shoplifting occurs, all of the evidence and information that Circle K has will be given to the police and they will use the legal system to prosecute the individual and recover their losses.
Additionally, they have a lot of systems, policies, training, and technology that is designed to stop shoplifting from even occurring in the first place and help them to keep their stores and employees safe.
Summary
So, what is Circle K’s shoplifting policy? The staff at Circle K are instructed not to chase, pursue, or apprehend a shoplifter.
This element of their employee handbook has been described as a Don’t Chase or Confront Policy, and Circle K says that it is designed for the safety of their employees and others.
They don’t want to risk lawsuits or injuries, so they instruct their staff not to intervene when a crime is occurring on Circle K property.
Instead, they will typically contact law enforcement and leave the task of pursuing and apprehending the suspect to the police.