Retail Safety Is Now Your Problem with Dean Correira

The safety and security conversation has reached the board level. And if you're a retail leader in the field, it is coming down to you whether your company has prepared you for it or not.

Steve sits down with Dean Correira, a retail safety and security expert with 20 years of leadership experience at Gap, Starbucks, and Walmart, to talk about what senior retail leaders are getting wrong, what data they already have and aren't using, and what it looks like to lead safety instead of just react to it.

This one doesn't stay in theory. Dean reports himself for a critical security error and walks through exactly what that decision cost him and what it gave him.

If you've ever asked yourself what you would say if something happened on your watch, this episode is where you start.

Learn more at worthyretail.com/now

Chapters: 

00:00 Introduction 

01:06 Dean's background and why he stayed after tragedy 

02:24 The incidents that shaped his mission 

07:40 Why safety is now a board-level conversation 

09:00 The safety dashboard leaders already have but aren't using 

11:10 Reading what's happening outside your four walls 

14:21 Getting close to your customers and your floor 

17:32 The riot story: acting on fear as a data point 

20:43 There are no cash registers at the home office 

23:54 What it means to make your team feel seen 

27:05 Leadership hardening: what it is and what it costs 

30:15 The double door story: reporting yourself

33:26 Accountability culture and what it actually builds 

36:37 Why serious incidents don't get the same urgency as a sales miss 

39:49 The compliance gap: when safety feels like surveillance 

42:59 AI, cameras, and what's coming in 2026 

49:21 What Dean wants every retail leader to walk away with

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:50

Welcome to Retail Leadership with Steve Worthy, where we go well beyond the corporate playbook to unpack major opportunities, hidden challenges, and critical issues that senior retail leaders face every day. So let's get started right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Well, Dean, man, welcome to Retail Leadership with Steve Worthy podcast. Man, I am I am over the moon. Um super stoked. All of the superlatives, all of those things when it comes to having this conversation with you today. I'm telling you, whoever's listening to this, um, you know, either get your pen and pad out. I'm old school, because you're you're gonna need to take some notes, um, but you're gonna probably want to either rewind a couple of these things because uh I know Dean is gonna be dropping some serious um gems of wisdom around his experience. And um for you as a leader, uh just you know, hold on tight um and and and get ready for um for this conversation. So, Dean, man, for those who don't know you, um please, please introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Great. Thanks for having me, Steve. I I agree. I feel like it's Christmas Day. This is uh this is exciting. I've been waiting for this day. So Dean Correa, I'm in the Toronto area. Uh 20 years of operations in corporate security with Gap, Starbucks, and Walmart. So four years in operations with the GAP 13 with Starbucks, where I had the privilege of leading the security teams in Canada and Latin America, and then three years with Walmart as their director of corporate security, and now I act as a outsourced security consultant to help brands keep their people and assets safe. And I've been doing that for over 15 years, and I absolutely love it. Feel like I really truly, truly can make a difference.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Outstanding. Well, well, you kind of answered the my next question, but maybe you didn't a little bit. So I know um you and I, we have we have spoken um and shared horror stories of of our of our experience um within within retail. I mean, they they don't outweigh the good. They don't outweigh the the great relationships and the great stories that we've had. But you've you've you've experienced a couple of several um you know horrible um incidents, you know, without um you know getting into too much detail. Could you just share some of those situations that you've experienced, um how it impacted you, and then I guess the and then I guess the other question is like why did you stay? You know, after you know you you you go through certain things. Some people may, you know, exit stage left and try to do something different, but you experienced certain things and and and you stayed. So maybe if you can um shed some perspectives and some thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Sure. So two uh major incidents. One was a triple homicide in a bossed robbery. Uh the company that I was working for at the time um lost three of its employees in that one boss robbery in one uh separate incident. All three were murdered. And then uh about a year and a half later, uh, one of our store managers was stabbed to death on a busy Saturday morning in front of a crowd of people. Uh domestic violence situation came in to the store. So uh I believe I was put on this earth to serve. And once those two incidents impacted me, I wanted to make it my mission to uh help loved ones because we all have loved ones. I'm a husband and a father. We all have loved ones that we cherish, help keep them as safe as humanly possible so that they can go to work and come home from work. Bottom line. I I I never want to go to another funeral and shake another parent's hand and say, I'm sorry for your loss. So um that's why I stayed and and I felt uh I could uh make a difference in in in some small ways to uh reducing the likelihood of those two incidents happening again.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah, yeah. Well, hold on. Um let me see. I think we you're um it seems like you were you were you were going in and out like with um with your volume. So I I'm gonna uh I'm gonna check the the level of your um make sure the internet. Yeah, because you're you're you're coming in really, really fuzzy too.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

I don't know. I turn the volume up here. Is that better?

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Yeah, well no, your your your image is coming in fuzzy.

SPEAKER_03 5:21

Oh, image. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yeah, the image is coming in fuzzy. I don't know, man. I'm I think it I think it it'll it'll figure itself out on your end, meaning that you know, just because it's it it looks fuzzy now, um you know, when what once it's up there you go, like once it's uploaded, I think I think um well, there you go. I think it'll be I think it'll be fine.

SPEAKER_04 5:45

Let me make sure here.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Yeah, no, no, so we'll f we'll we'll just we'll just we'll just continue on and then my editor will let me know. Steve Steve, you guys gotta record that again. But um, you know, hope that I don't I don't think that's gonna be I don't think that's gonna be the case. Um he can edit all he can edit all this stuff out. Uh so I'm just gonna I'll just jump right back in. Sure. Uh the so do you feel like do you feel like there's um like unfinished business like that you that you may have, right? You know, since you know, from you know being you know in in retail, doing all you all you could there. Um I I I liken it to I you know this is sort of self-serving, but you know, when I was in retail, there were certain things that I could say, and there were certain things that I that I couldn't say. And now I have this platform, I can say whatever the hell I want um within reason. Um you know, but I feel I feel like there's uh uh a higher sense of freedom that I have within the retail space that I didn't have previously. Um and I don't want to, you know, deflect and put my my own emotionals my own emotional state on you. But um do you feel like there's some unfinished business that you probably couldn't get across while you were actually in in the retail space that you're able to talk about and deal with now?

SPEAKER_02 7:19

I I wouldn't call it unfinished business because you know, especially from a safety and security point of view, you can just, you know, there's a new headline every day. It seems it's it's ongoing business. I think it's an ongoing obligation we all have as leaders to make sure that this isn't the uh most appealing topic, uh, but that it's embedded uh all throughout and not just after a big incident happens in your store or your region or your city, um, that it's something that we talk about openly and uh and and really ensure that our people feel as safe as they humanly can. And I'll be the one big aha moment that I've had over the last couple of years, and and if you're a retail leader and you're not familiar with security, I would challenge you to become a generalist in it because it's being talked about the board talked about at the board level. And to me, Steve, it's never happened before. For certain large retail brands, CEOs to talk about missing results because of shrink, closing stores because of organized crime, unprecedented, never happened before. So if your CEO is talking about it, and even if your CEO is not, guess what? They're hearing the other CEO talk about it at the board level, never happened before. It's gonna, it's gonna eventually trickle down to you. So I would challenge all the retail leaders, if you're not comfortable with this, partner with your asset protection team, partner with your security team, tour with them, get them to understand your lens, have you understand their lens and become familiar because you are gonna need to address it because it is being spoken about at the board level. So uh that's the the one of the biggest points of evidence that I would throw to your audience, Steve, in terms of it is never gonna be finished because it's only it's it's getting that kind of visibility, which being in this industry 30 years has never happened before.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Yeah, yeah, and that's and that's a great point. And I'm I'm glad you brought I'm glad you brought this up because it's actually a good segue to to my next question. Um I I feel the same way when it comes to comes to AI. And we'll talk about AI here in a second. The the correlation I want to make is that it's taking place, the conversation is taking place in a boardroom, and leaders need to have a what we call over here on Worthy Retail is a valued opinion. It's a perspective on yourself, your team, and and and the business as it releases to a certain topic. And I think when you when that when you when you say that um you know this topic around um uh around safe and security is actually being spoken about at the at the board level, um it there's a difference between like data, right, and and and leadership. Right. So I know you're big on data, but there's also the leadership component that needs to take place. So when you when you're talking about these leaders, like how should they address something? Should it be addressed with the should they look like build up their bandwidth on the data stats, but then how their leadership correlates to that data? Like what are some of the things that they really need to to know about to actually have a conversation? Let's say the CEO walks into their market, they need to have a conversation. What are some of the things that they need to be thinking about and they need to be able to communicate?

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Yeah, that's a good one. I think it's a blend. And I think everything is a blend between qualitative and quantitative uh points of reference. So what are the crime stats in that in that general city or the region? What are the incident reports at that store? What are the shrink results in the store turnover? You know, if people don't feel safe or secure, they're not coming to work. And they're certainly not going to ask their talented friends to come and work there. And guess what? Guess what the conversation is like at the dinner table? Mom, dad, don't come in. It's brutal. Um, and you know, so there's those qualitative metrics in terms of engagement scores. Um, you know, so that there's this safety and security risk dashboard that I talk about with with all of my clients, and it's it's some things that you wouldn't think about. Yes, it's cash over shorts, incidents, shrink, a lot of people, but what's the engagement store like score like? What's the turnover like? Because that's all the qualitative way, in my opinion. The safest store is the most engaged store, and vice versa. So those and and there's a different correlation between engagement and safety and security. So um you got to look at the at the macroeconomic, what's happening in the city and the state and the region from a crime, a cost of living, a um, you know, housing sales and a movement of people point of view to everything all the way down. It's kind of like a ripple effect, you know, what's happening outside of your four walls. So um, because it's a big investment, obviously, to continue to operate. And like I said earlier, when people start actually closing stores, um, that's obviously something that's a massive, massive uh decision uh on people and profit.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Yeah. I I I've all I always encourage my teams to, of course, get outside of their four walls. Um and and in doing so, go into stores that are either doing better, right, or worse, whatever you however you want to judge that. It could be from a you know appearance standpoint, it could be from, you know, volume standpoint or whatever it may be. But then also to go and if you are seeing stores that are closing or you see stores that are liquidating, um I always felt those those type of stores gave me way more information than going into stores that are really doing, you know, well, right? Like there's things you can learn from that, but I think to build and hedge your future uh as a as a leader, if you are seeing stores that are on the downturn, um I I always feel like it's a great opportunity to go in there, learn, ask questions, um, because a lot of those leaders are gonna be a little more um uh you're not just vulnerable, but they're gonna be a little more um uh open about their about what's going on. When they're doing well, no one wants to talk about what they're doing with it when they're doing well. When things aren't aren't going well, guess what? You can ask them one question and then they'll just let their hair down, and next thing you know, you're getting all types of really good information. And I think it's important for stores to to get outside their four walls and learn what's taking place in the industry, especially with this topic, as we talk about this topic, not just what's taking place within your company, because you're looking for trends, you're looking for things that are going to potentially uh impact you in the future. So if they're not doing that, I think they're doing their their theirselves and their and their their uh the company disservice.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Completely agree. I think it's all up to all of us to give our store teams the forum and the opportunity to be heard. You know, God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. You know, ask some questions and uh and listen uh twice as much as you ask your questions. And um, everyone's got an answer. You know, uh I'm I'm a former Walmart associate. Sam Walton always said, if you want to solve all your business problems, just ask your associates and your customers. They'll solve all your problems. And that still holds true to this day. Somebody's tried something, somebody's experienced something. So learn from them. That way you can expedite the solution, whether it's sales, whether it's merchandising, whether it's safety and security. Most likely somebody else has done it and tried it. So you can expedite by uh listening to them and learning from their uh from their trials and tribulations.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

You know what's so crazy, man, Dean, is that I I I used to I used to go into markets and I um you know would ask somebody, hey, when's the last time you just talked to a to a customer? Or they would they would get or they would get like um nervous when I walked into the to to a store and I I was sort of creepy this way because I would see a customer with a massive basket, right? And I walk up to him like, like, like, you know, you know, I don't know how I would just approach them and be like, did you find everything? It's kind of a joking fashion. They were like, Yeah, I found everything. Oh my gosh, I found too much. And then next thing you know, you get them talking, and my team would be horrified, horrified. Like, oh my gosh, what are you what do you why are you talking to customers? Like, what do you mean? Like, what do you mean? That's how you learn. I almost feel and dare I say nowadays, like, I I don't I don't see that same mentality. I don't see, you know, the team, you know, engaging with the customers like they like they used to. So I almost feel like there's a fear factor of what you could what you could potentially learn, you know, not just what you're doing poorly, but actually what you're what you're what you're doing right. I I almost feel like we we need to talk more about how do you continue to get that data by having a conversation with the people that are right in front of you, just like what you just said.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Completely collective knowledge always wins. Always. Not one of us has the answer, but you put five, six, or seven of us in the room and we'll figure it out. One of the best examples is COVID. You know, we didn't have it figured out in the safe from a safety and security point of view. Very few people saw it coming. So what we did is we got 12 or 15 of our clients on the on the phone every two weeks. We developed the playbook. That's the answer. Collective knowledge. Yeah. Same sort of thing. Collective knowledge will solve any, if most problems that any of us face as leaders. So it's up to us to uh do what we need to do to give people the forum within our organization and learn from others outside of our organization to help move the uh the business along.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Yeah. I I want to I wanna I want to ask this question and um I want to start by with the with the quick story. I think you you and I, we've already actually um we already talked a little bit about the story where um I was you know with my with my boss at the time and we were we were we were going into a store. It's a rough part of rough part of the town. Um it is what it is. Like pe people know that there's different parts of the town and we it's it's a retail reality. So we walk into the store, and you know, these team members are that's it's it's a rough area, right? So they're they're not easily shook, right? You know, you know, they're they're they're pretty tough. So I we walk in and we we we're you know and they walk up to us and they're having a conversation, like Mr. Steve, you know, um we we're nervous. Like, what you like what are you nervous about? Like I'm you know, you know, and they're like, I think there's gonna be a riot later. And we were like, what are you talking about? So they show us their phone, they show us social media, all these different things. And and you know, thank God we we took them and their fear at face value, and we didn't say, ah, it'll be okay. It'll be okay. We actually we took action. We we closed, we we closed the store, um, and wouldn't you know it, um three, four o'clock in the afternoon, there was a riot in the in in that city. Um, and they, you know, they busted into this into the mall next door. They didn't come, they they were, you know, rioters came past Target, um didn't get into the store. We had barricaded the store, da da da. The point that I'm trying to make is has nothing to do with the rioters. It actually has to do with the fear. And the fear is almost a lagging indicator of like certain things that can happen, but if you don't take it and as a leader, and if you don't take it seriously, you and you just gloss it all off, right? You y y you give a poor example. And man, if we didn't pay attention to that, Dean, there could have been some serious issues that that took place that day. And I fear and I fear that a lot of companies are not taking the fear factor um into consideration when they think about um their stores and how do they actually create circumstances where the fear factor um isn't even there. So long sort of story, but I think you and I have talked about this one before, but almost fear as a as a data point, I think stores are missing missing out on that.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Completely agree. And and people will remember how you treat them. People will remember how you lead. One of my best mentors a long time ago said, you know, when there's a critical incident, it's the best time to lead. Because people will remember that. And they will remember how you treated them as a human being because everyone's a human being first and an employee of company XYZ second. And uh that's what they remember. So uh I would yeah, as unnerving as it would be when a s when a serious situation like that happens, lean on others who may have some more experience, again, out inside your company or outside your company, and just show people you care. They don't expect you to be a super person, but they just want to feel taken care of psychologically safe and physically safe, and uh, and they'll they'll take care of uh the needs of the business. But you have to do that as a leader first to make them feel safe and take care of it.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Yeah, you you have to. You know, and you know, one of the things that we we tend to see within the retail space is this um this uh this difference between you know Ivy Tower, HQ, and the field, right? And how they see the problems d differently. How are you how are you helping companies, you know, um bridge that gap, right? Because how they may see, I know that you said they're they're talking about it in in the boardroom, but from a field standpoint, they'll probably be like, well, it's about time, you know what I mean? It's just the reality of how the field, you know, thinks. And it's like we've been we've been screaming this from the rooftops, and yes, we're glad that you're talking about it now, but how are you how are you helping you know companies bridge that gap from the the data shareholder um you know earnings per share loser and profitability standpoint to the reality of this is could be life and death. Doesn't have anything to do with like that monetary aspect that you guys are talking about.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Yeah, I think there's no cash registers at your home office, you've got to be in the stores.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

You gotta say that again. And everybody, please listen to what Dean just said.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

There are no cash registers at your home office. You gotta work, you gotta get into the stores and work in the stores. That's it. Bottom line. You what you gotta, if you want to work on the business, you gotta work in the business. And what I used to do with my team, and I encourage my clients to do that, is is make it a performance objective. Store tours, working in the stores. You know, we used to work the toy aisle at Christmas. You know, we used to work behind the the barista stand during Frappuccino season. So, um, and that's how all you know, most of your nuggets. You know, I'll give you one example. In in uh in one of the companies I worked with, we decided to reduce our robberies. We would move the safes to the front of the house. And we we knew that that would work because we'd worked in the stores. Because then if I have to force you to open the safe against your will, I have to do it in the front of the house versus do it in the back of the house where guess what? Steve, there's a door, there's a back door that I can there's a there's a I'm covered. There's a door I can run out after I rob you, reduce robberies 80%. And balancing this idea before we made a multi-million dollar physical security equipment investment off of our store partners first won the day. And we wouldn't have done that if we hadn't been there. Do it. You want to learn about supply chain security? Go do a ride along with your transport and logistics people. They'll tell you everything you need to know. So I think it's it's critical that we really stay in tune with the business and it also from an attraction and retention of talent point of view. That's how I first got into security. I was a store manager. My loss prevention director came by. I didn't know anything about loss prevention. I asked her a number of questions, bugged her and bugged her and bugged her. She said, Do you want to come and tour with me? Came in tour with her, cooked. But had she not been in the store, I wouldn't have really got exposed to LP. So, you know, it really helped me from a career pathing and attraction and retention of talent point of view, and I've carried that forward and made that recommendation forward as well.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

I love that. I I I love that. I love that. I I mean that that's you know, some companies continue to do it correctly as it relates to um ride-alongs or job shadows and all of that stuff, right? Because, you know, uh it's it's an important it's an important aspect of, you know, the when you when they trust, right? Where people actually understand and know what you do, right? And and when you walk into a store, you know, mm you know, it was it was really cool. I think one of the biggest compliments that I ever received was that when I walked in the store, I had a team member come up to me. They said, Every time we walk in the store, we know that you're gonna remove some obstacles for us. And I was like, oh, I almost started to cry when he said that. That to your point earlier, like that, that stuck with me. It continues to stick with me. And I think that was that was it was you know, didn't pay him to say that, but that's what they said. And I and I think we have to we have to we have to make sure that we're doing this, you know, this this role and we're creating those um those environments where people um uh want to belong, where people want to want to share. I and I think, you know, you you talk about this a lot about asking, being able to ask the right questions. You know, when you think about um before an incident happens, before something takes place, what are what what's the I know you I can I and I can't remember off the top of my head, I have it written down here somewhere. But you always say there's always one question that you always want people to ask, right? I'm gonna put you on the spot here. Uh and what is that what is that question that they need to be asking because it will help them out before an incident happens, um, and hopefully reduce some of the uh um uh you know situations that could potentially occur.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

Yeah, I'm a big policy and procedure guy, as you know. Yeah, most of us in this business are, right? So if there's one policy and procedure that I'd love everyone to comply with 100%, it's your incident reporting policy and procedure. Because there are always, always signs before somebody becomes violent. So the one question would be what has caused you, not has anything caused you, what has caused you fear or concern in and around the store the last couple of weeks? That's it. And they'll tell you, you know, do you have incident reports on your on your quarterly scorecards? If not, you should, because stuff's happening and that's often a precursor to, you know, something potentially somebody getting hurt or worse, and it helps drive strategy in terms of the data that you might need from a process, people, or physical security technology point of view for that specific store. And you know, one of the mistakes I used to make in my early days, Steve, is I put the same physical security system in all of our stores. Wrong. The light bulb finally went on. Why am I spending X at a high-risk store and the same amount at a low-risk store? Doesn't make sense. Yeah, I need to give more, you know, uh attention to the high-risk store and and their more dollars, different talent, a more talented store manager or store team that can handle that kind of an intense environment. Because, you know, as you spoke about earlier, I was involved in in a number of workplace murders, and unfortunately, after the incident, you're gonna get asked, what did you know? When did you know it? And what did you do about it? And that's qualitative and quantitative, but it's really important to ensure that if your brand has, you know, some really strong defensibility to your store teams, to yourself, to your family, to your shareholders, you can answer those questions uh strongly.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Yeah. One concept that you um you talked about and you continue to talk about is this the the phrase called the the the hardening, the hardening of of of leadership you know within within the store. Could you talk a little bit about that? Because I know I have I have some some of my own thoughts, but um I would love to hear you explain that concept.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

It happens. You know, it happens. I mean, I I was a victim of it when I when I uh was a store manager for many years, and and you're in a store, it's risky, homeless people, organized crime, whatever it might be, you become hardened. You don't think, oh, it's Dean's off his medication, Dean's under the influence of something, Dean's having a bad day, so I'm not gonna fill out an instant report, I'm not gonna tell it's wrong. Because what you don't know is I've I've said that same, made that same threat 17 other times in my neighborhood or in your store. And if if everyone fluffs it off, if no one reports it, it's not gonna get reported. And then the 18th time is when I'm gonna actually um create that situation and uh and and do that incident. And then if there's ever any need to get the police involved, the first thing they're gonna ask for is documentation. So you need to report it. And I'm uh and we're you're busy, you run off your feet, you're in a retail store, I get it. Document it in some sort of way. It's a it's a it's a text, it's on Slack, it's a note in a comm log, it's it's whatever it is, but some some way to connect the dots because you're not there 24-7, 365, neither is all of your team. But reading some flow of communication involved specifically for safety and security, so you can connect the dots and say, Yeah, I had a problem with that guy on Monday, I had a problem with that guy on Wednesday, I had a problem with that guy Sunday night, that gives you more credence to act. It reduces some of the emotion when you go to your district manager or regional manager and say, I need your help. Here's some of the evidence. It doesn't have to be a Mona Lisa, doesn't have to be a war and peace, but something to reduce the emotion and make it more factual.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

This is completely off to the to the left or i it'll it'll make sense. This movie I'm watching, um, oh my gosh, there's a Simon Pegg movie, uh, and he's uh and he's a police officer in London, and they send him out to the they send him out to the to the to the uh to the countryside and he stops um uh um uh gosh, some I can't remember it. I'm gonna remember it, I'm gonna put it in there somewhere. Um but he stops a person and the person is just talking to him about the incidents. They basically were speeding and he stops him and he flips open his over open this thing, his notebook, and the guy's talking to him and he's just writing. And the guy's like, you know, I'm so sorry, officer, dah-da-da-da. This is the thing, and then he's just writing, and he says, What are you doing? He's I'm writing down everything that you say. And and he says, Well, I apologize. So he said, I apologize. And he wrote writes it down, right? And and it was as interesting because the guy, you know, over time just started to just pretty much like confess, like, okay, I was I was speeding. But but the point was is that if you don't document anything, you don't have any record. And then if like once you create a culture of documentation, behavior starts to shift.

SPEAKER_03 33:44

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Right? You know, and if you and if you if you don't do that, people feel that they can get, oh my god, oh Dean, come on, man. You know, you know, I I was just late this one time or this is just my one time. I'll give you I'll give you a um a personal story. I was uh I this was when I was a store manager years and years ago, and there were uh double doors. I don't know, man. I I know you and I we've exchanged so many different stories. Did I tell you the story? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

But I I'm picturing the double doors.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Double doors. I'm closing, I'm I'm closing that night. It's my responsibility. I have another um team leader that's closing with me, but they're they're checking the back of the house. My job is to check the front doors, da da da da. So there's four. There's four doors. I check one, check two, check the third one, and then I walk through the I walk through the fourth one without checking it. I it's closed, but I didn't lock it. So I leave, leave that day, and um I come back, come back the next day. Uh my security guy, his name happens to be Steve, he said, Hey boss, hey boss, you got a second? And I was like, Yeah. He said, Um, yeah, well, you missed a door last night. And I was like, What what are you talking about? What are you talking about? And he showed me the video, probably shouldn't have shown me the video, but he showed me the video, and I was like, and I saw myself walk right through that freaking door. I was like, I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I did that. I said, All right, so what do you gotta do? So what you know, what you gotta do? Um we got on the horn, called my boss, told my boss about it. In those days, it was what they call, well, you already know this, it was a final. It was a door, it would it skipped everything, went right to a final. So basically, if I did anything else, I was I was pretty much fired. And um I remember my boss, um, my boss came to the store like I think two days after that with the paperwork, and he was like, just gotta tell you, dude, just gotta tell you, man, um I've had a lot of people not not report this. I've had a lot of people who got out of this or tried and talked their way out of it, you know, to me or to, you know, the the security guy. Basically, well, I'm your boss, Dean. Like, you don't do you don't have to report this. And I was like, no, but I I messed it up. I messed up. It is what it is. So I signed the paperwork, and uh and the the interesting th the interesting part too with this, Dean, and this is like the subplot, is that I was on a promotional track. I mean, I was probably right there from about to get promoted to to the next level and I was like, shoot, this is gonna mess this up. And he was like, Don't worry about it, man. It's it's it's not gonna mess it up. And it became a story in the interview process. Like, so when I went to the next level, it was almost this famous story of me reporting myself that I did this. I'm not saying that's gonna be it's gonna work out that way for everybody, but it did, it did for me. So there's something to be said about owning the situations within your safe and security world, and um, they may turn out, you know, okay for you. Long story, long story, but um, I figured I figured you would you would appreciate that one.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

Yeah, I mean absolutely and I think it's it's the policies and procedures of a company are um you know, everyone's responsible to adhere them. So I think it's from a leadership point of view, when when we're wrong and we'll make a mistake, we have to accept that and and and learn from it and move on as well.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

Let's let let's let's change gears here and um let's talk a little bit about we're we're in the throes of 2026. Um we're in the throes of 2026 right now. As you think about the year that's coming up, um what are what are some of the things that you're concerned about? What are some of the things that you're you're talking about, you know, to to to uh to companies um that they need to be thinking about. Is there anything different, anything that's that's that that's coming up that need that they need to be concerned with? Like what are some of the things that you're you're you're like, okay, you know what, 2026, you guys need to be all over this?

SPEAKER_02 38:11

Yeah, I think the retail security environment has been so intense for so long, I think a lot of states and provinces are finally enacting legislation from a workplace violence point of view to take care of of your employees. So um, you know, at the state of California, now the state of New York have uh will be enacting or legislation regarding workplace violence expectations and safety and security expectations. So I think that the the lawmakers are hearing it and seeing it. Um, like we was talking earlier about you know companies not making their numbers because of it. I think it's important as a uh a leader in a business to be aware of what legislative or regulatory requirements you are expected to adhere to and figure out, again, you know, people, processes, and technologies that will keep you in compliance. Uh it's a very serious issue. And then I think physical violence and organized retail crime would be number two. I think that's not gonna go away. You know, in the security industry, we call it the bubble effect. So the more pressure you put on some element of crime, these crime families, these crime businesses, they're not going out of business. They're gonna move to other whether, you know, you put the you put the pressure on drugs and human trafficking and and and smuggling of uh of weapons, they're gonna go to other sources of revenue. And in some instances, it's it's retail. You know, it could be counterfeit, it could be online fraud, but they're not gonna stop. They're not gonna go poof and go out of business. So I think keep up with your legal teams and your uh compliance teams and know what legislation is coming down the pike so you can become compliant with that early. Um, it's the right thing to do for the brand, it's the right thing to do for your people. And then number two, just stay on top of what's happening and really allow your stores to feel that they have a voice and can be heard and ask that question. Embed it in your you've heard me say this a million times. Embed it in every store manager meeting, embed it in your all-store manager meeting. What has caused you fear or concern in your store in the last couple weeks? Talk about it at every huddle, talk about it at every tour. You talk about sales and merchandise, you know, if you missed a shipment, that's a big deal. People are, you know, get all up in arms, or if you miss your labor percent by three points, that's a big deal. That's a conference call. But if there's a serious incident, what's the reaction? Or three people say, you know, I think my store manager is doing something that probably isn't legal or at the very least, it's immoral and unethical. Is that treated with the same passion? So it's it's it's having that conversation and embedding it in huddles and weekly store manager meetings and giving people the voice. Do you have an anonymous tip line? If you have an anonymous tip line, when was the last time you got a call? I had a a client last year, they're paying over five figures for their anonymous tip line. So I'm doing an assessment, Steve, and I say, let's call it. And she says, Well, what do you mean? So let's go right now. I said, I can I call it and we'll see how long it takes for it to get to the right party or group. I called it, never went anywhere. Steve. Wow. The people that were supposed to receive it are old or their uh old uh employees, number hasn't been updated, never happened. So that's problematic from a whole point of view. Not an ROI. You're not getting it. Imagine somebody in the field, a distribution center, called this hotline seven times and thinking, what? Nobody, they obviously don't care. I'm out of here, I'm quitting. So there's all kinds of like if you're not getting your anonymous tip line, if you're not getting incident reports, look into it. Because again, uh, you know, what did you know? When did you know it? And what did you do about it? These are all tools that you can use.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

Yeah. How how do we normalize this though? And I mean, maybe this is this is why you're here, and this is why, you know, you you have this calling on on your life, because you know, the it it's it's not normalized, you're right. It's it is the it's a it's a it's it's the after-effect, right? Either whether even shrink, right? It's always the after effect, and then we do there everybody gets the number, and then everybody gets all up in arms about it, and then you know, you have this um you you you have this uh you know sort of shrink party, right? You know, for two or three months, you know, right after you get the number, and you you start, you know, doing in but you start doing operational changes, you start looking at personnel, you start doing all these other things. Right, and then but then it tails off, right? It tail it it it it it goes away, right? And then you get the um the field um um you know AP, right? AP AP BP, AP business partner um that comes in and they do their you know assessments, and a lot of times we would see them coming to stores and we're like, oh shoot, like you know, the people think somebody's in trouble, right? Um where they're just doing their safe and secure um assessments and things like that. You know, and and it's it's not it's not normalized. It's not there there there's uh here's what I think. I there's this sense of like um of of like, oh my gosh, someone's gonna catch me doing something wrong. Right. And I feel I almost feel like you know, a lot of companies and even you know, stores and markets, they they don't normalize it subconsciously because they feel that safe and secure has the job of finding something wrong. When they do, of course they do, and they should, right? But it's almost it almost like I don't want to comply and I don't want to give you any more information because I don't want to be found doing something wrong. Am I am I off the am I off like my kilter with that or or or you know your thoughts?

SPEAKER_02 44:01

In some brands, and and again, I think there has to be that blend where that asset protection team works in the stores, gets to know people. I also found that to hire whenever uh you know I talked to my clients about bench and trajectory and and workforce planning, when was you need to cross-pollinate? You know, when I was working, when I was with the previous brands and I wanted to hire somebody into my team, I looked at operation. When my team felt they hit the ceiling, I'd I'd talk to operations or HR. It's great for the enterprise. You deputize somebody as a as an AP partner. If I wanted somebody who knew really new uh asset protection, it was an operator. They knew every nook and cranny. So to bring an operator into my team and to make and to have one of my team go into operations or HR or logistics, it's a win for the organization. So I think that that there's all kinds of different ways that you can break down that stigma. And it's being fun. It's something as simple as serving lunch, you know, or serving pizza or or whatever it is at the at the home office or you know, at the sort of manager meeting or the the the regional manager meeting or whatever it is. So I think it's part art, part science. And I think some of the biggest wins that I've experienced, you know, with clients and when I was with the companies I work with are incidents. And I and uh it's different than ambulance chasing, but incidents are gonna happen. No company's uh immune from it. So how are you acting respectfully and aligning with the mission during an incident, making people feel like they're the number one priority? It's not about the dollars, it's about them. And how are you treating them? Because some people during an investigation, as you know, Steve, are you're talking to them for information and you're talking to them because you're interrogating them. Big difference because you think they've done something wrong. Great point. So some of that branding as a as an asset protection team as a security professional comes, you know, inside of an incident as well. And you got to think of uh of of what the message is and how you're behaving uh in that way too.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

Oh, such a great point. That's such a great point. There is a difference there. And I don't um I don't think that that is highlighted enough that there is a difference there. Um a couple things, couple one more thing before we ask you like uh a closing question. I I I couldn't get you, couldn't get you out of here without talking about AI. And right, you we hear about it, you know, so much within the retail space and so many different areas, so many different aspects and all this, all of that. So when I knew we were gonna have this conversation, I said, I I gotta ask them about AI and as it relates to um assets protection and um what's being done, um, how are they utilizing it? Um and so just just just go to town, give me your thoughts around AI and what you do and what and how you're um you know having conversations about it.

SPEAKER_02 46:50

Yeah, I think it's here, it's here, and it's going to, you know, my long-term belief is it will create more jobs than it um eliminates. Um just like the gut, and we have to figure out how to partner with it and embrace it in the immortal words of Ronald Reagan, trust but verify. Right. So that that's that's the question that we're grappling with in security is how far do I let AI take it before the human intervention? And the answer is to me, right now, is if any if there's a task that doesn't involve judgment, let AI do it. Give an example getting a new badge at a home office, deleting a badge at a home office, a false alarm in a certain area of the home office, AI can do that. Analyzing some shrink numbers, but you know, putting an incident report or uh an alert out to a district about an organized crime gang. AI can do 80% of that. So if it doesn't involve Involve judgment, let AI do it because it's not going to reduce what your team is. It's just going to make them more efficient and truly allow them to focus on tasks and drive goals that they're passionate about. And some of those menial tasks, quote unquote, AI can take it because some tasks don't involve judgment. Like I said about the badges. So I think it's here to stay and um just like everything else, garbage in, garbage out, you know, and be careful with how you implement AI. I mean, some people use AI for their personal banking and all kinds of other stuff. And I say to them, you know, you realize what information you're putting into that, right? If you want the output. So just as a business. I mean, if you're putting sensitive information into AI, guess what? You might as well just, you know, put it at the town square like in the old days and shut it out from the rooftop. Put it on, put it on your Instagram. So I think it's here to stay. And I think that it can all make us more efficient with some of those, you know, really task-focused parts of the business, whether it's shrink results, shrink management, merchandise assortment, um, things like that. But you know, what some of my clients use is to collate incident reports from different retailers in their geography. So it's the same white van, same description, same MO, 17 times, because that allows them to go. If I walk into a police station with 17 cases from five different retailers versus just the three that I have, way more powerful. So it can be used uh for that. And then the other thing would be physical security. Analytics. I I mean, I uh this is hard, this is you know kind of odd for a security guy to say, but cameras are great silent witnesses. If it's not snowing, it's not raining, if I'm not wearing a mask and the light's perfect, cameras are awesome. But analytics can be put in to tell you that your cameras are. I mean, who out there is comfortable that their cameras that they spent millions of dollars on are all functioning 100% of the time? They're not, I'm telling you, they're not. And you spent millions on it. AI can tell you which ones are not functioning right now. As and and you don't have to wait until there's a serious incident in your parking lot to find out that Mr. Worthy is gonna sue you because guess what? He took that violent offender to the camera because he thought there was a protection of care under that camera, and now it's not working. Not a good situation to be in. So AI can drive a lot of camera analytics to tell you which ones are not working. And also from a retail point of view, um, slip trips and falls, customer not present, but the till being open, all kinds of analytics, even from a merchandise point of view. A lot of my clients will work with the camera to say, okay, 27 people went down aisle six, only six picked up some merchandise. Maybe you think about your merchandising. What's on the end cap? What's the signage? Why are people not attracted by this promotion? So work with your asset protection team to work and figure out how to utilize camera analytics both from a people protection point of view, but also to drive margin. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:43

You know, when you know what something just came to mind, I started thinking about like, you know, how AI could use um be used in in pattern forming when, you know, after the fact, right? So let's just say, you know, when when people are coming in the store to go steal something from um electronics, dare I say they take the same pattern like in that store because they may know where the cameras are or they may be they may be thinking about I I've seen it happen because I've watched I've I've watched enough footage of people coming into stores stealing stuff and said this is why they took this pattern, right? They they went through they went through soft lines um because um because there were there there aren't a lot of cameras in soft lines, um or they they go to the peripheral of the store, right, because they know the camera cameras are like right in the aisles. You know, you see where I'm going? And so if you start to use AI to to gather, you know, a lot of that that pattern data, right? That's something that could be shared too. And I'm quite sure I'm I'm I'm quite sure some people who are in in AI security are probably like, yeah, Steve, that's already in place. But I'm sorry. This is just me, you know, this is just me uh spitballing and think and thinking and thinking about this as as we're having this conversation.

SPEAKER_02 52:05

Yeah. People are running. I have I'm working with only right now. People don't normally run. Why would you run if I'm in a retail? Well, you're running. You there's there's a couple reasons you and I can both think of, but why am I running as include? So all kinds of analytics that can be that can be in there um to determine uh you know, a dock door going open, but no truck present. Why would that ever happen? So there's all kinds of AI analytics that you can work um with your AP team on to help your margin and and your protection of assets and people as well, for sure. I think it's here to stay. We just got to embrace it. Um, just like the guy that sold the horse and buggy and didn't think this car thing would work out and he said and he kept selling horse and buggy. He he didn't last in business very long. It's here and it's gonna help us be more efficient. And something else that I'm learning about AI is it's not gonna make life simpler or less slow. It's gonna make us all busier. And we got to really uh realize that now. It's not gonna be like I'm gonna put my foot on my uh up on my desk. Stephen AI is gonna take care of everything for me. No, no. Guess what? You're gonna become busier because the expectations are gonna rise.

SPEAKER_01 53:10

Yeah. No, that's awesome, man. That's awesome. Well, hey, I'm gonna ask you one question. You know, um, give give these people, these leaders, these companies that are that are listening to this episode, give them something to think about. Give them some some some some dean uh you know wisdom, some uh uh something that's just gonna you know make them think uh differently about how they lead and how they use data and how they think about uh access protection.

SPEAKER_02 53:38

Yeah, I would just ask you to to make to really realize that you know your people to number one in a true servant leader fashion, ask them how they're doing when you're interacting with them in every shape or form, and just ask them how, you know, has anything been happening in this store that's caused you fear or concern lately? Have that one question on your engagement surveys. Do you feel safe in your store? And the other thing from an external point of view, police resources are only gonna be reduced further. It's up to all of us to partner within our communities, within our organizations, within our neighborhoods together and form uh liaisons and organizations and associations to help each other. Um, because I have many friends in law enforcement, they're strapped. It's not as if they don't want to respond. Um they just have competing priorities. So um it's up to you as an organization. And like I said off the top, when your CEO is talking about missing results due to crime, um, it should be something that you're strategizing uh about uh all the way down to the store level and speaking about in terms of how they can impact.

SPEAKER_01 54:45

Outstanding. Outstanding. Well, how can people find you um if they if they they wanna they want to hire you, man? I I I'm telling you, anybody that's listening to this, they they need to make a beeline to um you know to to your profile to make sure that they hire you, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 55:00

Thanks for that, Steve. So LinkedIn would be uh the most simple uh way to get a hold of me. I also have a YouTube channel, um, so it's Dean Correa, Security Advisor, um People in Asset Protection YouTube channel. And I have about 20 videos or so of just one to two minute snippets of things that I've learned throughout my career, different topics, travel security, incident management, workplace violence, um, that you can share at a meeting or um as uh as you're listening to help people understand what some of those safe and security topics are and kind of break down some of the silos and and and think about how you can impact that um at the store level and at the the district and regional level when you're touring as well.

SPEAKER_01 55:41

Outstanding, outstanding, outstanding. Well, my friend, it's it um I'm this was long overdue. Um, but I'm so happy, so, so happy that we got this opportunity to finally speak and uh everybody could hear all the wisdom, you know, that you have to share. So thanks so much for being here, man.

SPEAKER_02 55:58

And thank you. See, thanks for this opportunity. Thanks for doing what you do to to spread your knowledge and wisdom and and uh you know, retail is is always every country's, you know, top one, two, three employers. So I think it's all of us to to keep it thriving, keep it vibrant. We grew up in retail. Let's uh let's take care of it for the next generation to come.

SPEAKER_01 56:16

100%. 100% agree with you. All right, we'll talk soon.

SPEAKER_02 56:20

Thanks. Have a great day.