White Named Chair of ABCHS, Delivers Retail Advisory on LP Professionals' Role
Wren has announced that Eric C. White (CHS-V, FABCHS), who leads the retail strategy practice for the physical security solution provider, has been named chair of the American Board for Certification in Homeland Security (ABCHS).
ABCHS is an organization committed to providing the highest quality certification, training, and continuing educational opportunities in the field of homeland security. White, who has more than two decades of expertise spanning homeland security, global retail asset protection, and corporate security, plans to place a priority on bringing awareness and preparedness to the private sector, particularly retail.
In a new advisory posted on the Wren retail blog LPXtra, White provides loss prevention teams with an understanding of how and why homeland security should be a local retailer’s concern and responsibility, as well as a quick check list of starter items that LP teams can do to become proactive participants in homeland security.
“With so many other priorities, limited resources and a seeming lack of control over issues like terrorism and other emergencies, LP managers may wonder how and why they should even attempt to undertake the herculean task of adding homeland security to their list of concerns and responsibilities,” White stated in his blog post. “As I’ve said before and will continue to reiterate throughout my tenure as chair of ABCHS, there are some very compelling reasons for retailers to increase their awareness of terrorist activities.”
According to White, retail terrorism is not a question of if, but when. New reports indicate future terrorist attacks are predicted to be more frequent and localized; retailers have a lot to protect and a lot to lose – in the case of an attack, retailers would sustain losses to staff, customers and assets and the responsibility to protect it all falls on the LP team; and preparation steps that retailers take to increase their vigilance of terrorist related activities result in improved overall awareness for the store and its everyday business. To help retailers determine where they should start, White provides a few quick tips on the steps that retailers can take, including leveraging technology, profiling suspicious behavior and increasing audits.