By Jesse Lama, Sr. Public Safety Consultant, Genasys Inc. & former Patrol Officer
Winter crime trends are clear. As daylight savings time ends and winter brings shorter days, communities face an increase in crime due to reduced visibility. With more darkness, criminals find it easier to conceal unlawful activities, including organized retail theft, shoplifting, scams, and even smash-and-grab incidents. Many of these crimes target parked vehicles or businesses, ultimately leading to significant losses for retailers and an increased demand on law enforcement resources.
Winter Challenges Amplify Criminal Activity
The colder months not only mean more hours of darkness but also heightened societal pressures. Holiday shopping, inflation-driven price increases (up 21.4% since the pandemic), and financial stress can push some people to desperate measures. As demand for gifts and essentials rises, crimes of opportunity become more frequent. This creates a dual challenge for law enforcement: heightened criminal activity and an increased need for visibility.
Visible Policing
To address this, police departments ramp up patrols during the holiday season to boost visibility and deter crime. You may have noticed uniformed officers in shopping areas, blending into crowds or stationed outside businesses to show their presence. Bicycle units and unmarked “foot patrols” are also popular strategies, providing a low-profile presence that catches offenders off guard while sending a clear message to anyone considering criminal activity. This type of patrolling not only enhances public safety but also instills a sense of security in the community.
However, patrolling on foot or by bike presents some limitations. Officers on these types of patrols lack access to their patrol vehicles, which serve as mobile offices stocked with tools, technology, and immediate access to critical information. And let’s not forget the perks of the patrol car: a heater, snacks, and even music on Spotify—just kidding (sort of).
How Genasys CONNECT Bridges the Gap
This is where CONNECT becomes invaluable. The platform enables seamless, mobile collaboration for officers in the field, even when they’re away from the traditional MDTs in their patrol vehicles. Officers can use their smartphones to access essential tools and maintain direct communication with dispatch and other team members. This becomes especially useful when officers need quick visual assistance, such as suspect photos, locating a missing child, gaining criminal histories, obtaining building schematics, or reviewing intel from a previous shift’s passdown. CONNECT keeps all communications encrypted and compliant with CJIS, FOIA, and HIPAA standards, ensuring that data remains secure, and operations remain legally sound.
Secure Guest Collaboration for Efficient Communication
One of CONNECT’s standout features is its guest collaboration capability, which allows officers to securely communicate with retail loss prevention staff and private security personnel at no additional charge. This secure, two-way communication enables officers to receive real-time updates, CCTV footage, share trespass logs, exchange intelligence, and coordinate responses with both internal and external partners. As global retailers are expected to lose a staggering $132 billion in revenue to theft this year, many are increasing security personnel, who need an efficient way to communicate with local law enforcement. This tool solves this struggle.
The guest collaboration feature is also instrumental in organized retail crime (ORC) investigations, where intelligence can be shared across agencies for coordinated efforts to bring offenders to justice. This kind of interagency collaboration, facilitated through secure, web-based solutions, leads to more effective investigations and a higher rate of apprehensions and more efficient prosecutions since prosecutors can be easily included. As criminals target retailers in a larger, coordinated effort, or perhaps even across state lines, the ability to securely and seamlessly share information with other investigators becomes a game changer. We have a team of experts who understand what it means to be “Ready When It Matters.”
