With the opening session at NRF’s Loss Prevention Conference just a few hours away, see how well you can decipher some of the most common acronyms in the world of retail loss prevention. (In the event that you think these are a stretch, I assure you…all of these acronyms are taken directly from the conference program guide.)
Try to get as many acronyms as you can correct. And if you cheat and scroll all the way down to the bottom (even for a “hint”), you fail. True Loss Prevention professionals are nothing if not honest.
1. LP
2. NRF
3. ORC
4. POS
5. LTL
6. AP
7. LERPnet
8. JORCTF
9. DHS
10. RFID
11. BOB
12. CPP
13. NRSS
14. CISA
15. CCTV
16. SFIC
17. FEMA
18. CPE
19. LERPA
20. CFE
21. ICE
22. EAS
23. CLIA
24. CFI
25. EBR
26. IMAGE
27. NASBA
Results
LP: Loss Prevention (If you missed this, you can just skip the rest of the quiz. You’re toast.)
NRF: National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail trade group
ORC: Organized retail crime, a problem that continues to plague the retail industry. (Read NRF’s ORC survey to learn more.)
POS: Point-of-sale
LTL: “Less than (truck)load,” the transportation of relatively small freight. LTL investigations will be discussed in a Monday morning session about cargo security.
AP: Asset Protection
LERPnet: The Law Enforcement Retail Partnership Network, a secure national database for reporting retail theft and serious incidents which allows retailers to share information with each other and law enforcement
JORCTF: Joint Organized Retail Crime Taskforce
DHS: Department of Homeland Security
RFID: Radio Frequency Identification
BOB: Bottom-of-basket loss, both intentional and unintentional, like walking out without paying for the case of soda or the 40-lb bag of dog food underneath your cart.
CPP: Certified Protection Professional
NRSS: National Retail Security Survey, conducted by the University of Florida, which will be released on Tuesday at the Conference
CISA: Certified Information Systems Auditor certification
CCTV: Closed Circuit Television
SFIC: Small Format Interchangeable Core locks
FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency
CPE: Continuing Professional Education credits (you can get up to 18 at the conference)
LERPA: The Law Enforcement Retail Partnership Award, which recognizes a law enforcement officer who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in helping the retail industry resolve a major incident. This award will be presented Monday at the conference.
CFE: Certified Fraud Examiner
ICE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
EAS: Emergency Alert System or Electronic Article Surveillance (yes, the same acronym applies to both)
CLIA: Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, which regulates all laboratory testing (except research) performed on humans in the U.S.
CFI: Certified Forensic Interviewer
EBR: Electronic Batch Record, a way of compiling production data into a common document, unique for each batch produced
IMAGE: ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employees
NASBA: National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (the guys who give final authority for those CPE credits — see #18)
Final Score
0-8: New to the LP world (or you haven’t been paying attention)
9-15: Still plenty to learn
16-20: An impressive showing
21-23: A true LP guru!
24-27: LP acronym royalty. Congratulations!
One Comment
I thought that EBR also stood for Exception-Based Reporting, a data only tools that utilizes the trasnaction log form the POS to identify exceptions (mostly associated with employee theft).
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