Pharmacy/Retail Store 1

Security Plan

Running Header: Pharmacy/Retail Store Security Plan

Pharmacy/Retail Store Security Plan

Angie Huerta

November 10, 2010

CJS 250
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Security Plan

Pharmacy/Retail Store Security Plan

Security, what does this mean? There are many definitions to this word. They are: 1-the
state of being free from danger or injury; 2-a formal declaration that documents a fact of
relevance to finance and investment, the holder has the right to receive interest or dividends; 3-a
department responsible for the security of the institution’s property and workers; 4-measures
taken as a precaution against theft or espionage or sabotage etc.; 5-defense against financial
failure, financial independence; 6-freedom from anxiety or fear; 7-an electrical device that sets
off an alarm when someone tries to break in; 8-property that your creditor can claim in case you
default on your obligation; and 9-a guarantee that an obligation will be met (Audioenglish.net,
n.d.).
Some of these definitions come in affect when it comes to the Retail/Pharmacy Store
security plan. I have also included a floor plan and a list of threats. A risk assessment for each
threat along with vulnerability gaps will be addressed. Countermeasures will be addressed for
physical, information, and personnel security, liability issues, and departmental dependencies.
There will also be an emergency plan and disaster response for a bomb threat and fire.
Pharmacy/Retail Store Floor Plans
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POSSIBLE THREATS:
 Environmental Accidents
 Vehicle Accidents
 Fire
 Theft or Fraud
 Information Theft
 Armed robbery/Burglary
 Surveillance
 Access Control
Risk Assessments
Fire and Environmental/Vehicle Accidents:
The entire store as well as the parking lot should have insurance for fire, floods, and any
other environmental accidents that are not caused by a person or persons. The insurance policy
for the building should be reviewed annually. All incidents should be documented and logged.
The logs should be watched and all records of evidence should be kept, documented and stored
in a safe place. If the building is owned by another party all of the records should be maintained
for that person or persons to have access to them.
Fire code regulations have to be up to the standards of the fire department; federal, state,
and local compliance is a must. The fire code must be approved by the fire department.
Electrical, water, and gas emissions require permits to make sure it is safe and not a hazard.
Having a sprinkler system in the ceilings of every room is required in case of a fire as well as
smoke alarms and fire extinguishers in all the required locations throughout the building. There
is a fire hydrant located close to the building for easy access by the fire department. The whole
property has to pass inspection from the fire department in order for the business to operate.
Parking entrances should be traffic controlled environment to help prevent accidents with
vehicles and pedestrians.
Theft/Fraud/Information Theft/ Access Control:
Management and owners have access to the safes that hold money for the business before
and after going to the bank. All employees working in the store have access to the money in their
register. The employees working in the pharmacy have access to all medications behind the
counter and only the pharmacist has access to the controlled substances in a locked storage unit.
All employees working have access to the storage room that holds the extra merchandise, but this
is also recorded in real time to help prevent any theft.
Management and owners have access to all of the employee’s information through the
computers. And all employees working in the pharmacy has access to all of the clients that
receive their medications there through the computers. All employees have access to the
computer with a login username and password. Information on the computers could be used for
fraudulent purposes.
To help this from happening, all employees including management are required to have a
background check done. The security cameras are on recording every moment in real time.
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Regular maintenance is done to make sure everything is working properly and nothing is faulty.
To ensure there is no identity theft, every employee has a unique username and password to get
access to a computer. Usernames and passwords are changed periodically to prevent any criminal
activity from occurring. And all registers can only be logged in by one employee by their own
social security number. The code to open the safe is changed once a month and only the
managers are aware of this. The only time anyone can just walk through the doors is during
business hours. Before and after business hours the doors are locked with an alarm system and
keys by the manager on site. Any movement inside or outside is still being recorded in real-time
as well.
Armed Robbery/Burglary/Ransom:
Any successful business can be targeted for kidnapping and ransom, so this threat has to
be taken into consideration. Armed robbery and burglary are always a threat to any business with
good and money.
All employees should have extensive training in all of these fields. Training should
increase if the crime rate increases with the business or even the community of the business. If a
crime like this does occur, any employee could be damaged physically or mentally or even both.
The company should offer support and help for the employee(s) involved in these types of
situations.
Security/Surveillance:
The cameras placed in this business are turned on all day (24/7) and recording in real-
time. Thus maintenance is important to make sure nothing is happening without being watched
in some way. The cameras are visible by any person(s) in or out of the store and some are hidden
that way if someone comes in and destroys the cameras they still can be watched without any
knowledge. Night time is a frequent time for criminals to do their activities, so we have and on
site security guard to help deter any kind of criminal activity. Outside when the store is closed
there are five surveillance cameras watching the parking lot and access points into the building.
To help deter any person(s) trying to get into the building there is also an alarm system intact.
Within so many seconds if the alarm is not turned off the police will be sent out to check and see
what is going on. The manager will be called and so will the owner of the business to let them
know what was happening.
In case of a power outage there are backup generators to keep the cameras going just in
case there is one of those crazy outbreaks of people that go rampaging different business you
always see on the television.
Current Vulnerability Gaps
There is not a way to watch the security cameras as things happen as of now. Everything
is recorded and watched at a later time. This is a retail pharmacy store and there are times where
customers get out of hand and our employees are distracted and cannot handle the situations.
Some customers turn violent and no one knows what to do.
Even though we have all these security cameras and the items detector at the access
points employees can still get away with taking certain items. Employees that do know where all
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the cameras are and how far they see, has a better chance of getting away with an item than
anyone else. Having knowledge of which items have the security tags inside or outside of them
gives employees a greater chance of taking them too. Coming up short a couple times in a
month or less is not as obvious as if it were coming short every day. All these gaps and others are
being taken into consideration to fix these areas.
Countermeasures for:
Physical Security:
We are currently trying to get a television that will let us monitor all the cameras in our
store in real-time. Having more cameras in our stock room will help deter employees from
stealing any merchandise that has not been put on the floor for sale yet. Also we would like to
put a camera in the employee’s lunch room just to keep an eye on things.

Information Security:
To keep all information of employees and clients safe, the only way to access employee
information is by management and owners only. They must use a unique username and password
that allows them to access this information. Employees who have access to the computers with
their username and passwords have limited use of the computers. They are not able to look at
everything on the computer and this keeps everyone’s information safe. The client’s information
can only be access in the pharmacy on a certain program that can be accessed with a unique
username and password by those employees authorized by management and owners.
Personnel Security:
We currently have a nightly security guard and are working on getting some day light
security guards as well. Our security guards do not have access to any computer information, but
they do have access to all the parameters of the property. There for we rely on integrity to keep
all un-purchased merchandise in the store. All employees do have access to everything in the
building so a background check is done to make sure there is nothing to serious n record that
would make them a liability. Only managers and owners have keys and the access code to shut
off the security system in the building so no other employee may enter during non-business
hours.
Liability Issues:
Having customers in the store during operation hours is a liability. Insurance for any
customer’s accidents that were caused by the employees of our business is taken care of. We also
have employee insurance that covers any accidents that may occur while they are working on the
job. For example, if an employee had to mop a mess up on the floor and forgot to put the “wet
floor” sign out and someone had slipped and was really hurt; that is a liability we will not
tolerate. Also since we do sell food and medications we have to make sure we are in code with
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the Food and Drug administration to ensure we are not selling anything that is not up to their
standards (Clifford, 2004).
Departmental Dependencies:
The security department depends on business wanting to be safe and secure. If their
products and merchandise was always being stolen by others or employees they would not have
a business. Having any kind of security in the business helps catch criminals in the act or even
after the act had occurred. Having on guard security personnel helps deter any criminal activity
many times if the criminals know that one is there. If the criminals did not know about the
security on site then they will go out try to commit their acts and most likely not get away with
it. Even though no one likes to see criminal activity, if it was not for those persons the security
industry would not be as big as it is today.
Emergency Plan and Disaster Response:
There are the many emergencies and disasters that can occur at any time of the day. Not
knowing when is one of the biggest issues. That is why we have protocols to help ensure
everyone is safe. All of our employees are trained on how and when to respond to all
emergencies and disasters. We are only going to go over bomb threats and fires until further
notice.
Bomb Threat:
If a bomb threat is received, the information collected during the threat can be critical for
developing an appropriate police response (Clifford, 2004). This is an example of a telephone
bomb threat check list looks like (Clifford, 2004):
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After everything is looked at the security on site or the person who got the phone call should
contact the local police and they will get the bomb squad or investigate the call (Clifford, 2004).
It is also important to have a person who will take leadership when it comes to handling this type
of situation (Clifford, 2004). We need to think about how to remove everyone safely from the
site of the threat so training on this is very important maybe once a year, unless the threats
increase in the community (Clifford, 2004). It may make sense for the business to equip the
phones with caller ID. With good training and education, anyone who might receive a
threatening call will be prepared to respond appropriately (Clifford, 2004).

Fire:
A fire can be devastating, but the losses can be minimized by involving personnel in the
response planning process and making use of local emergency response agencies (Clifford,
2004). A great training program for evacuation is a basic element for a successful emergency
response. Employees should be educated about prevention, but they should also learn about
classes of fire and appropriate responses to fire (Fires are assigned to Classes A through D.
Different types of extinguishers are required for different classes of fires) (Clifford, 2004). As
with all safety and security emergency response plans, fire prevention and fire prevention plans
should take into account industry standards, corporate policies, and other specific information
(Clifford, 2004)..

Summary:
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The overall design of this retail/pharmacy store is safe and secure. I believe having
cameras and the security system in place along with the security on-site help deter most criminal
activities. Having countermeasure for all the components of the overall security objective also
help the employees to know what do and what actions to take when something occurs. Training
as well as education in the emergency plan and disaster response plays a critical role in keeping
everyone that comes into the building safe. During an evacuation the training help ensure
everyone gets out of the building in a safe manner. Always checking the cameras and security
equipment; making sure everything is in working conditions and no faulty equipment is in place
keeps the business rolling.
“As a retailer you need to know what is happening within the four walls of your store,”
says Larry Foster, director of loss prevention and forensic analysis for CVS/pharmacy
(Penton Media, Inc., October 1, 2007).
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References
Audioenglish.net. (n.d.) Security definition. Retrieve November 02, 2010 from
http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/security.htm
Clifford ,Mary. (2004). Identifying and exploring security essentials. Published by Prentice-Hall.
Penton Media, Inc. (October 1, 2007). A regimen for security, how CVS pharmacy improved
loss prevention with data analytic software. Retrieved November 2, 2010 from
http://securitysolutions.com/retail/security_regimen_security/