Why Low-Crime Stores Are Still Losing Customers
Explore how this national retailer leveraged Crimes Against Society Scores to increase foot traffic, employee and customer comfort, and strengthen brand reputation.
Top 3 Reasons You Need Crimes Against Society Scores Now:
- Low crime doesn’t mean low risk – visible disorder can quietly drive customers and employees away.
- Traditional crime metrics miss early warning signs that signal brand damage, turnover, and declining foot traffic.
- CAS Scores reveal where perception – not violence – is the real threat, enabling smarter, lower-cost interventions.
THE SITUATION – Perception vs Reality
A large national retailer experienced decreasing in-store sales across multiple locations with relatively low crime rates and low-to-moderate CAP scores for Crimes Against People and Property. However, surveys and interviews as part of a risk assessment showed that customers and employees felt unsafe despite the actual crime rates and risk.
The retailer sought to identify and quantify the drivers of negative safety perception at these locations, separately from actual crime risk, recognizing that even in areas with low violent crime, visible disorder can reduce foot traffic, impact staff and customer comfort, damage brand perception, and signal emerging instability.
THE INTERVENTION
Based on proven criminological theory, the Research and Innovation (R&I) team at CAP Index understood that certain types of social disorder – like vagrancy, trespassing, and drug use – tended to cause fewer actual serious crimes, but because they occur frequently and “out in the open” they are seen more often by the public. In this retailer’s case, exposure to these crimes contributed to the feeling of danger at these stores.
To help customers understand and better address issues like these, CAP Index introduced a scoring component measuring these “Crimes Against Society (CAS).” Using CAP’s crime database, which is the largest assembled set of geo-located criminal incidents in the country, the R&I team could provide these scores and (where available) actual recorded events in our Crime Incident Feature (CIF) product. Areas with high CAS scores are perceived to be dangerous, even if actual serious crime risk and criminal incident statistics indicate that they are not yet particularly prone to persons or property offenses. This perception can result in customers and employees avoiding a location regardless of whether the danger is real or just perceived. Having CAS scores gives customers greater situational awareness at their locations so they can better monitor the type of threats they face.
“Crimes Against Society insights helped us identify sites with challenges we may not have known about. These scores helped us create a safer environment while supporting staff and customer confidence as well as sales momentum.
– VP, Security and Asset Protection
High CAS scores present themselves in vagrancy, disorderly conduct, drug-related issues, early-stage urban decay, and social disturbance. While these may not be inherently dangerous, they have a similar impact on a person’s willingness to visit a given location. For this retailer, the high CAS score has led to increasing employee turnover and decreasing in-store sales.
Mitigating the perception of crime requires different security measures than mitigating crime against persons or property. Rather than measuring fear directly, Crimes Against Society (CAS) scores isolate the conditions that drive negative safety perception. This allows businesses to distinguish between locations that are objectively unsafe and those that are statistically safe but give off an unsafe “vibe,” enabling more precise and cost-effective responses. For example:
- Simple signage or expanded staff training can be an easy first step to address CAS risk.
- Unarmed guards may mitigate CAS risk. But the premium for armed guards or off-duty police may yield little to no return.
- Video surveillance may marginally mitigate CAS risk. But adding analytics or AI to detect loitering or gathering crowds should significantly increase its effectiveness.
- Similarly, adding two-way audio to video surveillance may provide the same effectiveness as unarmed guards at a much lower cost.
THE TRANSFORMATION
By strategically incorporating improved signage, expanding staff training, and judiciously using unarmed guards, video analytics, and two-way audio, the retailer was able to directly mitigate the precise risk they were facing with pinpoint efficiency. The stores promoted its new measures and commitment to providing a safe environment. As a result, there was more foot traffic, a better shopping experience, and more sales.
Furthermore, CAS scores can be a precursor to more dangerous crime. Where CAS scores are high and CAP scores are low, increases in crime often follow soon afterwards. By effectively mitigating these CAS risks with efficient security measures, this retailer may also thwart a future increase in crime risk through the timely mitigation of the CAS risks that typically precede it.
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