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Evoking memories of "the good old days" can be good business, but security can't rely on systems from a bygone era.
THE 873 CHECKERS AND RALLY'S Hamburgers sites (some owned by Checkers Drive-in Restaurants, Inc., and some by its franchisees) sport a 1950s motif. They have found that evoking memories of "the good old days" can be good business. But asset protection methods have to keep up with the demands of modern times. That's why Checkers' corporate security has taken steps to ensure that surveillance systems at the corporate-owned stores aren't reminiscent of a bygone era.
An example of the type of incident that the company hopes such systems can help to deter occurred at a franchised Checkers in Orlando, Florida, in March 2005. A 56-year-old manager, Betty Jane Wise, who had worked at the restaurant for ten years, was shot and killed during an armed robbery. It took authorities a year to catch her killer.
Corporate security began its move toward the improved surveillance systems in 2003, when the company's loss prevention manager, Ron Kattner, realized that it was time to upgrade the existing security technology at the corporate-owned sites. At that point, "the equipment we had was more than ten years old," he says.
Previously, the company had transferred some of its stores' alarm services to Honeywell Security Monitoring (HSM). Kattner was pleased with the service HSM provided, so he asked whether it could offer the kind of CCTV system he wanted. HSM (which has since been purchased and renamed HSM Electronic Protection Services) worked with Kattner to create a system that met Checkers' needs.
The objective was camera surveillance...