Q: Could you tell us more about the relationship between mall security and individual store security?

A: The mall security forces deals with the common areas only. Stores are responsible for their own internal security. Store security can include floorwalkers, cameras and the magnetic thingies at store doorways. However you need to remember that a lot of these stores have as their only security force some young girl being paid minimum wage with no security training, so we do our best to assist them as much as possible. We run seminars for employees on how to handle security situations but they have been ill attended. I am now offering them on an individual store-by-store basis. We have a new phone system with caller ID so that if a clerk feels threatened, she can just pick up the phone and it will automatically ring twice and then she hangs up. That way we know there's an incident and we can go and offer assistance. Most of the time it's a false alarm.

Q: How many cameras are in the public area?

A: I'm not able to give you an exact number. That's confidential but it's around 20. We are in the process of a three year program over the course of which, we will be spending over $250 000 dollars. The first year was the inside, next year we're going to redo the coverage outside and then the third year will be covering employee entrances, side halls and other spots we've missed.

Q: Is security mainly a way of stopping crime or catching criminals in the act? We've noticed that most of your cameras in common areas are hidden inside domes, for instance. Why is that?

A: First of all, the dome cameras are less obtrusive. Most people don't realise that they are even cameras. But if you're the type of person who's going to be committing crimes, you'll know what they are. The other advantage is that you can't tell which way they're pointing at any given time. With the directional camera, you just have to step out of the way of the camera. Generally, they run in preset patterns but we can take manual control of them and start recording realtime if we want to watch someone.

We use them to keep track of repeat offenders. We know most of them by sight, and as soon as they come in and are noticed by one of the officers or a camera, they are watched.