3VR Case Study
Canadian TirE
“Where other systems merely record video,
the combination of 3VR technology with
Loss Prevention Services’ support and
monitoring allows us to stop organize retail
crime, reduce internal theft, and improve
internal store operations.”
— Kerry Leroux, Franchise Owner,
Canadian Tire #30
Customer
Canadian Tire is one of Canada’s most-shopped
general merchandise retailers with 479 stores across
the country serving over 180 million customers a
year. Canadian Tire Toronto has over 76,000 square
feet of retail, home and garden, and automotive
service space offering a wide variety of products and
services.
Challenge
Against a complex and growing backdrop of orga-
nized retail crime (ORC), Canadian Tire strives to
balance superior customer service with maintaining
store policies and procedures to protect its custom-
ers, employees, merchandise, and revenue. In
addition to general shoplifting, the store experiences
a wide variety of theft and fraud attempts on a daily
basis including returns desk fraud, fraudulent UPC
reproduction, and unauthorized access to car repair
services.
In a bustling retail environment, store staff and man-
agement try to focus on customer service, which
sometimes means that store policies and safe-
IN BRIEF
Customer: Canadian Tire
Integrator: Loss Prevention Services Limited
3VR SOLUTION:
3VR VIP Appliance
3VR VIP Facial Surveillance
3VR VIP License Plate Recognition
BENEFITS OF 3VR:
Superior video quality
Search capabilities reduce time spent on
investigations
License plate recognition verifies parking
lot activity
Remote monitoring improves safety
RESULTS:
Conduct investigations 100% faster
Deter ORC with alerts and case management
Secure valuable inventory lock up
Maintain safety and service procedures
in service station
guards are not followed as closely as possible. With
a large inventory of high priced items, management
was particularly concerned with ensuring that only
authorized managers obtained access to the secured
inventory area known as the “lock-up.” Addition-
ally, the store operates a 24 bay automotive service
station. It is incredibly important from a liability and
cost perspective that only vehicles with valid service
orders are admitted to the service station.
Because most Canadian Tire stores have similar lay-
outs and point of sale systems, when an ORC group
finds a way to exploit one store location, they quickly
move to other locations using the same technique to
defraud yet more stores.
While the store’s previous video surveillance system
was adequate at recording and storing video, per-
forming a simple search required multiple steps. This
meant that only one or two staff members were
adept at using the system and could carry out an
investigation. Further, there was no way to flag per-
sons of interest so that store staff could be alerted
when a known shoplifter or criminal entered the
Case Study: Canadian Tire
“I have a much greater peace of mind because we let the system do
the work in terms of finding the people that have been in the store.
We sleep a little bit better with this system because we can focus on
customers and selling.
 — Kerry Leroux, Franchise Owner, Canadian Tire #30
premises. Store management relied on intuition and
memory to recognize and address repeat crimi-
nals, which left them highly susceptible to the well
planned and executed attacks of ORC rings.
Toronto Store Owner, Kerry Leroux, wanted to imple-
ment a video surveillance system that would enable
the store to better address ORC as well as improve
the day-to-day management of store policies. With
dual goals of limiting loss and improving store opera-
tions, Leroux consulted Canadian security integrator
Loss Prevention Services.
3VR Solution
Loss Prevention Services presented a unified solu-
tion that combined the installation of 3VR’s Video
Intelligence Platform (VIP) with the implementation
of monitoring and investigative services from Loss
Prevention’s trained staff of security professionals.
The store installed a 3VR P-Series with 3VR VIP Ana-
lytics for Facial Surveillance and License Plate Rec-
ognition. Using footage from cameras installed at the
store entrances, service center, garden center, and
customer service desk, the 3VR VIP tracks events as
they happen and displays them in a simple to monitor
visual format. 3VR’s powerful search technology also
gives staff the ability to rapidly search video footage
and respond to events as they happen.
“We can search video more than twice as fast as
we used to,” said Leroux. “Before we would have
a stack of papers with the last 50 arrests sitting on
a desk. Now we can go to the 3VR [VIP] and pull
them up.”
Powerful Deterrent
Because of the size of the store and the number of
store locations with similar layouts, Canadian Tire
was looking for a solution to their ongoing problem
with repeat offenders. Once criminals find a weak-
ness in store security and are able to take advantage
of it, they often brazenly return to the store to steal
again, or try the same tactic at a different location
(often successfully). With the 3VR case management
tool, employees are able to flag known shoplifters
and potential fraudsters so that when they enter the
store, security can be alerted.
In one instance, a customer service agent thought he
recognized a customer trying to return a product; he
alerted security staff who were able to quickly pull
up recent surveillance footage and identify the cus-
tomer as part of a two-person team who had been
in the store earlier and were attempting to return an
item fraudulently.
The ability to quickly search through surveillance
footage and have high-quality images allows staff to
not only put together investigations quickly and build
solid cases for prosecution, but also allows manage-
ment to use the tools as a deterrent. By showing
shoplifters how easily and accurately they can be
identified, management can make it clear that the
store can very easily identify and prosecute them if
they try to steal from the store again. “We average
catching 3-5 thieves, per week,” said Leroux. “When
we interrogate someone, we show them video
footage of their crime. Then we show them how we
create an alert that will tell us if they enter the store
again. Once we do that, we know they aren’t going
to risk returning to our location.”
Moving forward, Leroux is excited about the pros-
pect of leveraging the 3VR and Loss Prevention Ser-
vices solution across more Canadian Tire locations
so that the stores can collaborate and send alerts to
each other to help reduce ORC and other forms of
fraud that hinder business.
Maintain Store Policies
In a hectic retail environment, maintaining the
balance between providing high-quality customer
service and ensuring that store policies and proce-
dures are followed can be difficult. While Canadian
Tire strives to provide its customers with the best
customer service possible, staff do not consistently
follow store policies designed to protect their large
inventory of high-priced merchandise.
 Case Study: Canadian Tire

Although the store has a secure “lock-up” that only

managers are allowed to access, they often lend their
key to a non-manager. It had been difficult to enforce
this policy until the installation of the 3VR system.
With 3VR, Leroux can quickly monitor footage of
who enters the lock-up using motion and facial
surveillance to ensure only authorized staff access
the area.

“Our staff always put the customer first,” said Leroux.

“But we still have to follow procedures. 3VR keeps us
honest and ensures we don’t cut corners.”

The store also uses 3VR to track cars that come in

to the service station to ensure that each vehicle
has a service order assigned to it. If a car enters
the service station without an order, not only is
the store liable for the vehicle, but the store could
potentially lose money on work being completed
without payment.

“With 24 service bays and more than 20 staff at work,
I need tools to help me ensure that store policies
are being followed,” said Leroux. “With License
Plate Recognition I can review all the cars that enter
the service station and ensure each car has a valid
service ticket.”
The Future
Leroux knows that once an ORC ring discovers how
to exploit a weakness at a particular Cana-dian Tire
location, it is highly likely that they will successfully
carry out the same scam at other locations.

Using Intelligent Technology to
Make Business Smarter
Canadian Tire understands that no single tool can
eradicate shoplifting and ORC, but with cutting edge
advanced video analytics like facial surveillance and
license plate recognition from 3VR, combined with
proactive and forensic monitoring services from Loss
Prevention, this solution promises tremendous reduc-
tion in fraud and theft without the hefty price tag of
other complex loss prevention solutions.
“Loss Prevention offers many valuable tools that we
can use to protect our store,” said Leroux. “When a
problem is detected, Loss Prevention has services
available to find out how it was done, and not only
bring the people to justice, and also to help us
modify our practices so that it doesn’t happen again.
And with their effective interrogation techniques,
they ensure that the store is protected with conduct-
ing sensitive investigations.”
“The key to using 3VR to stop ORC is get all the
Canadian Tire stores on the same platform,” said
Leroux. “Then we can set up alerts at one store and
know that if that same person tries to hit another
location, they will get caught.”
With a collaborative effort, the stores can work
together to be one step ahead of the criminals.
Using 3VR’s open platform for integration, Leroux
also wants to connect his 3VR to his Canadian Tire
point of sale (POS) system. This would allow him to
run reports based on exceptions like voids, returns,
and no sale transactions to audit for any suspicious
behavior.
“We know we’ve only begun to take advantage
of what the 3VR has to offer,” said Leroux. “We
expect to see a very short return on investment
because it is so simple to implement and use 3VR’s
advanced tools.”

“Our staff always put the customer first, but we still have to follow
procedures. 3VR keeps us honest and ensures we don’t cut corners.”

— Kerry Leroux, Franchise Owner, Canadian Tire #30

Case Study: Canadian Tire
About 3VR
3VR, Inc., the video intelligence company,
enables organizations to search, mine and
leverage video to bolster security, identify
and mitigate fraud and better serve cus-
tomers. 3VR’s Video Intelligence Platform
allows video surveillance systems to reach
their true potential and deliver a measur-
able and sustainable return on investment.
3VR is the video surveillance standard
for hundreds of global customers, includ-
ing leading banks, retailers, governments
and law enforcement agencies and owns
CrimeDex, an online community reaching
more than 600,000 fraud, loss preven-
tion and law enforcement professionals
dedicated to stopping crime. Based in San
Francisco, CA, the company is privately
held with funding from DAG Ventures,
Focus Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Kleiner Perkins
Caulfield & Byers, Menlo Ventures and
VantagePoint Ventures. 3VR’s VIP Appli-
ance is the three-time winner of the SIA
Best New Video Product Award and was
named Security Product of the Year from
Frost & Sullivan in 2006 and 2007, among
other awards. For more information, please
visit www.3vr.com.
3VR, Inc.
475 Brannan Street, Suite 430,
San Francisco, CA 94107
About Loss Prevention Services
Loss Prevention Services (LPS) Ltd. is
a Private Investigation Agency that was
founded in 1972. Loss Prevention Services
has recorded over 500,000 arrests over
the past 35 years through its highly
effective Loss Prevention Program. LPS
provides national organizations with inves-
tigation and security services that focus
on eliminating internal and external theft
and fraud. Clients include national and
local retailers, mid-sized firms and Fortune
500 companies searching for an effective
alternative to in-house security and loss
prevention. Loss Prevention Services
continues to help businesses combat
the ever increasing criminal element, the
seemingly inadequate punishment for such
behavior and the effect such behavior has
on a company’s bottom line.
Tel: 415.495.5790
Fax: 415.495.0255
Sales: 415.513.4611
Email: info@3VR.com
Website: www.3VR.com