Communication, Partnering With Police Drive Down Jewelry Industry Thefts

The jewelry industry experienced a 14.7 percent decline in crimes, according to the 2015 Annual Crime Report released by the Jewelers’ Security Alliance.

The total number of crimes against the industry decreased from 1,381 in 2014 to 1,177 in 2015. Total dollar losses also decreased from $77.8 million in 2014 to $69.3 million in 2015, a decrease of 10.9 percent.

The states with the most robberies in 2015 were California, Texas, Florida and New York.

The most active robbery month was January and the least active was November. Robberies generally occur early in the day, between 10:00 am and noon.

Smash and grabs most often occurred in shopping malls.

Other highlights from the report include:

1. There were arrests of two major smash and grab robbery gangs in the first half of 2015. As a result of these arrests, there were half as many smash and grab robberies in the second half of 2015 (24) as in the first half of 2015 (48). For the full year 2015, smash and grab robberies numbered 72 compared to 110 in 2014.
2. There was an arrest of a major rooftop burglary gang. As a result of the arrest of this gang, the number of burglaries in which the criminals entered from the roof decreased from 36 in 2014 to 19 in 2015, a decrease of 47.2 percent.
3. The number of jewelers killed in crimes against jewelry firms was two in 2015 compared to three in 2014, and the number of jewelers who were the victims of nonfatal shots declined from 15 in 2014 to 3 in 2015, an 80 percent decline.
4. The long term decline in dollar losses from crimes against jewelry firms in the U.S. has amounted to a 63.2 percent decline since 1998 in 2015 inflation adjusted dollars, and a 22.5 percent decline in the last five years.

Source: JSA