Anti-Theft Systems

It was not long ago that anti theft systems placed in the shopping malls and large stores were CCTV cameras and store personnels keeping an eye on shoppers.These provisions were not sufficient to stop shoplifting incidents.In case of stores selling expensive items such as diamonds, jewellery's etc  such incidents could result in large losses.

Initially RFID tags and systems were introduced in the shops selling expensive items where the return on investment is justified but as price of such system declined over the time on the other hand cost of manpower is increased, these system became common in supermarkets and shopping malls. Management relies on these system heavily to stop the cases of theft. CCTV cameras are used only as a backup device.These devices can alert security personnel as soon as theft takes place unlike CCTV in which sometimes it takes hours of labor to go through video footages to identify the thief.

CCTV View of a Store

Stores place RFID Anti-theft tag on merchandise for their protection.These tags are reusable which ensure that once the item is sold tag can be used for other items.These tags are attached by the mean of plastic string or band with high tensile strength to ensure that they cant be broken easily. If someone  tries to walk out of store with the merchandise , RFID door antennae placed near the exit will detect the presence of tag and sound the alarm. However in case of genuine shopper, near the checkout counter tag will be removed by the store personnel by cutting the string and no alarm will be raise when person walks out with the item. several times disposable tags is used by the stores so they are subjected to high electromagnetic radiation by the store personnel to destroy the tag . In this case as the person walks out of the store tag though physically present would not cause the raising of alarm.

RFID Door Antenna

RFID Tag Placed on Items

Future Scenario:


It is believed that almost all stores will implement this anti theft technology as their cost will keep on falling owing to large demand , large supply and modified cost effective technology.The large use of the same is also due to disliking of crude methods like frisking by the genuine shoppers. there is always a fear of harming the relationship with the customers.by such measures of security.Even retailers will start using RFID tags for the purpose of tracking inventory, shelf replenishment and collecting information about the buyer behavior.However simple anti theft tags would not cater to all these operations so more technically advanced tags will be needed integrating all the operations.