Throwing The Book

Theft has become an issue for the Dallas Makerspace. Specifically equipment usage and material fees going unpaid. For example the wide format printers in the creative arts room are not cost effective to run given their track record over this last year. There’s other evidence of shrinkage in multiple areas of the space but that’s the most obvious and discussed right now.

There are a few ways the organization could handle this that I’d like to point out. This is just for discussion, nothing is binding, nothing is changing day to day. My goal is to raise awareness and get people thinking.

  1. Throw the book at thieves and report all thefts to the police
  2. Ban thieves and leave the police out of the matter
  3. Abandon equipment and activities that result in loses from theft
  4. Something you think would be a better idea (please share)
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I don’t see any benefit with involving the police for equipment usage / material fees. That path would be time consuming. It would not help recover any loss. The police, if you can get their interest, would focus on getting the two sides to compromise; which is something that could just as easily be handled internally.

There is also risk associated with making a mistake. While rare, there are people who tend to pursue legal action. Accuse enough people of theft, even petty theft, eventually that will entangle DMS in a slander / liable lawsuit.

The lazy vindictive monster in me likes #2.

However, when I was young, the usual course of action against petty criminals was to make them work it off (community service). I suggest something similar. If you short DMS you owe (X * amount stolen) / minimum wage in time to DMS (X=3?) with a floor (one hour?). Failing to complete the service in a reasonable time results in expulsion.

Add some monitors showing real-time feed from camera at trouble areas? Idea being that people seeing themselves on camera would be a larger motivation to do the right thing. Of course they are already on camera so we can punish after the fact, but real goal is prevention.

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I wonder if a poster of a pair of eyeballs would be effective…

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Haha ~ I’ve actually considered putting eyes up in the 3D Fab Room! :wink:

Seriously.

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I like this idea! I’ve discussed similar with Brooks (@bscharff) already…

At the old 'Space, the camera feeds could be seen by anyone in the room where the camera server was located, on a single monitor. I think it would be helpful for members to see exactly how clear the camera feeds are… Whether the display is located in one central location - like we had at the old space and/or a separate display near the area covered by each camera, as a deterrent - like the food service vendor does in our kitchen area at our current location…

To be clear: this is NOT a suggestion for any type of public access via the Internet for anyone outside of the members of Infrastructure handing our security resources. These displays would be viewable on the individual display(s) only.

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Yes, it’s probably no coincidence we seemed to have less of an issue
before, when persons-unknown were dutifully installing glued-on eyes
everywhere in the 'space. I just never understood until just now that
this was the real reason for them.

Ed

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How about this?

  1. Create a new ‘security’ committee whose purpose is to scan the video cameras and identify the miscreants.

  2. Create a formalized penalty system.
    a) Theft of service
    I. First offense, formal warning with written record.
    ii Second offense. Fine equal to twice the cost of services used. Temporary ban from space.
    iii. Permanent ban.
    b) Theft of property.
    I. First offense, formal warning with official record.
    ii. Second offense, permanent ban
    iii. If value of item is over $100, option to contact police and press charges with board action.

We’ve made the computer attached to the printer such that users have to log
into their DMS account. We’ve also placed print logging software on the
machine. We can now see which login prints how much. Additionally, we’re
telling folks to attach their name to their payments. In theory this should
help us eliminate and/or identify the shrinkage source. If this proves to
be effective then I’m not sure that we’ll need any further action.

While I feel that outright theft of services is a component I have a
feeling that part of the shrinkage is due to carelessness and ignorance of
policies. Anything we can do to make it easy for folks to pay the right
amount and to remind folks that they do need to pay will also help. Just
keep in mind that not all shrinkage is intentional.

-Steve Reeves

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We don’t need another committee to do that, we just need volunteers to do it :stuck_out_tongue:

I disagree, we have too many committees with too wide a focus already. Key, and vital functions should have direction provided by a focused committee.

Both logistics and infrastructure already have a broad set of responsibilities.

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First rule of Vigilante Committee – There IS no Vigilante Committee.

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Security is not vigalanteism. The sad facts is that some of our 1000+ members are stealing. This politically correct term ‘shrinkage’ is misleading. We are talking theft. I think my proposed rules are quite fair and account for the occassional forgetfulness, while providing for a progressive level of hand slapping.

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Theft is theft regardless. Leave it to the few to ruin it for the many.

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I actually meant that to be more in line with Brooks’ statement. I find your propsal acceptable and did not intend to imply you were suggesting “vigilanteism” by it.

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What sort of things are being stolen? I’m unfortunately not around nearly enough to notice things being stolen.

Shrinkage isn’t just a “politically correct” term for theft. It includes
theft, honest mistakes, loss due to damaged supplies, malfunctions and any
number of other situations that prevent revenue from being earned.

Solving the real problem here is multi-faceted and isn’t just a witch hunt
for jerks who don’t pay. Certainly that’s a real concern but there’s a
larger issue. I am hopeful that the print logging software (in the case of
the wide format printers) will help cut out theft while also giving us
useful statistics to help us identify other types of waste, shrinkage and
overhead that we possibly haven’t accounted for.

-Steve

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Well predominantly the ‘services’ like 3d printing, laser cutting, and large format printing. But Art has noticed things disappearing from electronics, and , I have noticed some . items disappear from machine shop.

And before we let Park take over the snacks from Allen, we were having about 20-30% of the total stolen…

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@pandabob I don’t think your statement is actually directed to my comment, though that is how it appears.

You make solid points, and I agree that Walter may be oversimplifying the real-world cases. I do think, however, that his system takes it into account, by offering written reprimand rather than “ban 'em for life” on the first offense. As with any system, one must assume there will be exceptions, errors, and growth/adjustments needed, which I believe is where you’ve expounded nicely on exactly that process unfolding right now with the large format printers.

Yes ‘shrinkage’ certainly covers things beyond theft, particularly where your large format printing is concerned, but the other factors you mention should be covered by the cost we charge members for the item; however it isn’t fair to charge members to cover theft. And there is theft ocurring. Some of it, unintentional, which is why I proposed the increasing scale of consequences. But some of it is intentional, and identifying and ultimately banning those who are doing that is vital to maintaining the viability of something like DMS.

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