42% of retail colleagues in the UK report feeling unsafe or at risk coming to work. That is nearly half of the estimated three million people who show up every day to keep shelves stocked, customers resourced, and communities running. For Karen Warwick and Iona Blake, that statistic is not a data point but the reason they come to work.
In the first episode of the Voices in Loss Prevention '25 series, Auror's Ellen Dick sits down with two of bp's most senior security leaders to talk about what it really means to lead with empathy in an industry that is becoming more complex, more dangerous, and more human all at once. Their conversation covers career journeys shaped by personal challenge, leadership built on listening, and a safety culture that starts well before anything goes wrong.
Key takeaways from this episode:
- The best loss prevention strategies are designed for both colleagues and customers. When frontline teams feel supported and informed, safety outcomes improve for everyone.
- Empathy is not soft. Understanding why someone commits a crime or behaves the way they do is what enables smarter, more holistic responses.
- Owning what makes you different, whether that is a disability, a diagnosis, or a lived experience, can become one of your most powerful leadership tools.
Designing a security strategy for the person on the shop floor
Iona Blake's approach to loss prevention starts with a simple reframe: stop thinking solely about your customers and start thinking more about your colleagues. It was a shift she traces back to a single moment in a meeting early in her career.
"We've got to get it right for the colleagues on the shop floor, because they're the ones that are looking after the customer. They're the frontline. So you've got to make it easy for them. You've got to make life work for them, for them to deliver great care for the customer, which is ultimately what retail is there for."
That philosophy runs through everything Iona and Karen do at bp. Every briefing, every webcast, every site visit starts with a safety moment. Not as a compliance checkbox, but as a genuine cultural anchor. As Karen puts it, whether someone works in a refinery or at a retail gas station, everyone deserves to go home safe.
Empathy as a loss prevention strategy
Karen has spent time in courts watching people who have committed crimes against bp's stores. What she sees there has shaped the way her team approaches its work.
"I see so many people in court that are struggling with mental health issues, neurodiversity. Not always bad people, just life has dealt them a really difficult hand. We never lose sight that we are victims of crime, but we want to think more holistically."
That same thinking plays out at the frontline. Iona describes watching a pharmacist defuse a hostile situation by asking a simple question: are you okay? The customer burst into tears. She was in pain. The moment that looked like aggression turned out to be someone who needed a different kind of help entirely. Understanding the why behind behavior is not just more humane but also gives frontline teams better tools, and it means they are less likely to take difficult interactions personally.
Owning what makes you different
Both Karen and Iona have navigated personal challenges that shaped who they are as leaders. Karen received her autism diagnosis as an adult. Iona has lived with hearing loss since childhood. Both went through periods of keeping those things quiet, and both found that speaking openly about them changed things, not just for themselves, but for the people around them.
"It becomes a superpower if you channel it in the right way, because other people start to open up to you. The number of women I talk to who are quite open about what's going on in their lives, that they may be dealing with a disabled child, they may be a single parent. What a huge privilege just to be part of that discussion."
For Karen, the shift came from watching her daughter, who is also autistic, own her diagnosis without apology. If her daughter could do that, so could she. The conversation about allyship that closes the episode reflects this same thread.
Karen and Iona are two leaders who have built their careers on staying close to the frontline, listening before acting, and bringing their whole selves to a job that asks a lot of the people who do it. Their conversation is a reminder that the qualities that make someone a great security leader are often the same ones that make them a great human being.
Watch the full episode to hear Iona's advice for anyone thinking about a career in loss prevention, Karen's story about a cash handling challenge solved in half an hour by frontline colleagues in Mexico, and the question that has officially replaced the classic "what's your favorite product in your store."
