In Clohesy v. Food Circus Supermarkets, Inc., 149 N.J. 496, 499-500, 694 A.2d 1017 (1997), the decedent was abducted from the defendants shopping center parking lot and murdered. Although there had been substantial criminal activity in and around the lot, id. at 503, 694 A.2d 1017, there had been no prior abductions there. Id.at 500, 694 A.2d 1017. The Court reiterated prior holdings that the foreseeability of harm to the injured party is relevant to the legal issue of whether a duty existed, but not dispositive of the issue. Rather, determining whether a duty existed is an issue of fairness and policy "that implicates many factors."Id. at 502, 694 A.2d 1017. (quoting Carvalho v. Toll Bros. & Developers, 143 N.J. 565, 572, 675 A.2d 209 (1996)). Thus, a business owner had a duty to protect its patrons from foreseeable criminal acts which occurred on its property; that duty included the duty to provide security for the business's parking lot. Id. at 504-05, 517, 694 A.2d 1017. The "totality of the circumstances" has to be viewed to determine if criminal conduct is likely to occur. Notably, the Court held that a finding by the jury that security guards or surveillance cameras were required to meet the defendants duty to its customers was not an "improper delegation of the governmental obligation to provide police protection." Id. at 519, 694 A.2d 1017. It reached that conclusion because a security guard would merely report suspicious criminal activity to help avert crime; he or she would not have the authority to investigate crime, or arrest and prosecute suspects. Ibid. Thus, the defendant owed a duty to the decedent to provide some measure of security in the parking lot. The Court did observe, however, that imposing a duty on small business owners would have to be determined on a case-by-case basis, applying the totality of the circumstances standard. Id. at 520, 694 A.2d 1017.