Retailers, police and ministers are looking to tackle rising levels of shoplifting with a new “zero-tolerance” plan as offences have hit a record high of 1,000 a day.
As being discussed at 10 Downing Steet today (23 October), shoplifting will have a dedicated national unit for the first time to investigate cases from an organised crime perspective, The Times reported.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council’s (NPCC) Operation Opal unit will employ six new intelligence analysts to crack down on shoplifting.
In September, 13 retailers including John Lewis, Co-op, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Next invested a total of £600,000 into a new partnership – named Project Pegasus – which will now help to fund the new unit.
Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning
The unit will analyse information from crime reports and footage from CCTV, dashcams and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) to identify organised crime groups.
Police forces will look at the CCTV footage provided by retailers and run this through the Police National Database for each shoplifting offence, and are expected to attend the scene of every incident reported to them that has involved a threat of violence to store workers.
Store security guards are also expected to be given new guidance on how to detain shoplifters under citizens arrest – a move urged by policing minister Chris Philp earlier this month.
Philp will be chairing the meeting at 10 Downing Steet today with attendees including North Wales police chief constable Amanda Blakeman, Association of Police of Crime Commisioners head of retail crime Katy Bourne, City of London Police, the 13 retailers involved in Project Pegasus, the Association of Convenience Stores and the British Independent Retailers Association.
