Nisa managing director Peter Batt and head of retail Victoria Lockie are urging the government to aid both larger supermarkets and independent retailers in its plans to tackle retail crime.
The pair said in an open letter that while the national action plan is a welcome step, “we need to make sure all retailers, including independent retailers running their own stores, can feel safe simply doing their job”.
Last month, the government unveiled a plan which will see a new Organised Retail Crime capability formed within the Operation Opal unit, funded by Project Pegasus – a partnership between 13 retailers including John Lewis, Co-op, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Next.
As well as creating a new dedicated intelligence team, it will train retailers on information and intelligence to share with policing, and use facial recognition software across the public and private sectors.
Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning
Nisa’s call coincides with Usdaw’s Respect for Shopworkers Week, which promotes a message of ‘respect for shopworkers’ and campaigns for a standalone offence of assaulting or abusing shopworkers, which already exists in Scotland.
Two thirds of Usdaw’s members working in retail suffer abuse from customers, with six in 10 of these incidents triggered by theft from shops.
The open letter added: “We would urge independent retailers to ensure they are reporting crime, to give themselves the best chance of police action – and we would urge the police to ensure independent retailers are not left behind in the race to tackle retail crime.
“Independent retailers are the beating hearts of high streets across the country, and if we want to ensure they are still there for the communities they serve, then action needs to be taken now.”
This comes as Co-op has warned that actions must speak louder than words for the retail crime epidemic to end as it has experienced almost 300,000 incidents of shoplifting and abuse this year.
Like Nisa, the convenience retailer welcomes the new government plan, however has said that there is a long way to go.
