Britain’s first police shoplifting squad catches twice as many thieves – The Telegraph

Twice as many shoplifting offences were solved after police set up the UKs first specialist unit to catch prolific thieves.

Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, has hailed the initiative as a potential model for tackling one of the most common but least prosecuted crimes amid fears the cost of living crisis could spark a surge in shoplifting.

It follows complaints from shops and retail chiefs that forces have been ignoring low level crimes like shoplifting, leading stores to give up on reporting the crimes to police due to a loss of confidence that they will investigate them.

The retail crime unit of nine officers led by a sergeant has been set up by Sussex police and is thought to be the first in the country where they are dedicated solely to investigating shoplifting and building a database of prolific offenders to link crimes.

They have created a computer hotline so retailers can file their theft reports instantaneously at the press of a button rather than spending 30 minutes passing on details over the phone.

The team build their cases with evidence including CCTV footage, witnesses and forensic analysis before passing it to frontline response or neighbourhood police officers to arrest and prosecute offenders.

Some 2,100 shoplifting offences in the past six months have been judged to have sufficient leads to merit a full investigation. As a result, the proportion solved has risen from 27 per cent to 53 per cent for response teams and from 21 per cent to 61 per cent for neighbourhood policing teams.

It follows a letter by Mr Malthouse in September 2020 to every chief constable ordering them to stop effectively decriminalising thefts under 200 and that they can and should prosecute thieves who steal small value items.

Mr Malthouse told The Telegraph: Shoplifting is far from being a victimless crime. It can seriously damage our small businesses, and the thuggery that often comes with it can have a profound impact on victims as well as the wider community.

We are working to outsmart these petty criminals, and it is local initiatives like this one by Sussex Police which, alongside our world-beating GPS tagging of offenders, are key to making our streets safer.

The initiative was set up by Sussex police chiefs and Katy Bourne, the forces police and crime commissioner and national lead for business crime, after discovering retailers were only bothering to report as little as eight per cent of offences because of a loss of confidence in investigators.

I dont like shoplifting being called a low-level crime. It is not, said Ms Bourne. The shoplifter today can become the organised crime boss of the future. We must not overlook these high volume crimes. It is about building back trust in the police and making sure people report crimes in the future.

Chris Neilson, Sussex Polices lead on business crime, said consultations with retailers found they felt the force did not take shoplifting seriously and that it was difficult for them to report crime.

By creating a specialist unit, it meant officers were dedicated to tackling shoplifting without being distracted by other tasks. They develop their skills and knowledge around specifically being able to speak and liaise with whoever they need in the business communities, said Mr Neilson.

They have the connectivity into individual CCTV control rooms, the managers in the local stores. They build relationships and that then builds confidence. It also increases our capability to identify offenders. We focus on the prolific thieves committing the most offences and harm.

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Britain's first police shoplifting squad catches twice as many thieves - The Telegraph