17^th Sept 2024

PCC holds his first Retail Crime Board, aiming to reduce shoplifting and violence towards staff.

Matthew Scott, Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner, held his inaugural Retail Crime Board today, which he hopes will reduce shoplifting and threatening and abusive behaviour towards staff.

He invited representatives of the business community, including leading retail brands, members of the customer service industry, town centre managers and senior police staff and officers to share their views and experiences. 

One larger retail company said they regularly had three or four cases of abusive or threatening behaviour towards staff reported a week. All agreed shoplifting is becoming more blatant and staff retention is more difficult as a result.  Another area of concern is the selling-on of stolen goods.

Data from Kent Police does show shoplifting in 2023 -2024 was at its highest level for 7 years*, and although so far this year the trajectory appears lower, August saw 1528 reported cases, with 26.6% of them solved and 22.3% of them resulting in a charge or summons.

Mr Scott said,

“I have launched this Retail Crime Board because I am very concerned about the levels of business crime across the county. It is a national problem, but one I think we can improve locally.  The Retail Crime Board is not going to be a talking shop, this is about building trust between businesses and the police, supporting those victims of crime as well as sharing good practise and developing effective partnerships.

We’ve already discussed how we can improve our data gathering and sharing and ways to build relationships with local beat officers.   I would encourage all retailers to sign up to their local ‘My Community Voice’ scheme.  This puts staff in direct contact with their local police team, making those connections easier.”

You can sign up to your local My Community Voice here: Home Page - My Community Voice Kent

NOTE FOR EDITORS

* Shoplifting in 2023-2024 was up 19.2% on the previous year, with 2433 more reported offences.

26.9% of those cases were solved. Figures are from the PCC’s Performance and Delivery Board held in June 2024.

ENDS