The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has reiterated previous calls to all Police and Crime Commissioners to prioritise shop theft - as more Commissioners outline their plans to tackle crime in their local areas.
The call followed a recent meeting with Ben Adams, Police and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire, convenience retailer Julian Taylor-Green, and ACS Government Relations director Edward Woodall, to discuss the impact of shop theft both at Julian’s store and across the convenience sector.
During the meeting, Ben Adams discussed the work that Staffordshire Police are doing to engage with the retail community to tackle retail crime, supporting the rehabilitation of persistent offenders and investing in new technology to help retailers report crime more effectively.
ACS has been campaigning for more action on shop theft from local forces throughout the last year, and has recently launched the Stop Shop Theft Campaign which calls on all Police and Crime Commissioners to deliver the new National Retail Crime Action Plan locally, tell retailers how to report shop theft offences and provide a single point of contact for businesses in their policing area. PCCs in Bedfordshire, Northumbria and Dorset have engaged with the campaign, submitting vital information for retailers trading in those areas.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “We are delighted to see more Police & Crime Commissioners across England and Wales prioritising retail crime and making it clear that shop theft and violence against shopworkers will not be tolerated. Partnership working and information sharing are the keys to making the implementation of the Retail Crime Action Plan work, and we want all retailers to engage with the police, report all crime and act together to identify and apprehend the prolific repeat offenders who blight communities.”
ACS is also in the final stages of collecting responses from retailers for its annual Crime Survey and is seeking information from retailers affected by crime in the past year for its forthcoming Crime Report.
