Shopkeepers feel abandoned by government and police
Shopkeepers feel they are isolated in their fight against criminals with law enforcers abandoning shops to the crooks. That is according to preliminary findings from the British Retail Consortium’s annual Retail Crime Survey.
Early results from the survey, to be published in full on October 11, indicate that retailers believe the government and the police are not seriously committed to tackling retail crime. Findings include:
– 90% believe retail crime is low on the Government’s agenda.
– 86% of retailers believe the government is failing to properly address the issue.
– 77% are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with police response times.
– Just 5% believe police treat retail crime as anything other than a low or very low priority.
BRC Director General Kevin Hawkins said: “These figures show shopkeepers feel they have been abandoned. Attempting to hand shoplifters over to the police has become time wasting and futile. Too often they are not interested and even when there is a successful prosecution the penalties are derisory. A lot of store managers are now resigned to the fact that their own efforts at beating the crooks will not be supported.”
The new BRC figures come as the Sentencing Advisory Panel (SAP) consults on its widely criticised proposal to further water down penalties for shoplifting. They include removing the threat of prison from even the worst repeat offenders.
The SAP’s own research shows 95 per cent of those convicted of shop theft had at least one conviction and, on average, each offender had been sentenced 19 times before.
The BRC believes that a combination of weak penalties and poor enforcement has led to the proliferation of shop crime. It is calling on both the government and police forces to recognise the significant negative impact retail crime has on retailers, communities and the economy and to make it a greater priority.
Kevin Hawkins continues: “The retail industry has poured billions of pounds into state of the art security systems designed to detect and detain shoplifters but this investment is not as effective as it should be because law makers and enforcers fail to treat shop theft seriously.
“This is no victimless crime. Ultimately the costs fall on honest shoppers and retailers. For some retailers, especially smaller ones, the losses may even threaten their viability.
“Failure to tackle shoplifting significantly undermines efforts to reduce other forms of crime. It’s an entry level offence. The worst offenders quickly graduate to other forms of crime.
“Ministers and police chiefs need to recognise retail crime has consequences. I urge them to work with retailers not abandon them.”
