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Minister calls for police to work with local shops on retail crime
03 November 2007
Speaking at the BRC Retail Crime conference, Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker called for better local partnerhsips to tackle shop crime.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) announced figures at the crime conference that showed physcial violence and threats of physical violence to shop workers have doubled in the last year.This was a disappointing up-turn after falling levels of violence in the last couple of years. Kevin Hawkins OBE, Director General of the BRC, said 'These figures show that the real cost of retail crime goes far beyond the loss of stock and profit. Many retail staff have come to expect work-related violence as part of their normal life both in and out of work. Shop theft is not a "victimless" crime.'
In his response, Vernon Coaker MP, the community safety Minster, made it clear that he shared the view that abuse of shop workers should never be accepted as an 'occupational hazard'. He explained that the Government has established the national Retail Crime Security Group to help make shops safer. The Home Office has built engagement with local businesses into the targets for local Crime and Disorder Partnerships (CDRPs) because it was clear that CDRPs in many parts of the country have not been doing enough to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour in local shopping centres. The police inspectorate will also now be looking for evidence that local police forces are working with businesses. He called on retailers and their employees to get involved in neighbourhood policing teams to make sure that their concerns are heard.
In an earlier presentation, Alan Brown, Director of Security for Tesco, said that Tesco is committed to playing its part in building the safety of local communities. Tesco believe that this is an important aspect of their corporate social responsibility and will help to achieve sustainability because stores in crime free neighbourhoods do better business. He explained that all Tesco stores will be expected to take part in business crime reduction schemes where they exist and will be building better links with neighbourhood police schemes.
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