Safe places to work and shop are a key commercial imperative for retailers – but they are coming increasingly under threat.
Headlines about retail crime reaching epidemic proportions are an almost daily occurrence in both mainstream and retail press.
The British Retail Consortium’s latest survey describes retail crime as “spiralling out of control” and reaching worryingly record highs; signalled by a reported 440% increase in daily incidents since 2020 and a 50% rise in violence and abuse.
The implications for colleague wellbeing, customer safety and retailers’ bottom line through this significant financial hit is monumental, writes Nathan Peacey, Partner and head of the Retail & Consumer team at Foot Anstey LLP.
Customer theft losses have now hit £2.2 billion despite retailers spending £1.8 billion on prevention, combining for a seismic total deficit of £4bn for retailers. What is the solution to this worrying rise in retail crime?
Positive moves from government
Labour’s much needed Crime and Policing Bill, which details over 50 measures to help tackle retail crime and anti-social behaviour, is progressing through parliament. Key measures include a new specific offence of assaulting retail workers, and the removal of legislation that makes theft under £200 a summary-only offence, sending a clear message that any level of shop theft will be taken seriously. Additionally, the Bill introduces Respect Orders to ban repeat offenders from town centres, as well as the promise of 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers with a named officer for every community.
Initiatives such as the National Retail Crime Action Plan and Project Pegasus are also valuable additions to the retail landscape. Project Pegasus hopes to streamline the intelligence sharing process between retailers and the police; aiming to unpick the inner workings of organised retail crime gangs and catch issues before they come into fruition. The shared desire to reach this goal has also resulted in the development of OPAL; a specialist team working to tackle Serious Organised Acquisitive Crime – which 13 retailers have already pledged financial support for.
The Retail Crime Action Plan means that, provided retailers have and submit CCTV footage, police will pursue reasonable inquiries to recover stolen items. Not only could this mitigate large financial loss, but it could also contribute to a better environment for struggling retailers who may have previously felt a lack of support with this issue.
Whilst these positive developments send a clear message, the Police, Courts and Prison system’s resources to respond are limited. Additionally, none of this will address the societal challenge that 70% of retail crime is committed by individuals affected by addiction, homelessness and/or mental health issues according to the Centre for Social Justice.
Risk assessment & Mitigations
The fundamental questions that need addressing are: what are the risks to health and safety of customers and colleagues, and how can these risks be mitigated?
Mitigations
There are myriads of available potential mitigations which often come with a heavy price tag. Physical security guards are an obvious but expensive option, especially when the stores’ operating margins are considered. There are also increasingly prevalent technology solutions available which include the use of audio headsets, body-worn cameras, CCTV, AI to help identify suspects, and the controversial live facial recognition tech which brings in a larger debate around the delicate balance of individual versus collective rights.
Using the store layout to your advantage
A store’s layout is often only designed with the visual aesthetic in mind, but they can also be used to combat crime through careful planning. Narrow exits with tills nearby and judicious placement of products away from the front door are all relevant considerations available to create hurdles for retail thieves. Combine this with designing an ambient atmosphere to minimise customer angst and retailers might be onto a winner.
Grow the correct store culture
Stores that drive a culture of evidence gathering and reporting unsurprisingly reap the rewards. Through an internal reporting culture and systems to allow the effective recording and reporting of crime to the police, the urgent engagement from the authorities is forced. Allied to the new offence of assaulting retail workers being reported as a separate crime statistic, this should improve successful prosecution figures as it has done so in Scotland. The reputation of a store securing convictions and being diligent in the pursuit of justice will be a powerful deterrent to serial criminals.
Support your staff
Taking crime seriously and supporting colleagues has a massive benefit in terms of retention. The Retail Trust reports that colleagues that don’t feel supported after an incident are only 16% likely to want to stay in post, compared to over 60% of colleagues who do feel looked after. Therefore, post-incident support targeted at colleague wellbeing, learning loops, and incident analysis to feed into risk assessment on both the national and local level is invaluable. However, this is often not actioned by busy store workers whose incentivisation is often driven by different metrics for success.
Unite with the local community
Finding time for store and regional managers to engage locally is important. Local engagement with Police and Crime Commissioners to influence their priorities and Business Improvement Districts and Crime Reduction Partnerships to find joint local solutions is a worthwhile investment for the store’s protection.
Many Police Commissioners’ strategies don’t typically refer to retail crime as it is not as headline grabbing as more ostensibly serious crime. There should be a shift in agenda for what their forces are targeted and measured on so more emphasis is put on this spiralling issue.
Leadership
This multi-disciplinary approach and the ability to drive the agenda, weighing commercial imperatives and risk issues, feels like classic boardroom agenda items. Arguably this would benefit from leadership in the boardroom rather than different teams bidding for support for their own areas of responsibility.
Is it time for a new addition to the C-suite to tackle the £4bn problem? Chief Crimestopper anyone?
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