A major crackdown on shop thefts in Nottingham city centre saw officers make arrests in 83 separate investigations last month.
Britain has seen a surge in shoplifting in recent years but offenders are having difficulty evading neighbourhood police in the heart of the city.
That’s because officers are continuing to clampdown on retail thefts by working with businesses to detect shoplifting and identify suspects.
Once tracked down, many offenders have quickly found themselves in court thanks to a direct charging scheme, known as Operation Retail. Led by retail crime officer PC Phil Yates, the scheme has removed the necessity to interview suspects where there is clear and overwhelming evidence, freeing officers up to investigate other reports.
File image
Such has been the success of Op Retail, it has been incorporated into the wider Operation Reclaim project – which was launched in May and is a partnership approach to tackling the major issues affecting the city centre, resulting in more than 450 arrests to date.
As well as tracking down offenders, neighbourhood officers have continued working with retail partners to prevent offences happening in the first place, contributing to a 10% reduction in shoplifting over the past two months.
PC Phil Yates said he and his neighbourhood policing colleagues will continue to track down and arrest those who commit shop thefts in the city centre.
He said:
“Retail crime has a significant impact on local businesses, which is why we are committed to doing all we can to reduce thefts and pursue offenders, especially the most prolific and habitual offenders.
“I’m delighted that our efforts are paying off with shoplifting down 10% in the city centre. This has been part of a three-pronged approach to tackling retail crime, with the primary focus being on the investigation and detection of crime, as well as ongoing work with retail partners to attempt to prevent and reduce crime from occurring at their premises.
“Part of this includes Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) applications. As a neighbourhood policing team, we have successfully obtained CBOs against repeat offenders this year, and further applications have been made against some of the individuals arrested in June.
“Many of these individuals were charged without interview due to overwhelming evidence where they pleaded guilty at the first appearance in court. Op Retail has sped up the efficiency with which retail-related thefts can be investigated and suspects charged to court with many of these suspects often being circulated or arrested and found guilty in court not long after investigations have commenced.
“A lot of hard work has gone in throughout June by officers across the three neighbourhood teams at Byron House, supported by response officers, the prisoner handling team at custody and partnership agencies and businesses across the city centre.”
