Over 500 towns have signed up to the Home Secretary’s Safer Streets summer blitz that will see shops benefit from increased police patrols and local action to tackle town centre crime and anti-social behaviour.
Thousands of shoppers and businesses will see increased police presence, stronger prevention and enforcement action by police and councils to support safer high streets this summer.
Over recent years street crime has sky-rocketed, with theft from the person more than doubling between December 2022-2024, and there has been record levels of shop theft, up by more than 60% – with offenders increasingly using violence and abuse against shopworkers.
This marks a key step in delivering the government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which from July will see named, contactable officers in every community, increased peak time patrols in town centres and anti-social behaviour leads in every force.
Commissioned by the Home Secretary, Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales have developed bespoke local action plans with police, businesses and local councils to crackdown on crime this summer.
The aim is to support town centres to be vibrant places where people want to live, work and spend time, and restore faith in community policing after years of declining police officer presence on Britan’s streets.
These plans include increased visible town centre policing and ramping up the use of targeted enforcement powers against troublemakers – including banning perpetrators from hotspots.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said:
“High streets and town centres are the very heart of our communities. Residents and businesses have the right to feel safe in their towns. But the last government left a surge in shop theft, street crime and anti-social behaviour which has left too many town centres feeling abandoned.
“It’s time to turn this round, that’s why I have called on police forces and councils alike to work together to deliver a summer blitz on town centre crime to send a clear message to those people who bring misery to our towns that their crimes will no longer go unpunished.
“The fact that 500 towns have signed up shows the strength of feeling on this issue.
“Through our Safer Streets Mission and Plan for Change, we are putting officers back on the beat where you can see them and making our town centres safe again.”
The summer initiative will also support young people, making sure there are activities across the 500 towns for young people to be involved in throughout the holidays.
The Home Office, alongside police, retailers and industry are also launching a new Tackling Retail Crime Together Strategy, which will use shared data to assist in disrupting not just organised criminal gangs, but all types of perpetrators including prolific offenders who are stealing to fund an addiction and ‘opportunist’ offenders.
Creating thriving town centres where businesses and communities can flourish supports the government’s growth mission, raising living standards, backing local economies and supporting communities.
Initiatives taking place this summer include:
- In Humberside, police are using real-time mapping to deliver dynamic patrols to target emerging problem locations while reassuring local communities.
- In Devon and Cornwall, police are embedding specialist anti-social behaviour lawyers to fast-track enforcement activity.
- In Derbyshire, police have developed a Night Time Economy Charter to help deliver consistent proactive policing and coordinated management across the four largest local town centres.
- In Wales, Dyfed-Powys Police are targeting seasonal, tourist towns through early police visibility, deterrence and community reassurance.
- In Nottinghamshire, police have introduced a new diversionary intervention programme for Out of Court Resolutions with conditions attached for problem offenders.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:
“We are on the side of local businesses, and our Plan for Change is helping create the right conditions for our great British high streets to thrive.
“The Safer Streets Summer Initiative will play a vital role in achieving this by keeping footfall high, communities and those that work in them safe, and the economy growing.”
Shop theft and the abuse of shopworkers has become an endemic problem for Britain’s high streets with many shopworkers victimised in the same communities where they live.
The government is set to introduce a new law to protect shop workers from this vile abuse.
Record levels of shop theft have been driven not just by organised crime gangs but drug addiction for some prolific offenders and opportunism for others.
The new Tackling Retail Crime Together Strategy will bring together multiple sources of data from industry and policing to create a single avenue for intelligence to help better target and respond to perpetrators.
Police and retailers will also team up with security firms and local communities to locate the highest harm areas and identify the role offender management programmes can play in breaking the cycle of crime for repeat offenders.
Anthony Hemmerdinger, Managing Director, Boots said:
“Retail theft alongside intimidation and abuse of our team members is unacceptable, so we welcome this additional support from Government and the police to strengthen shopworker protection.
“While we continue to invest significantly in schemes to deter and disrupt crime, including our state-of-the-art CCTV monitoring centre and bodycams for our team members in stores, it is only through collaboration with Government, police forces, and local communities, that we can ensure high streets feel like welcoming and safe spaces for people to work, shop and visit, all the time.”
Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Emily Spurrell said:
“Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and Deputy Mayors know how much people want to rid their neighbourhoods of criminal and anti-social behaviour (ASB) that blights too many communities. Tackling retail crime and ASB is essential to allowing our town centres to flourish. People have a right to feel safe and shop workers shouldn’t have to defend their stores against regular and organised theft, putting themselves at risk of violence.
“As the public’s voice in policing, we have long understood that neighbourhood policing is key to addressing these issues which is why we welcomed the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. It will see thousands more officers on our streets and introduce specialist training for them to operate effectively within local communities, building trust.
“With our local police forces and other partners in support of the Safer Streets Summer initiative, PCCs and Deputy Mayors will be working harder than ever to target criminal and anti-social behaviour so that people feel safe and have pride in where they live and work. We are determined to deliver real and demonstrable change so that communities and town centres can thrive and prosper.”
The initiative launches today at an event hosted by the Home Office and the English Football League at Derby County Football Club, attended by partner representatives from police, businesses, local councils and local government.
It will see increased collaborative community-led interventions across sectors such as schemes to keep kids out of trouble during the summer holidays and targeted prevention activity with businesses, to not only tackle crime, but prevent crime and anti-social behaviour happening in the first place.
A total of 43 towns in the East Midlands are involved in the summer blitz that was launched in Derby on Thursday, with the list as follows:
Derbyshire
- Derby
- Chesterfield
- Ripley
- Ilkeston
- Ashbourne
- Glossop
- Long Eaton
- Alfreton
- Belper
- Bakewell
Leicestershire
- Leicester
- Loughborough
- Market Harborough
- Oakham
- Hinckley
- Coalville
- Melton Mowbray
- Ashby-de-la-Zouch
Lincolnshire
- Lincoln
- Boston
- Louth
- Stamford
- Spalding
- Gainsborough
- Grantham
- Skegness
- Mablethorpe
- Sleaford
Northamptonshire
- Northampton
- Kettering
- Corby
- Rushden
- Wellingborough
- Daventry
Nottinghamshire
- West Bridgford
- Beeston
- Arnold
- Newark
- Mansfield
- Hucknall
- Worksop
- Retford
- Sutton in Ashfield
