ACS has outlined its support for Usdaw’s annual Respect for Shopworkers Week, highlighting the importance of crimes against retailers being taken seriously by local police forces.
Figures from the 2017 Crime Report show that there were over 9,400 incidents of violence against convenience store staff and owners last year. Additionally, interim results of Usdaw’s Freedom From Fear Survey show that over the past year nearly two-thirds of shopworkers were verbally abused and 40% were threatened. These are significant increases on last year’s survey with abuse and assaults up by 25% and threats increased by 38%.
The theme of the 2017 Respect for Shopworkers Week is ‘Keep Your Cool’, encouraging the public to remember that there is never an excuse for abuse or violence.
Guidance is available for retailers as part of the 2017 Crime Report on how to deal with crime in their business and avoid confrontation in difficult situations, which can be downloaded at https://www.acs.org.uk/research/crime-report-2017
More information about the USDAW Freedom From Fear campaign is available at https://www.usdaw.org.uk/Campaigns/Freedom-From-Fear
