ACS has responded to new figures from the Office for National Statistics’ annual Crime Survey for England and Wales, urging retailers to report incidents of shop theft to the police.
According to the ONS survey, which covers the whole of retail, the number of police recorded shop theft incidents for the year ending June 2019 decreased by 4% to 368,745 offences.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “The continuing trend of ONS figures showing a decrease in the overall number of shop thefts being recorded by the police does not reflect what we see in our sector. Frustration with the lack of response and intervention to stop repeat offenders has led to significant under reporting of incidents like theft. We urge retailers to report all incidents of shop theft to provide an accurate picture to police forces.
Figures from the 2019 Crime Report show that the issue retailers are most concerned about in their stores is violence against their staff. There is also a clear link between theft and abuse, with challenging shop thieves being the number one cause of aggressive behaviour in stores.
The ONS Crime Survey has also shown that across all crimes, there has been a continued increase in the number of robberies where a knife or sharp instrument was used (up to a total of 18,987 offences).
ACS is currently working with the Home Office and the rest of the retail sector on a campaign to report all incidents of abuse when they occur. Posters for stores are available on request – more details are available here: https://www.acs.org.uk/lobbying/encouraging-retailers-and-colleagues-alwaysreportabuse.
The full results from the ONS survey are available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingjune2019
