Met Police joins forces with major retailers on crime fighting action plan
Senior leaders from the Met Police force have teamed up with some of the UK’s largest retailers on an action plan to help tackle crime in London.
The plan was put together as part of a roundtable discussion which took place at New Scotland Yard and included the assistant commissioner for the Metropolitan Police, two deputy mayors, and around twenty retail organisations.
The outcome resulted in representatives agreeing on priorities for improved ways of working together to reduce crime as part of a wider plan to deliver stronger outcomes for the high street.
Emphasis was placed on improving evidence sharing, supporting each other through the criminal justice process, and giving greater priority to retail crime.
Police agreed to:
- Prioritise attendance to violent retail incidents and those where the offender is detained
- Improve updates to retailers on the progress and outcomes of reported crimes
- Focus enforcement on prolific offenders and organised crime groups
Retailers agreed to:
- Ensure high quality evidence, including CCTV and body-worn camera footage, is preserved and shared
- Provide police with a single point of contact, to reduce delays
- Give colleagues the necessary time to support the criminal justice process
Reflecting on the partnership, Helen Dickinson, CEO at the British Retail Consortium, said: “We hope today’s action plan can boost collaboration between retailers and the Metropolitan Police: working together and sharing intelligence is essential to tackling the scourge of retail crime. Theft already costs shops hundreds of millions of pounds every year – money that would be better spent investing in lower prices and improving the customer experience.
“The Crime and Policing Act offers police new powers to clamp down on criminals and it is essential that offenders are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Better intelligence sharing, improving reporting, and robust enforcement are critical to turning the tide on retail crime once and for all.”
While Matt Twist, assistant commissioner for Frontline Policing at the Metropolitan Police, said: “We understand that shoplifting has a corrosive impact on businesses, retail workers, and communities. That’s why we remain committed to engaging with the retail sector and today’s roundtable is another step in the right direction.
“By putting more officers into our neighbourhoods, we have cut shoplifting offences by nearly four per cent, but we know there’s still more work to be done. Sharing evidence is crucial in building strong cases and stopping offenders, we will continue to work with business to ensure incidents are reported to bring those offenders to justice.”
The work with the Met Police is the latest in the BRC’s quest to support British retailers. You can read Watch Insider’s report on the BRC asking Government to be mindful of regulation of flexible working HERE:
