Four national campaigns are due to run in the week of November 9 to 15, to promote staff safety in shops. Running it are the police’s National Business Crime Centre (NBCC), the trade body the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) and retail sector charity the Retail Trust.
Supt Lisa Maslen, the NBCC’s Lead, said: โRetail workers should be able to go to work without fear of abuse, threats, or violence. The new specific offence sends a clear message that this behaviour is unacceptable and must be taken seriously. By bringing Safer Business Action together with ShopKind, Respect Week and Letโs Respect Retail, we can combine awareness, prevention, support, and enforcement. Strong partnerships between policing, retailers and communities are vital. This week is about turning that partnership into visible action and making retail safer for everyone.โ
Campaigns
The NBCCโs Safer Action Week brings together police forces, businesses, Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BCRPs), Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), security partners, and others. The ACSโs ShopKind campaign promotes kind behaviour towards shop workers, and raises awareness of the impact of abuse, verbal or physical. Usdawโs Respect for Shopworkers Week campaigns against the violence, threats and abuse experienced by retail workers, encourages members to report incidents and states that abuse should never be part of the job; while the Retail Trustโs Letโs Respect Retail campaign encourages shoppers to show simple acts of courtesy, kindness and respect to create more respectful shops. The four, with the trade body the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and 16 major retailers such as supermarket chains, wrote to the Home Secretary calling for the stand-alone offence of assault of a shop worker to come into force as soon as possible. That was part of the Crime and Policing Act, Labour’s first major law on crime prevention, passed in April. See the letter at: www.usdaw.org.uk/HomeSec9-26.
Labour conference
At last week’s Labour Party conference in Liverpool, pictured, meanwhile, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in a speech, while trumpeting that murders and serious violence cases were down, admitted that some crimes, โparticularly those that tear at the fabric of a local community are still too high. Like shop theft, which though now falling, is still far too high.โ As for how to respond, she spoke of neighbourhood policing, โwhich was hollowed out under the Conservative government but which we know cuts crime and deters criminalityโ, and proposed reform of police structures, notably a โNational Police Serviceโ.
Fringe event
The ACS ran a fringe meeting at the conference on tackling ‘dodgy shops’ selling counterfeit goods or otherwise trading unlawfully; chaired by Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester Kate Green, featuring Debbie Robinson (CEO, Our Coop), Duncan Stephenson (Director of Policy and External Affairs, CTSI), Melanie Onn (Labour MP for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes) and Ed Woodall (ACS Chief Executive). Woodall said: โResponsible convenience stores are being undermined by rogue popup shops and mini marts operating without fear of enforcement action. We need a targeted strategy to shut them down for good, support legitimate businesses and restore pride in the places where people live, work and shop.โ
Safety videos
Videos of advice on how to deal with incidents such as being filmed without consent or targeted outside stores have been shared by the Retail Trust. A retail security guard who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Trust: โWe deal with a lot of antisocial behaviour and a couple of times a month, Iโll be catching the bus or train home and see people weโve had to ask to leave that day. It does put a thought in your head that they might come over to you and become hostile, and that can feel worrying because youโre outside of your workplace, your CCTV cameras and your usual protections. I just try and stay calm and donโt create any animosities.
“Thereโs cameras on phones, in glasses and on watches now and theyโre being used a lot more. If youโre dealing with a disruptive customer and ask them to leave, they can suddenly start filming you to try and catch you out.โ And a handbook contains examples from leaders at NEXT, Currys, Reiss and Bensons for Beds of how they are supporting staff with customer abuse, financial wellbeing and managing their mental health.
