Verbal abuse and violence are daily realities for staff in convenience stores, that can cause life changing mental and physical harm, says the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) in its annual crime report.
Among the findings, as aired at an ACS event in Birmingham: the top three products targeted by thieves are 1) alcohol, 2) confectionery and 3) meat; most, 61 per cent of retailers believe that anti-social behaviour in or around their store has increased over the past year; and about half, 52pc of retailers believe incidents involving organised crime groups have increased over the past year.
Comment
ACS chief executive Ed Woodall said: โConvenience stores are doing everything they can to keep their colleagues and customers safe, investing in defensive measures to protect their businesses. The latest numbers on theft and abuse are moving slowly in the right direction, but still represent a daily battle for thousands of local shops against hardened criminals and organised gangs that are brazenly clearing entire shelves and targeting high value products to sell on elsewhere.
โRecent efforts from the Government and the police to tackle retail crime on our high streets and in our town centres are welcome, along with an increased police presence that makes the biggest difference to how safe people feel in their communities. We must continue this momentum when the Crime and Policing Bill comes into force and send a clear message that together, retailers, the police and the justice system will not tolerate theft.โ
Policies
The report makes three policy recommendations:
– on the Crime and Policing Bill, the Labour Government’s first and flagship legislation on crime reduction, the ACS points to penalties for assaults on shop workers and a focus on neighbourhood policing, that it says must lead to visible enforcement against shop thieves and violent offenders;
– trading standards across the country is chronically underfunded and this has given black market operators the green light to trade illicit goods, such as tobacco and vaping products, brazenly. The ACS wants enforcement against ‘illicit trading on the high street’ – including of goods stolen from convenience stores, sold at a discount; and
– the ACS is calling for CCTV systems to be exempt from business rates. The association also seeks clearer guidance for retailers from the data privacy watchdog the Information Commissionerโs Office (ICO) on the use of facial recognition to identify prolific thieves; and a review of the relevant legal frameworks.
The report is freely available at the ACS website. More in the May edition of Professional Security Magazine.
