Security contractor Mitie’s Intelligent Security Operations Centre (ISOC) in Northampton was the venue for a Home Office minister’s address and the launch of Labour retail crime strategy ‘Tackling Retail Crime Together’, featured in the August edition of Professional Security Magazine.
Dame Diana Johnson, Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire, was joined by senior police, and retail figures. The strategy was unveiled by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper as part of the Safer Streets summer campaign. Other speakers at Mitie’s base included Supt Lisa Maslen, City of London Police, the new head of the National Business Crime Centre (NBCC); Ed Woodall, Government Relations Director, at the trade body the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS); and Jason Towse, Managing Director, Business Services, Mitie.
Mitie’s ISOC in Northampton does work for retail and other clients with 24-7 security operations in dedicated ‘SOCs’ where staff at work 24-hours review footage, identify potential crime, and support stores.
Dame Diana Johnson said: “For too long, retail crime has been dismissed as ‘low level’ whilst businesses suffer and communities lose confidence in their local high streets. Our Safer Streets Summer Initiative will see increased police patrols and local action in over 500 town centres this summer, and we are bringing in new laws to protect retail workers from assault and put an end to the effective decriminalisation of shop theft under £200.”
“This new retail crime strategy demonstrates what can be achieved when government, police and the retail sector work in partnership and is another vital step in our fight back against this corrosive crime.”
Jason Towse, Managing Director of Business Services at Mitie said: “It was a pleasure to welcome the Minister to our ISOC today and we are proud to use our expertise to support the development of the new Retail Crime strategy and collaborate with a strong set of partners including the Government, academia, retailers and the wider security industry to innovate and drive safer stores and safer communities.”
“The new ‘Fusion Cell’ will enable regular benchmarking of threats, predict trends and identify high harm places so extra support can be deployed. We urge more retailers to join the campaign to enable the sector to take a holistic view of the issues and target the root cause of criminality.”
About the strategy
The 12-page document gives the idea of a ‘Fusion Cell’: a model to fuse retailer knowledge with policing powers, to enable identification, assessment and management of criminal threats to the safety and security of retailers. A six-monthly assessment will be published on current, emerging and predicted trends and outcomes from previous activities. Also proposed is the sharing of intelligence relating to organised criminality to policing so they can investigate, arrest and work with the Crown Prosecution Service to achieve criminal justice outcomes.
The police will target ‘high harm’ places: assessing to allow plans to be developed that target the root cause of criminality with the intent of achieving a reduction in risk to retailers. The document also covers ‘offender management’; and interventions that address the motivations of those with the intent and capability to commit crime, such as drug addiction.
You can read the document at https://nbcc.police.uk/news/nbcc-launches-tackling-retail-crime-together-campaign-in-support-of-national-strategic-plan.
