As the team operating against organised retail crime nears one year within Opal (policing’s national intelligence unit for serious organised acquisitive crime), as funded under the Pegasus arrangement, Opal reports some 108 arrests from 31 organised crime groups.
Briefly to recap, Pegasus a joint initiative between the Home Office, police and retailers and the Sussex Conservative police and crime commissioner (PCC) Katy Bourne, the joint national lead for PCCs on crime against businesses and retail. The aim; sharing of intelligence to gain a picture of the most prolific, cross-police border groups who are behind what the authorities acknowledge is an increase in crime against retail. The Met Police for example recorded some 90,669 shop thefts in the year to January 2025, a rise of 55 per cent compared with the year before (police and crime data and interactive dashboards can be found at https://www.london.gov.uk/what-wedo/mayors-office-policing-and-crime-mopac/data-and-statistics).
What they say
North Wales Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman is National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for acquisitive crime. She said: “We’re fast approaching a year since the organised retail crime team within Opal began accepting referrals and it’s positive to see so many results, with real impact being made. Behind each offender is not just a list of offences, but damage to businesses and all too often trauma experienced by retail workers who suffer abuse at the hands of these criminals.
“We want retailers, workers and the public to feel safe in our shops and to know that policing is doing everything we can to tackling the problem. Working in partnership with retailers, Opal can build a detailed picture of offending across borders so there is quite literally nowhere for these individuals and groups to hide.
“The recent announcements of a standalone offence for assault of a retail worker and the legislation change to ensure any shop theft offence is dealt with robustly, whatever the value, further strengthens our policing response and shows the seriousness of this criminality.
“In addition this dedicated work at a central level, we are seeing much progress in police forces developing their response to retail crime, working closely with their partners to improve the safety of our communities. From prevention to dealing with offenders, we must keep working collaboratively to drive this offending out of our high streets.”
Katy Bourne said: “I’m thrilled that our Pegasus partnership is working so well. The results so far from Opal’s Organised Retail Crime Team are impressive and demonstrate the value of the unique partnership between our major retailers and police to identify organised retailed crime gangs and prolific offenders. Momentum has been gathering since the start of Opal’s operations, leading to over 100 arrests across 31 different organized crime groups and £5.2m of losses linked to offenders. I’m delighted that our Pegasus Partnership has been proven successful and the investment from retailers has clearly paid off as the Government has now allocated funding to Opal.
“Information and intelligence-sharing will remain vital if we want to target offenders and make our high streets and shops safer places for everyone. My congratulations and thanks to the Opal team and our local forces for these excellent results.”
Results from the Opal Organised Retail Crime team since May 2024 include:
– 268 offenders have been identified; meaning, Opal was able to link offender/s to an incident where a suspect had previously not been known. Whether through the facial recognition database on the Police National Database (PND) or other routes.
– 93 vehicles have been identified linked to shop theft offending
– 112 pieces of intelligence either developed by Opal around ORC or intelligence received from retailers – then submitted into policing
– 194 collaborations and coordinations – where Opal has brought together police forces and/or retailers in a joint approach to disrupt an organised crime group.
– 32 ‘court outcomes’ related to shop theft offenders
– a total of 24 years in prison sentences for those who have already been through the courts (more to follow) and eight offenders deported.
About Opal
Opal’s team receives referrals from police forces and retailers and builds intelligence packages, mapping out offending across the country and providing investigative support to go after what the police term the ‘highest harm offenders’. A package will then be collated and shared with the most appropriate police force to take on the investigation.
The authorities point also to new legislation as announced by the Home Office in the Crime and Policing Bill that will make assault of a retail worker a stand-alone offence alongside a change to see all offences of shop theft are tried as ‘general theft’. The aim there: removing the perceived immunity granted to shop theft of goods to the value of £200 or less. Police at a national level are also reviewing progress on the retail crime action plan as launched by the Rishi Sunak Government in 2023.
