The September issue of Professional Security reported on a pioneering scheme in Brighton and Hove, seeking to pull the most prolific shoplifters off the anti-social – and expensive – cycle of drug addiction and chaotic lifestyles.
Retailers as a result are saving hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. Here is the story so far, from Terry Davies, crime manager at Brightonโs Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP).
The shoplifting project targets the most prolific shoplifters, identified by the Business Crime Reduction Partnership and Sussex Police. The identified top 20 most prolific offenders in Brighton and Hove have a total of 920 convictions between them. The project aim is to reduce offending behaviour by this client group, and to assist them in engaging with social care interventions. The principal beneficiaries of the project are businesses and the clients.
Why do the project?
In 2003, BCRP received 1,792 shop theft incident reports from their members. Of these, 84 per cent were suspected of being drug or alcohol-related. It is estimated by the BCRP that £3m of goods are stolen by shoplifters in Brighton and Hove every year. All of the client group have substance misuse issues, with the majority engaging in theft primarily to raise money to fund their drug use. The project generally focuses on helping clients address their substance misuse problems by engaging them in treatment.
The project is carried out by an Assertive Outreach Worker, employed and managed by Crime Reduction Initiatives (CRI), and funded by Brighton & Hove Drug and Alcohol Action Team, with money from the Home Office Business Crime Team. Multi-agency working is the basis of success, and Sussex Police recently allocated two officers to work alongside the outreach worker. More than 90 hours of joint outreach worker-police patrols have been carried out. The aim is to have as much face-to-face contact with clients as possible, informing them of their status in the project and the potential impact this will have on them. While on a patrol with the outreach worker the police work to CRIโs social care agenda and will not search, Police National Computer-check or arrest anyone. The lead is taken by the outreach worker.
This partnership allows for a greater range of intervention,which has included:
working more closely with security staff, being called to a store when a target is detained;
using information and intelligence provided by BCRP members to build up a bigger picture of what is actually happening โon the groundโ;
being able to advocate on behalf of the client to magistrates if they are able to demonstrate some motivation and commitment to their treatment plan;
being able to analyse a clients โs circumstances and use enforcement more appropriately.
The joint patrols have proved hugely successful not only in terms of client contact but in providing an accurate picture of the nature and the extent of shop theft across the city. Clients have noticed how closely their behaviour is now monitored.
It is sometimes necessary to take a more enforcement-based approach where clients are not yet able to change their behaviour. Two clients were eventually given full civil ASBOs
on December 20, 2004. Although there was plenty of interaction between them and the outreach worker and a trusting relationship did develop, they both struggled with the concept of recovery and were unable to engage effectively with treatment services at that time. Their lives by this point had become extremely chaotic and their needs complex and varied.
Clients were initially referred to the outreach worker by BCRP, and additional clients have now been added to the scheme by Sussex Police. Both agencies were able to make use of extensive
intelligence around shop thefts to identify the most prolific offenders. Both BCRP and police data indicate the project has achieved significant success in reducing offending by almost all of the clients, with behaviour change being sustained and improved over a period of intensive engagement with the outreach worker. Despite very deeply entrenched behaviour,
clients have achieved progress in a range of areas, including radically reduced drug use, and in many cases abstinence;
retention in treatment; and securing improved accommodation.
The project โs impact is apparent to local businesses, who have been reporting, via the BCRP, reduced stock loss figures since the project started. Many report that they are no longer seeing the individuals who had been stealing from their shops up to twice a day. The shoplifting project is funded for two years; first year results suggest that:
change for the client group is possible with intensive support;
this change is demonstrated both in personal stories and in a 45 per cent reduction in shop theft crimes by the client group;
this impact has been felt on the high street, with one store reporting stock loss reduced by a third and, importantly, a much less stressful and more productive working environment for shop staff;
of those involved in prolific shop theft engaged with this project, all had chronic substance misuse problems and had a previous criminal record.
Police data analysis is used by the project to target and inform clients and to measure success. The project works closely with
other agencies to ensure effective intelligence sharing. Both police and BCRP data was used to target the highest priority offenders. The project is funded until March 2006. To continue the successes of this project beyond, it will be necessary to secure the longer-term sustainability of the project.
