A scheme which links town centre shops together in Harwich has been brought back in to fight retail crime.
It has resulted in there being no offences of shoplifting for the whole month of July.
Essex Retail Against Crime (ERAC) has been re-introduced in the Harwich area and links together local retailers to tackle business crime. So far more than 20 shops have joined the scheme and they are all issued with Townlink radios meaning that the shops can work together in alerting one another of disturbances and also distributing photographs of known shoplifters.
Police community support officer (PCSO) Bradley Brown said: โWe decided to bring the scheme back in because we felt it would be beneficial to both the police and local retailers if they were aware of active shoplifters in the area.
โThe main benefit it brings to the retailers is being able to put a name to the face and being able to know who to keep an eye out for in order to prevent shoplifting.โ
If anyone is interested in joining ERAC or Townlink they can ring PCSO Brown at Harwich police station on 0300 333 4444.
