Police and retailers team up on theft

Online collaboration to tackle crime in London shops

The Metropolitan Police and retailers in London’s West End are considering a collaborative online reporting system to tackle theft in the area.

Despite robberies falling by 12 per cent and incidents of bag theft dropping 23 per cent in the capital’s busiest shopping area last year, a shared web-based reporting system between shops and police detailing information about incidents and repeat offenders could allow more intelligent crime fighting, says the Met.

‘Technology is the way forward to be smarter about legacy crime reporting,’ said Inspector Colin Carswell of the Met’s Oxford Street sector team. ‘We only hear about the 50 per cent of shoplifters detained in-store. Others flee, get warnings or are banned.’

The system would also cover staff who have acted illegally.

‘Employees can be sacked for fraud and get another job down the street,’ said Carswell. ‘It is legal under the Data Protection Act to share data securely to protect your own business.’

The Met is working with traders’ organisation the New West End Company (NWEC), which represents 300 retailers and real estate owners in the West End including Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street, to consult retailers about the introduction of the crime reporting system.

‘Our main interest at the moment is business improvement in the district. But we will look to take on a system like this next year,’ said Sally Humphreys, NWEC operations manager.

‘We have a paper-based system, but the problem is the time it takes to input incidents. We could use an online database for reporting crime intelligently by using it to concentrate our efforts on the persistent thieves.’

Nigel Terry, head of loss prevention at Bhs, said: ‘We’d support anything that automates the tools for fighting crime.’