The British Retail Consortium (BRC) published its annual Retail Crime Survey last week, Johann Kraus, Retail Global Account Manager for Hexagon’s Safety, Infrastructure Geospatial division analyses.
It found that each day, retailers in the UK are victim to 55,000 thefts, while violent incidents have rocketed from 1,300 per day to over 2,000. The figures from the report are shocking enough when viewed in isolation; however, reviewing the same report, published in 2015 and 2020, forces the difficult question — what progress has been made, and when will we turn the corner?
In 2015, the BRC reported that the direct cost of crime to the UK retail industry was £613 million (2014-15). During the same period, there were 41 incidents of violence or abuse per 1,000 employees, an increase from the previous year. Throughout this period, retailers spent almost £200m on loss prevention.
Roll forward five years and the picture has gotten worse. The total cost of crime to retailers has risen to £2.2bn, with £1bn attributed to crime (£770m being theft) and £1.2bn on crime prevention. Today, this figure stands at an eyewatering £4.2 billion, of which £2.2 billion is a direct result of customer theft. What’s more, retailers are now spending £1.8bn on prevention, according to the report, including more security personnel, anti-theft devices and body-worn cameras.
If this situation wasn’t bleak enough, the dramatic rise in the number of violent or abusive incidents per day is sobering, with an increase of 424 incidents each day in 2020 to more than 2,000 per day in the latest report.
The question for retail, law enforcement and government is how to reverse the trend. When CCTV was first introduced, it was often considered a deterrent, but that only holds if those intending to commit a criminal act fear the repercussions, which ultimately means being arrested and charged.
The latest BRC report points to just 32% of incidents of violence and abuse being reported to police by retailers and only 2% of these incidents resulting in a conviction, meaning that the numbers are even worse than what the report shows.
However, there are areas where improvements can be made, and the investment made in technology by both retailers (notably CCTV, body-worn video) and law enforcement (specifically digital evidence management) can help to speed up and streamline the process of sharing information. A good example of this is a new standardised CCTV witness statement developed by the National Business Crime Centre and the Crown Prosecution Service to make it easier for retailers to share video evidence with the police electronically, whether directly from the store or a central control room. Faster and more efficient reporting will be a defining factor in the success of the Retail Crime Action Plan. This initiative was announced by the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) in 2023, and the BRC is calling for it to be effectively implemented by the police as a priority, alongside a call for all retailers to report every crime.
In addition to submitting video footage to the police, it is important that stores are able to quickly and easily share information. For example, should an incident occur in one store, video of the perpetrator can be shared with nearby stores, to raise the alert. This collaboration can be particularly useful as part of the bigger challenge of tackling organised retail crime. The use of video and analytics can help to connect the dots, so that incidents that once appeared to be isolated can be linked.
The issues and trends raised by the BRC in its latest research will, unfortunately, resonate with many retailers of all sizes around the world. However, there are signs that the tide may soon begin to turn. Retailers have invested heavily in crime prevention and now have the infrastructure to provide the police with better quality and more timely video evidence. At the same time, police forces and the government have recognised the need to better support an industry that last year recorded sales in Great Britain worth £517 billion.
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