East of England Co-op's security team has joined forces with Essex Police’s business crime team for a Safer Business Action Day on 31 August, starting at the retailer’s new store near Chelmsford train station.
The objective of the operation was to talk to retailers and further develop local, trusted relations between store colleagues and the police, understand the crimes that affect them and demonstrate the importance of tackling crime to protect and safeguard frontline staff.
Going door-to-door to speak to retailers and business-owners, East of England Co-op and Essex Police were able to offer practical advice on how retail crime is an issue which can only be solved by collaboration between both shops and crime agencies.
The region’s largest independent retailer has been working in collaboration with Essex Police for over ten years, which in turn, has been proven to lead to greater success in bringing offenders to justice.
In the first three months of 2024, because of East of England Co-op’s work with Essex Police, offenders received 672 weeks in prison (or suspended), 4 years' worth of Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs) and 116 weeks of community service.
“Working with the police in Essex has allowed us to take a more practical approach to dealing with crime against our business and our colleagues,” Lee Hammond, head of profit improvement at East of England Co-op, said.
“We recognise that if we put the time into gathering evidence, the police can make the arrest and there is a higher chance of a conviction. In some cases, offenders are getting a good length of custodial sentences. Our work with Essex Police has been successful in securing convictions for some of our most prolific offenders, which prevents them from causing us, and other retailers, problems again in the future.
Hammond said they have started working with other police forces across East Anglia to repeat the success they have had in Essex across the rest of our business.
The East of England Co-op, independent from Co-op Group, works with the police by producing evidence packs, collecting statements from its colleagues and completing all the relevant paperwork to build a case to hand over to the police, which has successfully helped to bring frequent offenders to justice in recent months.
Sergeant Christian Denning, of Essex Police’s business crime team, said: “Shoplifting is a problem which the police and retailers need to resolve together and communication is key to this.
“Essex Police has been working with East of England Co-op for a long time and, by being open and honest with each other, we’ve been able to develop solutions together to help reduce shop theft and keep retail staff and businesses safe and secure.
“For instance, our business crime officers can advise retailers on ways they can make simple changes to their store layouts to make it more difficult for shoplifters to operate unseen and on other security measures.
“And we target prolific and persistent offenders. The evidence packs provided by the East of England Co-op help us to build strong cases to present at court, which are more likely to result in a conviction.
“They also provide us with the evidence we need to apply for criminal behaviour orders, which courts can impose on the worst offenders. They can include bans from entering certain shops and requirements to attend drug and alcohol treatment services.
“And, in Essex, people arrested for acquisitive crimes, such as shop theft, are tested for cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin under our drug test on arrest scheme. If they test positive, they are required to attend a drug assessment.
“By tackling shoplifting together, and from many angles, we are working to reduce the number of thefts, to remove the need to offend in the first place and to keep retail staff safe from harm.”
Denise Rossiter, chief executive of Essex Chambers of Commerce, commented: “The solution to the increasing problem of retail crime is for shops and the police to work together in bringing offenders to justice. It’s fantastic to see local businesses in Essex working together with our local police force to solve a problem which affects everybody.”
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