Essex Police is speeding up the process of putting suspects for shop thefts before a court, through two new schemes aimed to improve conviction.
According to Sergeant Christian Denning, of our Business Crime Team, the schemes will improve conviction rates while freeing up officers’ time and allowing them to get back out on the streets of the neighbourhoods.
In the year to 31 March, officers made 1,374 arrests for shop theft* and assaults on retail staff in Essex – securing 2,442 charges – and solved 530 more offences than in the previous 12 months.
As well as securing 2,442 charges of shop theft, in the past 12 months, Essex Police cautioned 123 people for the offence while another 698 people received community resolutions.
Denning says, "The rise in shop thefts continues to be a big focus for our teams and we are committed to investigating all incidents where we have the evidence to build a case for court.”
Christian heads up Essex Police's specialist Business Crime Team, a dedicated team of officers who work with retailers to reduce their susceptibility to shop thefts by advising on crime prevention, building security and staff safety.
The Business Crime Team’s Open For Business, Closed For Crime campaign encourages retailers to report shop theft, assaults on staff and anti-social behaviour to us and provide us with CCTV footage and witness statements.
This information enables the business crime officers, neighbourhood policing teams and town centre teams to target their operational activity accordingly.
He adds, "We have a force Rapid Video Response team of police officers who have expanded their remit to include incidents of shop theft where a suspect has been arrested.
“The arresting officer will obtain the details of a member of staff who knows what happened, can provide a witness statement and, hopefully, provide us with good quality CCTV footage of the incident and who has a device which can receive a secure video call from one of our RVR officers.
“This allows victims to provide the RVR officer with an immediate account of what happened and secure vital evidence before it is forgotten, lost or recorded over, while the arresting officer can take the detainee straight to custody.”
