ACPO comments on British Retail Consortium's statistics on retail crime

ACPO lead for economic crime, Commissioner Adrian Leppard, said:

"While the foundation for tackling retail crime is built at a local level, by building good relationships between community police officers and local retailers, this research also underscores the importance of the work done across forces to combat crimes such as credit card and online fraud. These offences have a disproportionately high cost to retailers and are perpetrated by groups who work across police force boundaries and often international borders.

"These threats are most effectively dealt with when industry, police forces and police authorities act in concert across the country. Good examples of this are the industry funded dedicated credit card and insurance fraud police teams that operate in the City of London.

"The government and police service have recognised the increasing focus on fraud through the creation of an Economic Crime Command within the new National Crime Agency and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau hosted by the City of London Police.

"Because these criminals often operate across county and international boundaries the police service's response to fraud is being reviewed with crime recording arrangements moving onto a national framework during the year and proposals for a specialist fraud policing team to target the organised crime gangs being considered by the Home Office and the police service.

"The service continues to work with the industry to prevent and detect retail crime so that the safety of workers in the sector is improved and the financial losses incurred are reduced. When newly elected Police and Crime Commissioners begin their work later this year, collaborative work across police forces will be progressed under the Strategic Policing Requirement which will see local arrangements also reflecting national threats.

"I encourage retailers to continue to come forward and report crime so that we have a better understanding of how crime affects them and best allocate our available resources."

A full copy of the report can be accessed here: http://www.brc.org.uk/downloads/BRC_Retail_Crime_Survey_2011.pdf

In the last three months, the new National Fraud Intelligence Bureau has:

• disrupted 188 telephone numbers, 18 websites and 165 email accounts, which were enabling organised crime gangs to target and steal from individuals and businesses. This translated to the prevention of £7 million being lost to fraudsters in Sept/Oct alone.

• Also in the last quarter, the NFIB circulated 71 themed intelligence products alerting law enforcement, the wider commercial counter fraud community and the general public to specific and more general fraud threats.

For more information please contact:

ACPO Press Office
Association of Chief Police Officers
e: press.office@acpo.pnn.police.uk