Tackling retail crime together in Safer Business Action Week
INITIATIVES to help tackle retail crime have kicked off across Scotland from 9 November as different groups have come together ahead of Safer Business Action Week.
As part of this, Police Scotland‘s Retail Crime Taskforce and a range of key partners are set to take part in the week-long initiative to help tackle business and retail crime across local communities in Scotland. Throughout this week, officers will work in tandem with other agencies to visit local retailers and other businesses to gain a better understanding of the challenges they face on a daily basis.
For the first time, four national campaigns have joined together for Safer Business Action Week with the NBCC, Association of Convenience Stores, Usdaw and Retail Trust to help strengthen efforts to protect retailer workers from violence, abuse and intimidation.
Taskforce members will be out alongside local policing teams to engage with retailers and offer advice on crime prevention and how to help strengthen security in stores, while also providing a high-visibility presence to both deter retail crime and respond to incidents as they arise.
Inspector Emma Wright from the Retail Crime Taskforce said: “It’s really important that we send a clear message to businesses all over the country that they are not alone when dealing with retail crime.
“Such offences are not victimless, and the impact of retail crime has a knock-on impact for us all, which cannot be ignored or understated.
“Initiatives such as Safer Business Action Week allow us to work alongside key partners and collaborate with the retail and business sector on how we can all work together to address the issues most adversely affecting them.”
In addition to the Safer Business Action Week, the National Association of Business Crime Partnerships (NABCP) is set to gather more local insights into retail crime through its new Retail Crime & Partnership Survey.
Local retailers have been asked to respond to the survey to offer further insights into helping to reduce issues including theft, violence and abuse, anti-social behaviour and other local challenges.
This feedback will then be used to support national learning and help to identify effective local interventions, while also informing a national plan on how to reduce retail crime.
The survey can be accessed from the following link.
