The biggest losses for most retailers comes in the form of shoplifters. The recent changes to the (Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014) stipulate that an offender who has stolen less than £200 no longer needs to attend court. Therefore, the level of involvement from Police to tackle lower level crime is reduced which unfortunately means shoplifters are more inclined to commit theft under the £200 threshold.
However, a significant amount of retail losses also come from within the organisation itself via staff pilferage or whilst in transit via third party logistics partners. Organised Retail Crime (ORC) from groups of dangerous criminal gangs will often target high value consignments of stock in transit or stored within the shop or with the warehouse.
The impacts of crime doesn’t just include stock losses, it can also have a significant negative impact upon the retail employees with a total of 25 percent of retail workers experiencing physically aggressive or violent behaviour. COVID-19 has been a challenging time for retailers ensuring shoppers adhere to the new regulations. Providing a safe environment to work obviously improves staff morale and enhances productivity whilst the opposite could lead to absenteeism through stress.
The main services we provide within this sector include CCTV installation and monitoring, assets in transit follows, stop and search teams, security officers, customer marshals, tracking services, stock loss reporting lines, covert investigations and infiltration.