How ‘back to basics’ police chief brought shoplifters to justice

14

How ‘back to basics’ police chief brought shoplifters to justice

A police force headed by a “back to basics” chief constable has topped the table for bringing shoplifters to justice with nearly half of all store thefts solved.

Norfolk Constabulary is the best-performing force for catching and prosecuting shoplifters with a charging rate six times that of the bottom-ranked Metropolitan Police.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Chief Constable Paul Sanford put the success down to treating “shoplifting” as a “core” job for policing like burglary or criminal damage, irrespective of the value of the goods stolen.

“It’s crime. It’s as simple as that,” said Mr Sanford. “I don’t have a policy that says shoplifting is a priority. I have a policy that says crime is a priority. We are not prioritising shoplifting over burglary or criminal damage. If you look at all crime, you will see my force is in the top three for outcomes.

“We believe in core policing, that you answer the phone quickly, get to jobs quickly and investigate crime well. That’s what we are prioritising.”

Norfolk has had the highest charging rate for shoplifting of any of the 43 forces in England and Wales in each of the past five years.

An analysis of Home Office data showed that in the year to this March, it had a charge rate for shoplifting offences of 31.7 per cent, compared with 4.9 per cent for the Met Police. When out of court punishments and arrested suspects admitting to other store thefts are added, the detection rate rises to 46 per cent.

Mr Sanford, who has been in the job for three years, said there were three key elements to the high success rate. “First of all, we treat this criminality as part of our core business,” he said. “Genuinely, from chief constable down, we know the impact it has on high street stores so we aim to give it appropriate focus.”

Second, the force aimed to target and disrupt prolific offenders. This meant a persistent shoplifter would be investigated and prosecuted for all their crimes, not just the one where they were caught.

“Too often an offender is investigated by multiple officers and multiple forces at the same time. You get a stronger outcome and charges if you deal with all of their criminal offending in one go,” said Mr Sanford.

By doing this, Norfolk Constabulary could present courts with a dossier of evidence, enabling it to secure criminal behaviour orders banning any prolific shoplifter from stores and particular locations in the county and beyond. Breaches of such orders carry a sentence of up to five years in jail.

“We don’t just end with detection. We follow up afterwards. A criminal behaviour order is enough of a deterrent,” said Mr Sanford, who cited the example of one thief whose tactic was to target charity shops. He is now banned from every charity shop in Norwich.

Dealing with a shoplifting gang

One recent success saw Norfolk Constabulary smash a gang that had travelled around the country shoplifting from Morrisons stores in 26 different force areas.

Working with the other forces, Norfolk officers investigated the thefts after two gang members were arrested for shoplifting in their county. By collating CCTV and other evidence, the pair were jailed for 18 and 27 months, respectively, for 47 offences, totalling £60,000 of goods.

“That’s a more effective way of dealing with these offenders rather than 26 forces dealing with it separately,” said Mr Sanford.

He welcomed Labour’s plan to drop the £200 threshold for shoplifting, below which police effectively do not have to investigate but said that Norfolk Constabulary already pursued such offences.

“You can hit multiple stores for £100 and come away with a lot at the end of the day. For some of the smaller shops, £200 is a very significant amount of money,” Mr Sanford added.

He also backed plans for a standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker as it provided police with additional powers but said many of those crimes where a shop worker was attacked should be treated as robbery, which carries a maximum life sentence.

Despite the success in catching shoplifters, Mr Sanford said that crime was still rising in his county. He believed his approach was deterring gangs but there were still “chaotic” offenders, stealing to pay for a drug or drink habit.

He noted a distinct change in the types of goods stolen. Where five years ago, it was primarily cosmetics and alcohol, it was now food that was the most common amid the cost of living crisis. “There’s no doubt people are stealing food to put on their table,” he said.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

Source link

#basics #police #chief #brought #shoplifters #justice