How a Shropshire town is bucking the trend of increased shoplifting
A police officer leading a campaign to stop thefts from shops in a Shropshire market town today said his team is seeing success from their approach.
New figures show that shoplifting has increased in the West Mercia policing region, which includes Shropshire, as people continue to grapple with the cost-of-living crisis.
Sgt Peter Rigby, who is leading officers in Wellington, says there are two distinct types of people who go shoplifting. One is the repeat offenders who try to come back again and again. The other group are opportunists.
“We have definitely seen a reduction in the number of thefts in the town centre,” said Sgt Rigby. “It is down to the way we are policing the issue, through better engagement with shops in the town centre.
“We are able to identify people who are career criminals who focus on targeting the town, perhaps to feed their habits. I know that a couple of other towns in the region are looking to replicate what we are doing here.”
While Wellington might be bucking the trend, overall data taken from the West Mercia Police force has shown that 2,973 shoplifting offences were recorded the huge region between April 1 and August 31 this year.
This was a rise of 30.7 per cent on the year before – with 2,274 shoplifting offences logged during the same period in 2021.
However, thefts remain below pre-pandemic figures, with 3,449 thefts recorded from shops over the five-month period in 2019.
It comes as much of 2022 has been dominated by surging inflation, rising food prices and soaring energy bills. Many households across the UK have subsequently been reassessing how they are going to pay the bills.
The cost-of-living crisis has been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, which escalated food and energy prices across the globe.
In response to rising wholesale gas prices, Ofgem raised the energy price cap for the typical UK household by more than 50 per cent on April 1, before putting it up again at the start of October.
And some major supermarkets reported that they were boosting security due to fears of an increase in shoplifting as household bills rose.
Sabine Goodwin, co-ordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network, which comprises independent food banks across the UK, said part of the reason is that people are becoming “more and more desperate” as the cost-of-living crisis exacerbates pre-existing poverty across Britain.
“People are being faced with impossible choices as food insecurity spirals out of control,” she said.
“The solution is for the Government to ensure there are direct one-off payments through this winter as well as the adequacy of social security payments and wages.”
It is a pressure on people that has been noticed in Shropshire. Ludlow food bank for example has announced that it cannot help any more people until after Christmas, unless they are emergencies.
And Emily Bell of the Shrewsbury Ark project for the homeless says they are noticing there is “definitely more need out there.
“We are seeing more people in danger of becoming homeless,” she said. “There are people working who cannot afford the bills.”
But she added that the people who are coming to the Ark are able to get help with their circumstances.
“People can come to us for advice, and we can give advice on the phone.”
Police Sgt Peter Rigby in Wellington also said his officers can help to point people in the right direction for help if they were on the brink of making the wrong decision and choose crime.
He said: “People think shoplifting is a victimless crime but it is not. In Wellington there are lots of small businesses who rely o sales for an income.
“And if the bigger businesses lose money they could pull out too. Shoplifting does have an impact.
“If we know people are struggling our officers can point them to the interfaith forum - and if they are trying to steal a can of soup we can advise the foodbank. People in need can get food for free from a foodbank, there is no need to steal it.”
Julie Kaur, has run Jule’s Convenience Store in Haybridge Road, Hadley, for more than 30 years and has CCTV cameras to deter thieves.
“If we know people are short we will say to people we can negotiate on prices rather than them stealing.
“We also do things in the community to build relationships with people so they don’t feel like stealing from us.”
Another shopkeeper in Telford said offenders would often spend time in prison, come out again and start shoplifting.
“One family has handed on the shoplifting enterprise from father to son but the courts don’t have a deterrent for it,” he said.
But the British Retail Consortium, which represents retailers in the UK including big-name food stores, said shoplifting remains a “significant” burden, costing retailers £663 million in 2020 to 2021.
Tom Ironside, BRC director of business and regulation, said police-recorded crimes do not represent the whole picture as some staff are reluctant to report incidents due to “a lack of police response”. He added: “It’s not just the financial cost of theft. Customers and store staff can be left traumatised by such incidents, particularly where violence is involved.”
