Serial shoplifters are set to be banned from shops and prosecuted as part of plans for the first national database of repeat offenders.
Retailers including Morrisons, M&S, Tesco, Boots, Primark and Greggs are uploading photos, CCTV and personal data on all of their repeat shoplifters to the database that will be shared with the police, The Telegraph reported.
The move comes as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced that additional officers are set to be put on the streets of 500 towns under a summer blitz to clamp down on anti-social behaviour and shoplifting carried out by “thugs and thieves”.
The shared data allows the police and stores to “join the dots” to find serial offenders, collect evidence for prosecutions, and give security workers on the store doors photo watchlists to ban entry.
The intelligence-sharing system, dubbed Auror, was developed in New Zealand under former prime minister Jacinda Ardern.
Related Story
Over 500 towns in England and Wales have signed up the Home Office’s Safer Streets summer scheme, which includes stronger enforcement and more visible policing designed to “restore confidence in policing”. The initiative will run until 30 September.
Cooper said: “We want more retailers, more organisations, working together on schemes like this so that we can have that partnership, so that you’re tackling the crime but also getting the neighbourhood police and the reassurance in local communities.
“This hasn’t happened for too long, too often. People have just been working separately, in silos, and also this sort of crime has been treated as low-level. It’s not. It has a huge impact on local economies and on that sense of safety at the heart of communities.”
The news follows retailers cautiously welcoming Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ £2bn boost to police funding last month. However, they warned that it wouldn’t solve high street crime.
Co-op workers also recently warned that lone shifts put their safety at risk amid the shoplifting surge.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
