Shoplifting. Police must step up.

The suspect is tall, more than six feet. He’s rangy, stealthy and he moves like an athlete. If we have to restrain him, he’ll be difficult to contain. Everything about his demeanour says that he’s on the prowl. Yes, there it goes – a pack of fillet steak into the jacket. Now a bottle of vodka. We have to decide whether to let him know that we’re on to him, recover the goods and chase him out. Or let him pass the point of sale, apprehend him in the street and bring him back. We go for the second option, but we’ll have to be quick. Two colleagues wait outside – ready. Over the checkouts he jumps, out through the doors and into the daylight. I give chase. My two colleagues bundle him onto the pavement and between us we drag him back and into the “waiting room”. He’s a tricky customer but fortunately the police arrive in ten minutes and he’s off to the station.

The year is 1977. The venue is a Sainsbury’s store in South London. ?There is no security. No surveillance technology. We sometimes have store detectives on the floor. Assigned on rotation to the stores with the most serious problems. The store colleagues are expected to spot and apprehend shoplifters. The entire team is on constant alert and security aware. We get at least two shoplifters a day. This is normal, business as usual and we take a pride in it. We engage, confront and we always prosecute. Would I try that in today’s world? Not a chance. Far too dangerous. Even in those days I experienced a knife attack and an armed robbery Sweeney – style. ?The differences between then and now? The public were encouraged to step up and support the police. Which they often did. A “citizen’s arrest” was an acceptable intervention. The carrying of knives was relatively rare. ?The justice system bore down hard on shoplifters. Most of all, the police always attended the crime scene and perpetrators were taken back to the station.

For the most part all that has gone. Stores and their workers are wide open to abuse and attack from armed gangs or individuals who have no fear of the consequences. Store theft has escalated to epic proportions. It is rare for the police to attend incidents leaving store workers completely exposed. The change in the law in June last year making attacking a shop worker an aggravated offence and the provision for tougher penalties may help. I have my doubts given the log jam in the courts and the prisons full to bursting.

As The Sun said in a recent editorial: “the shoplifting epidemic is the result of feeble punishments and the consequent indifference of the police”. The Grocer reports that shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged to introduce a new law against attacking shop workers. Plus 13,000 more neighbourhood police officers to patrol the streets. Clearly this assumes a change of government. legislation to be passed, budgets to be approved and would take years to implement. In the meantime, our shopworkers are under threat every day particularly with the nights drawing in. Stores could do more to tighten security. For example, small high value items on open sale is asking for trouble. And despite all the cameras, facial recognition systems and random checks, self-scanning is a shoplifter’s dream ticket. There is always going to be a potentially dangerous situation if thieves are confronted. Shoplifting is not a victimless crime. Maybe our chief constables could up their game to the 1977 levels of response?