Great to welcome the Prime Minister to Horsham this morning to announce some important further measures to crackdown on retail crime.
1. Assaulting a retail worker to be made a standalone criminal offence
2. Electronic tagging for violent behaviour or serial/prolific shoplifters
3. More live facial recognition technology to catch suspects
I have always supported the call from our retailers to make 'assault against a shopworker' a specific criminal offence. This not only sends a strong message that there will be tough consequences for anyone attacking our retail workers but it also gives police the opportunity to accurately record this offence and measure how many assaults take place within a retail setting.
In my national role as the Lead on behalf of Police & Crime Commissioners for Business & Retail Crime, I suggested to Ministers last year that tagging of prolific shoplifters would be a welcome introduction. Not only will these tags be a constant and physical reminder to offenders that the Probation Service can find out where they have been and when but they also risk being sent to prison if they refuse to obey the rules. I am delighted that my idea is being taken up - under an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill currently going through Parliament, if an offender is found guilty of assaulting staff three times or is sentenced for shoplifting on three separate occasions, they will be made to wear a tag as part of any community order.
Finally, police will benefit from a £55.5 million investment to use facial recognition technology to help catch perpetrators and prevent shoplifting in the first place. This will include mobile units that can be deployed to high streets across our county, comparing images to specific people wanted by police or banned from that location. Police in the area will then be alerted so they can track down offenders more easily, keeping us all safer.
You can read more about the further measures here: Prime Minister launches retail crime crackdown - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
