4P Approach to Retail Crime

To provide a holistic response tackling retail crime in all its forms, the 4P approach has been developed in support of the Retail Crime 4 P’s Plan. The following image shows some of the ongoing efforts in furtherance of this strategy.

INFOGRAPHIC IN PAPER DETAILING '4 P' RESPONSE

Some of the highlights in relation to the 4P approach are as follows:

Pursue – In August 2024, through the correlation of local policing teams in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Fife, Tayside and the North East, an organised crime group was identified as responsible for 32 crimes of shoplifting amounting to a loss of nearly £50,000 from supermarket retailers. The offenders have been reported to the Crown Office and Procurators Fiscal Service (COPFS).

Prepare – In September 2024, Police Scotland in conjunction with Retailers Against Crime (RAC) launched a proof of concept (POC) in Fife Division, to improve and streamline the reporting mechanism for retail crime, while enhancing information sharing between businesses and Police. Utilising a system known as SentrySIS, this allows retailers to directly report crimes to Police Scotland, providing statements and images of potential suspects. This increases efficiencies in the system, with retailers not having to utilise the 101 system and Police Officers not having to attend retail premises to obtain details of the crime report, thus allowing them to focus on perpetrators and improve detection rates. A full evaluation of the POC will be completed in 2025 before the next steps are decided.

Prevent - Police Scotland and Retailers Against Crime (RAC) are progressing an education package for school aged children. The aim is to increase understanding and reduce offending by young persons and the package will be rolled out at engagement days in primary and secondary schools by the Children and Young Persons (CYP) engagement team.

Protect - In recognising that violence can accompany instances of shoplifting, de-escalation and lone worker training has been developed and will be delivered by Police Scotland RAB-PT unit to regional prevention teams to deliver ‘on the ground’ to local retail workers in hot spot areas. Additionally, a retail crime course (aligned with Architecture Liaison Officer functions) is being developed to provide retailers with the skills to design out crime from retail premises and cascade this training internally within their own retail companies.

Continuing to deliver upon the 4P approach to retail crime will involve collaboration with key partners and a whole system approach to recognise and account for the social complexities driving the current increases in prevalence. RAC are already a close and established partner who are committed to working with Police and other SPAACE partners to find lasting solutions to retail crime. As part of this collaboration, they recently invited ACC Mairs to be a keynote speaker at their Annual Conference as we jointly attempt to understand the issues driving retail crime and consider joint initiatives to reduce the impact on retailers and wider society.

As part of this joint approach, Police Scotland aim to improve detection rates through improving analysis, focusing upon high tariff recidivist offenders, priority hotspots and organised crime groups, while preventing the exploitation of children, but this is not an issue where enforcement alone will lead to the issues abating.

The key actions moving forward are:

• to improve our collaboration with Operation Opal which provides intelligence products for retail crime across the UK, it being recognised that offenders from elsewhere are travelling to commit crime in Scotland,
• to streamline the reporting mechanisms and reduce bureaucracy in reporting crime and sharing information,
• to engage with our children and young people, supported by the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, to protect our children, highlight the impact of shoplifting activities and prevent their exploitation,
• to work with retailers to target harden their premises and design out crime, and
• develop the SPAACE partnership and acquisitive crime strategy in the retail crime context to maximise the partnership benefits and whole system response.

Furthermore, to continue the roll out of the 4P approach and develop connectivity and cohesion between the national strategy and local delivery, plans are being considered for a three-site pilot, utilising divisions with urban areas and pronounced increases in retail crime. The aim will be to cascade toolkits, communications packages and other relevant information to encourage use of best practice, while simultaneously capturing the successes divisions have in their own local activities. This is with the aim of completing the learning cycle and reducing the harm caused by retail crime.