Dorset Police take part in national Safer Business Action Week
Dorset Police officers are supporting a national Safer Business Action Week to help tackle business and retail crime across the county.
The week of action, which is co-ordinated by the National Business Crime Centre (NBCC), is taking place between Monday 14 October and Sunday 20 October 2024.
It aims to equip business owners and security staff with the tools to tackle business crime and raise awareness of the support available to help protect them.
As part of the week of action, local neighbourhood policing teams will have an enhanced focus on retail crime and will be delivering activity based on their local intelligence pictures.
This will include partnership meetings with Business Improvement Districts, crime prevention visits to shops, increased patrols in hotspot areas to look for shoplifters and engagement with businesses to encourage and provide support with reporting incidents.
Business and retail crime can encompass a wide variety of matters from theft and burglary, to cyber crime or abuse and violence directed at staff.
Safer Business Action Week is all about partnership working with the police, businesses, private security, Business Crime Reduction Partnerships and Business Improvement Districts to reduce crime.
Inspector Dan Cullen, of Dorset Police, said: “This week of action is a great opportunity for us to engage with businesses in our community and show our commitment to reducing retail crime.
“We want to use this week to build upon the relationships we have with our retailers to help support them and target those who cause the most harm to businesses.
“While this week marks a specific enhanced response, it is important to note that this type of activity is taking place all year round and officers are working every day to tackle issues facing businesses and their customers.
“We would encourage members of the business community to make contact with officers if they want advice or have a question.”
Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset David Sidwick said: “Shoplifting is not a victimless offence. From regular conversations with shop owners, I know the impact these crimes not only have on a company’s bottom line, but on staff and communities targeted. It was one of the reasons I stood for this role originally.
“Both locally and nationally, shoplifting is on the rise and thorough analysis of the issue in Dorset shows that a small core of prolific offenders commit the bulk of retail crime, with each offender being responsible for numerous shoplifting offences. Thanks to making it a priority in the police and crime plan, Dorset Police now has a strategic plan, a tactical plan and operations in place to address this.
“Operation Shopkeeper has targeted 32 prolific offenders who have been charged with 604 offences between them since November 2023. In that time, the number of high harm suspects has decreased by 50 per cent due to this enhanced focus on prolific offending.
“Funding from my office also saw four plain clothed officers out on the streets of Bournemouth during September for Operation Spotter, with 36 positive outcomes in relation to shoplifting.
“We have done lots to tackle shoplifting in Dorset since 2021. I set up the Dorset Safer Business Partnership to bring my office, Dorset Police, local business representatives and retailers together to fight business crime. The work of this partnership focuses on key areas of crime prevention, reporting, engagement and visibility, cyber-crime and fraud.
“Dorset also has two Business Crime Reduction Partnerships who efficiently gather and share intelligence among shops and pass that information onto Dorset Police. Fighting shoplifting requires collaboration and that is what we now have here.
“I want to acknowledge the hard work of the dedicated officers at Dorset Police working to reduce business crime and all others including the stores and shops who are working with us. We want our high streets to be vibrant places for consumers to visit, and initiatives such as Safer Business Action Week will help our town centres continue to thrive.”
Dorset Police can carry out crime prevention surveys on commercial properties. For more information please contact: crimereductionwest@dorset.pnn.police.uk. For further help and advice on business safety please visit www.dorset.police.uk/business.
We will be sharing details of our work throughout Safer Business Action Week. Keep an eye on our local neighbourhood social media platforms – Facebook, X and Instagram – for the latest news.
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