The hidden line of defence: An intelligence-led approach to tackling retail crime
Retail crime is on the rise with 16.7m incidents of shoplifting a year…
So how can technology and intel help? How can technology and intelligent data collection help tackle prolific shoplifters and organised crime?
Retail crime is on the rise. According to the British Retail Consortium, there are now 16.7 million incidents of shoplifting a year, meaning shop thefts have doubled in the past three years. What is particularly concerning, though, is that whilst we’ll always see some one-off shoplifting incidents, this recent uplift is being driven by organised and increasingly violent crime committed by prolific offenders.
Whilst the likes of CCTV and body-worn cameras and emergency alarm systems have been around for many years, technology has needed to advance further and faster to rise to this evolving threat. It’s a combination of the latest technology and with our exceptional security colleagues that will give us the edge over criminals and help keep spaces, customers and colleagues safe.
Providing a lifeline
Shoplifting is not a victimless crime. More than one in ten shopworkers have suffered from violence or abuse at work, with an average of 1,300 incidents taking place each day. I hear the stories behind these numbers from colleagues on the shop floor and am saddened that they face this kind of violence at work, especially whilst working to keep the public safe.
For shopworkers who work alone, in isolated spaces like stock rooms, innovative technology like lone worker devices can be a lifeline. These small handheld devices send the exact GPS location and medical data for the relevant individual to our monitoring team, either when a button is pressed or the device senses extreme movement. The monitoring team can then undertake a real-time risk assessment, listening in to assess the level of threat, speaking to the colleague directly through the device if it’s safe to do so, and calling the emergency services when necessary.
Forecasting threat
In the early days of my career as a store detective, we didn’t have much support beyond the shop floor. Technology like the lone worker devices and intelligence software has really changed that, providing security teams with the right information, at the right time, to make sure they can make the right decisions to keep frontline officers and the public safe.
For example, our Merlin Protect 24/7 software gives our security teams access to real-time data on local and national threat levels at their fingertips through a digital portal. Based on incidents logged by store colleagues on the ground, alarm activations and open-source data gathering, the software generates intelligence on threat levels across retailers’ portfolios. This means security professionals can stay one step ahead of potential threats, inform relevant stakeholders and make intelligence-led decisions on which stores need the most support, such as allocating more resource or 24/7 high-alert CCTV monitoring.
Collating cases
According to Home Office data, during 2022 and 2023 only 14% of all shoplifting incidents resulted in a charge. We know that when an offender gets away with shoplifting, they’ll try again, so the aim is to take them off the streets, offer rehabilitation and end the cycle of crime.
Data intelligence is invaluable in identifying incident patterns, which can be used to track down repeat offenders and organised crime groups. Analysts can scrutinise incident reports to pinpoint activity and crime patterns relating to location, type of crime, and items stolen and send out alerts to guide security officers on the ground.
Taking this one step further, many of our retail customers have a dedicated Security Operations Centre (SOC), which finds trends in this data to build a bigger picture of networks of crimes, rather than isolated incidents.
Crucially, the SOC teams can act as a bridge between retailers and the police, using this intelligence to package up evidence, including CCTV footage, dates, times, details on what was stolen, and even witness statements, so the police have everything they need to secure a conviction and remove ongoing risk from stores.
As a result of using intelligence in this way, Mitie’s iSOC team has helped to secure 1,269 arrests since April 2020. But with more stakeholders embracing and engaging in intelligence gathering and sharing, we’ll be able to stop even more prolific offenders. We were proud to pioneer data-sharing agreements, which share anonymised information between retailers. Late last year, we also supported the launch of Pegasus – the initiative bringing together 13 retailers with government and police officials to tackle retail crime, including the creation of a new data-sharing platform.
Analysing data across brands, geographical regions and police forces makes it easier to track down organised crime groups and increases the scale of evidence that can be collected against them, with the retail industry creating a united front against shoplifters.
Alongside technology, collaboration is truly our greatest defence to stay one step ahead of criminals. Not only is the collaboration between our intelligence teams and our frontline colleagues helping to keep people safe in stores, but on a wider scale, adopting an intelligence-led approach, the collaboration between retailers, security providers and the police is the most effective way to tackle retail crime.
Jason Towse
Managing Director of Business Services Mitie
