The May 2021 print edition of Professional Security magazine features violence against retail staff. Separately, Duncan Miles, Head of Security at the high street chain Iceland who’s also chairman of the Scottish-based intelligence-sharing membership body Retailers Against Crime (RAC), reports that violent incidents in Iceland stores over the past five years have fallen. He writes:
The latest reduction in the past 12 months has probably been the most surprising as we have continued to trade throughout the pandemic.
In the first half of last year, we did see some violent incidents reported due to social distancing. This was at its peak between March and May 2020. At the same time violence resulting from shoplifting reduced. This was directly as a result of customer numbers in stores being restricted, staff controlling customers entry into stores (especially last spring), but also in stores with security officers most were manning entrance doors. With their knowledge of their area and the benefit of offenders on the Forum they were able to restrict access to known offenders and undesirable clientele. In the last quarter of the year (ending March) 135 of the 145 incidents of violence were as a result of the actions of stopping a shoplifter.
During the past six months Iceland’s message to staff and security personnel has been to enforce restrictions of customer numbers in store and also to remind customers of social distancing rules. Iceland have not enforced customers wearing of face masks.
There are some less attractive underlying factors beneath the figures. The percentage of violence in our very high and high-risk stores is reducing far quicker than in our lower risk stores. Violence is displacing and sometimes occurring in random locations where it can be far harder to provide support.
Also, verbal abuse towards staff and security personnel has risen in the last year. Not appreciably (under 5pc) and over 15pc of verbal abuse was directly as a result of trying to ensure compliance in following Government guidelines regarding social distancing.
Working every day of the past year has been interesting. Many stores have been one of the very few stores trading in a town centre or on a retail park. For some this has created further problems, for others, issues have dispersed. Each lockdown or reopening has brought different issues for each store across our estate. It can only be hoped that once retail is back to normal people will become more tolerant, less likely to escalate situations into violence and that those who work in retail are subjected to less abuse.
With the Protection of Workers Bill becoming law in Scotland, this may deter acts of violence and abuse within our stores there. Hopefully this law will be replicated throughout the UK to protect all retail staff.
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Featured in the May edition of the magazine is the Association of Convenience Stores’ 2021 Crime Report, published last month; and the experience of ACS members, and the clothes retailer Next. The full ACS 2021 Crime Report is free to download at http://bit.ly/ACS2021CrimeReport.
Meanwhile the Home Office-backed ShopKind campaign this week seeks to unite the retail sector to tackle violence and abuse against shop workers by asking people to ShopKind when in stores. Retail can download posters and badges for store use, at the UK police’s National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) website.
For RAC’s monthly statistics of incidents reported by members, visit https://www.retailersagainstcrime.org/.
