The overall cost of crime to the high street, including losses and crime prevention costs for retailers, has risen year on year and now stands at £2.5 billion. That’s up from £2.2 billion last year, says the latest British Retail Consortium (BRC) annual crime survey.
That total includes crime prevention spending of £1.2 billion and losses to crime of £1.3 billion, of which customer theft makes up £935m, according to the BRC. The trade association says that violence and abuse against staff continues to be the single most important issue for retailers. Nearly nine in ten of its members place it in the top three issues; also there is customer theft.
The BRC is calling among other things for a separate offence for a crime of violence or abuse against a shop worker in England, as passed earlier this year in Scotland. The trade body would also like to see improved prosecution in courts, and reporting of such crimes especially when shop workers are enforcing the law – typically when making age restricted sales checks, for example of cigarettes and alcohol. To read the 25-page report, visit the BRC website. It also covers police response (or lack of it) and cyber security.
As for cyber, ransomware was named as the highest threat to businesses; then malware. Spending on cyber security at £160m was slightly less than last year but still represented about a seventh, 13.5 per cent of retail’s spending on crime prevention. The BRC reports that it has worked with the UK official National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to produce a cyber security toolkit aimed at board level directors and those in smaller companies with responsibility for cyber.
The BRC’s findings are in line with others, such as the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), as featured in the May print edition of Professional Security magazine. See more on crime against retail in the June print edition.
In a foreword, Helen Dickinson, BRC chief executive, pictured, complained that the scale of the problem is huge, yet little progress has been made; ‘all the while, hard working shop workers suffer’.
She said: “This survey should serve as a call to action for politicians, police and officials, to turn these words into action, and tackle the scourge of retail crime. Too often, retail workers have faced threats, abuse and assault as they go about their jobs. While not measured in this year’s survey, our members report that this has only got worse since the onset of the pandemic. No one should have to face violence or threats in the workplace. Those colleagues who are attacked at work are not mere crime statistics, they are our parents, our partners, our children, who needlessly suffer, just for doing their job.”
The survey covered April 2019 to March 2020, and came out slightly later than usual, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The BRC points to its animation that can be used by any retailer to train their staff, by the Suzy Lampulgh Trust; on how to de-escalate a potentially violent situation.
