Business crime reduction partnerships (BCRPs) face an existential threat due to the likely economic downturn during the Covid-19 lockdown, yet we don’t even know how many schemes are out there, says business crime reduction man Andy Sharman. He is making three recommendations for support of BCRPs as the high street comes out of lockdown.
First, that police and crime commissioners (PCCs) or councils need to step in, during the interim period as retailers and other businesses get on their feet after the Covid-19 lockdown, to sustain their local BCRPs. “Because,” Andy says, “it’s cheaper to spend a few thousand pounds to sustain something than to have to spend tens of thousands of pounds to replace it.” If a BCRP is lost, so is all the data it holds lost, Andy adds; ‘because of data compliance, everything is deleted’ and any new partnership will have to start anew ‘and of course it will take time to develop the levels of intelligence and the database. During that time people are out committing offences.’
Second; that PCCs hold some sort of register of BCRP schemes, ‘because I have been doing some work for a PCC and it’s apparent that in every police force area, there are schemes operating, but no-one centrally or strategically knows who these schemes are. So you local PCSO knows there is a pubwatch or a shopwatch in the town, but if they [the watch schemes] are not part of a national association or belong to a BID (business improvement district), no-one knows.’
Various trade bodies for BIDs exist and can count their members; but the UK can only estimate how many hundreds of watch and BCRP schemes there are. Andy says: “It’s ludicrous that people just don’t know who is doing what out there; but more importantly it means when there is a crisis like this [Covid-19] and we need aid and support to schemes, we don’t know where they are.” Among schemes are pubwatches run by publicans who are furloughed and who may go out of business. “You would think there would be somewhere you can go to say, ‘what pubwatches are there in Avon and Somerset’, or what shopwatches. And there isn’t. There needs to be a public register for schemes. So if a retailer wanted to join a shopwatch in Devon and Cornwall, they could know who to speak to. It seems screamingly obvious to me, but for 15 years or so, 20 years I suppose, BCRPs have existed, pub- and shopwatches have exited, yet no-one knows why they all are; that needs to be addressed.”
Third; PCCs or someone in government needs to drive the professionalisation of schemes, ‘because they are done on a very ad hoc basis. While there are some that are accredited and work to the highest possible standards, there are plenty out there that probably don’t. So we need to professionalise and make sure a national standard is attained by all schemes sharing data. It doesn’t matter how you brand them, but if you are a business and you are sharing data to prevent and detect crime, you need to be professional and accredited. And you need to be set up correctly so should another crisis occur – and if there is one thing that Covid has taught us, you can never say never – these schemes will have the correct legal framework so that they can access the help and support they need, when they need to.”
As for the prospect of official support, Andy speaks of ‘positive conversations’ with Sussex PCC Katy Bourne, the chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC); and some local BCRPs have written to their local MPs, and have got some ‘favourable noises’ back; ‘but we are still not quite hitting where we need to, to get this campaign going, to get people to sit up and listen. Because as the business come back online, so will whole crime types come back online and if that safety net has been lost, the community is going to suffer.”
Andy points to the May 2021 elections for PCCs and argues that PCCs need to have business crime on their agenda. “Too many pay lip service to it or don’t even acknowledge it at all, and yet it is one of the biggest crime types affecting their communities; also one of the most visible crime types in our communities; and PCCs really need to step up their game when it comes to business crime solutions.” Some are doing good – here Andy singled out Katy Bourne, and Devon and Cornwall PCC Alison Hernandez – ‘but that’s two of 40; we really need them all to be taking ownership of this issue.’
Over the years Professional Security has featured BCRPs around Britain; most recently, in the October 2019 print edition of the magazine, Sarah-Anne Attwood, Business Crime Partnership Manager for Belfast City Centre Management Company. Also, in 2019 we featured various uses of private guarding firms to provide on-street patrolling, usually through BIDs, or paid for by local government; reporting on Solihull, Birmingham, and (by Venture Security), Winchester, Salisbury and Basingstoke. That prompted our question to Andy whether small towns or big cities, or particular parts of the country are suffering in BCRP terms more than others.
“It comes down to civic ownership,” Andy replied. Whether in small and coastal towns or cities, people without civic pride are not taking ownership of the issue: “If there isn’t a community to enhance and make that space a better place, then what tends to happen is that it will just look rough.” As retailers look as the country comes out of lockdown which stores to open and which to close, those places with low football, social and economic deprivation and anti-social behaviour, and a townscape that looks and feels miserable ‘are always going to be two steps behind the towns that do take responsibility to address problems that affect their community.”
For all the official talk of ‘future high street’, for Andy these are the two fundamentals for confronting the decline of modern Britain; how to address social inequalities, and how to create a safe and secure town centre. The more stores that get boarded up and closed, the more an area becomes deprived, the more crime will go up, and drug and alcohol dependency; ‘a cycle of misery’.
“You can have the best marketing, events, and everything, but if people go to your town or city centre, to do shopping and visit or going for a night out, if they don’t feel safe, or if they see crime or have a bad experience, they won’t be going back, and they wil be telling all their friends and family about their experience.”
Safety and security, then, are key to our town and city centres, Andy argues; and a lot of business crime is preventable. While businesses may complain that police are not doing enough, some don’t do anything for themselves, Andy adds. He delivers workshops and gives the example of one for about 50 businesses in Exeter. Only one said that they had gone through any loss prevention training; and that was a manager whose work meant they were seldom on the shop floor. That is, the ‘guys on the ground floor’ are the ones in need of LP training; without it, retail is setting itself up to fail, Andy feels: “We can’t expect the police to nick every shoplifter and give them a life sentence; it’s never going to happen.”
Andy argues for a more focused approach – businesses putting their house in order, to relieve pressure on police to focus on drug dealers – and says that business crime is not too difficult to solve: “It just requires us all to do our bit and take a small piece of ownership of the problem, work in partnership, police, councils and business; and let’s focus on ensuring that we are taking our civic responsibility to address crime.”
Photo by Mark Rowe; shop shutter, Exeter.
