In a series of articles covering the UK, we are trying this year to survey how town and city business centres are securing themselves, in an era of public sector austerity when – as police are the first to admit – police are no longer visible on the street in such numbers as in the past. Given that crime is not going away, and counter-terrorism brings its own demands on police manpower, where does that leave shops, the night-time economy, and business generally in cities that are becoming ever more 24-hour? How can retail and other occupants of business centres support themselves?
In our February 2018 print magazine, we featured the Victoria BID (Business Improvement District) in central London. BIDs cover the country, levying all businesses to provide income to carry out services that local government might otherwise not do to business satisfaction, which can include on-street patrolling; but not necessarily, depending on opinion in the BID and circumstances. BIDs are a related but separate development from business crime reduction partnerships. Despite the obstacles, partnership working is still as needed as it ever was, we hear from the manager of the crime reduction partnership in Birmingham.
He is Mick Barnes, who for the last dozen or so years has been in charge of the Retail Crime Operation (RCO) that has an office in the city centre. Walking around the city centre even for the briefest time, a visitor can see what the security and related risks are. Birmingham has big-name shopping malls (The Bull Ring, Grand Central) and retailers (such as Selfridges, Harvey Nichols) while on New Street two pairs of police officers patrol. One examines unattended belongings in a doorway, presumably belonging to a rough sleeper or beggar. The anti-vehicle counter-terror blocks installed before Christmas as in other major city centres have an ever more permanent feel.
Membership
Mick, as a policeman all his working life, couldn’t take the copper out of himself if he tried. But the nature of his job – serving members, as the RCO like many other crime reduction partnerships only has funds from membership fees and retail radio rentals – means that he sticks up for them. Talks plainly about a change of attitude towards business crime.
There has always been the discussion concerning ‘shoplifting’ which as Mick points out in criminal law does not exist. It is theft. Some latest figures show that the yearly cost of customer theft in the UK is around the £480m mark. Everyone who purchases from shops has to help cover the cost of stock loss, as well as security overheads, in their purchase prices.
Do not forget the threat and intimidation aspect directed at many shop staff and security personnel caused by offenders, he says. To any business good employees can be as important as the goods the business sells. Staff who suffer intimidation not only from thieves but also from general anti-social behaviour often suffer from lack of confidence and anxiety. This affects their work ethic and often results in their leaving employment or to change location of employment. Not good for business continuity. Many shop staff just need to know they are not alone.
A shop may detain a suspect for hours only to be told that police are not free to attend; such a long wait raises health and safety implications. This not just an issue in Birmingham. The diversity of businesses is often not taken into account in such matters, Mick says. Larger stores may have dedicated security, others may have none; but do have vulnerable general retail staff.
More in the March 2018 print issue of Professional Security magazine. Picture by Mark Rowe; public space CCTV outside Birmingham New Street railway station and the Grand Central shopping mall.
About RCO
Using the ACIS software, RCO runs an exclusion scheme to ban offenders such as shop thieves from member premises; and provides hundreds of radios across the city centre, which are carried by West Midlands Police and council officers, security guards, and the operators of the city centre CCTV system among others. Visit http://www.shopcrime.org/what-is-rco.
