The British Retail Consortium (BRC) recently released their 2023 Crime Survey, which covers the period 2021 – 2022. During this period there were no national lockdowns, although the period 2020 – 2021 was seriously affected by restrictions. For this reason, year on year comparisons aren’t always helpful, so pre-pandemic figures can provide a more rounded picture.
The major problem in retail is violence and abuse towards staff, with 96% of retailers reporting it as a top three concern. In the reporting period there were over 316,000 incidents of abusive behaviour or violence towards retail workers. Of the 722 daily incidents, 145 involved physical violence, with the remaining 867 incidents being of a verbally abusive or threatening nature. For context, in the 2019 – 2020 period, there were 341 incidents, and the 2020 – 2021 period saw 1,176 per day, largely as customers took out their frustrations at restrictions and product shortages on staff.
Sadly, less than a third of violent or abusive incidents were reported to the police, due to a lack of confidence in action being taken. When only 7% of reported incidents ended with a prosecution, it is easy to see why this attitude exists. The same issue applies with regards to reporting thefts to the police, with the main reason given is that retailers and managers don’t feel that any action will be taken. It is believed there could be a perception in some police forces that only losses of ₤200 or more are actionable, but this is not the case. Despite there being no lowest actionable limit in place, it can be hard for the Police Force to get the CPS to agree to prosecute for low value thefts, leading towards a lack of confidence by retailers in police powers.
A lack of police follow up and prosecution gives shoplifters the message that they can get away with repeat offending; with retail workers often advised not to challenge shoplifters personally, due to the risk of being subjected to violence or abuse. It is not hard to see why the problem persists as it does. The BRC has urged police forces to encourage reporting by retailers, and to simplify reporting systems (the second most common barrier to reporting was the difficulty of the systems in place), in order to build a more realistic picture of crime in their area and plan responses accordingly.
Looking at the crime picture in financial terms is a real eye opener. In the reporting period 2021 – 2022 the total cost of retail crime was ₤1.76 billion. This includes the ₤722 million cost of crime prevention (measures like alarms, CCTV and monitoring) and ₤953 million in the value of items stolen by customers in 8 million incidents of shoplifting. Customer theft represented over 90% of losses to physical causes including employee theft, burglary, robbery and vandalism. The remainder of the cost lies in preventing cyber-crime and fraud, and the losses caused by cyber-crime itself.
The spend on preventing cyber-crime grew exponentially year on year, with an increase of 122% from 2020 – 2021 (compared to a -58% spend from the previous period) which we can attribute to more online shopping during the pandemic period bringing retailers’ attention to the issue. Spending on physical crime prevention, including CCTV, alarms, monitoring services and security guards, actually decreased by 12% between 2020 – 2021 and the next reporting period, representative of an overall trend towards spending less on crime prevention from 2019 onwards
If you’re a retailer looking to reverse some of these trends by investing in your business security and driving your crime rate down, we are the West Midlands best security experts, with decades of experience and the full backing of the emergency services. Get in touch today if you want the 2023 crime picture to be a rosier one.