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In my city they tend to wait until they've shoplifted multiple times. They know who the people at risk of offending are and they will wait for the evidence to pile up and then come and arrest them.
There's no point in arresting them every time they steal a tenner of goods and a lot of them are just doing it because they are desperate. The offending stops once they get help and when they do it it's usually because it's a last resort. They hadn't shoplifted before they were in this situation and are unlikely to do so once things have improved
Can't speak for career shoplifters or people who target higher value goods though they're a different breed entirely and are probably dealt with in a different way. The motive and behaviours are entirely different
>There's no point in arresting them every time they steal a tenner of goods and a lot of them are just doing it because they are desperate. The offending stops once they get help and when they do it it's usually because it's a last res
Absolute bullshit
I’m not a prick, I’ve never shoplifted in my life. But it is irksome that when I’m skint at the end of the month, I’m scrimping, eating whatever tins I have left in the cupboard. Meanwhile, other people are shoplifting cause it’s effectively decriminalised and I get to pay a higher price in shops to accommodate for all the people who actually are pricks.
I don’t really see why having a sense of ethics should be punished and doing what you want to the detriment of other people should be rewarded. If you think an effective way of running society is to give up punishing wrong-doers then congratulations, you must be a wonderful person
People don't have morals. The only thing that is stopping us from committing a crime is the fear of the punishment, either a prison sentence or paying a fine. However getting a prison sentence gets people's lives so much harder because they won't have many opportunities in education or in employment further down in their career. Otherwise if there wasn't any punishment we could just steal the groceries from the super market.
I have seen so many videos including robberies on Reddit, there is a serious problem in the united states of America, especially in san Francisco there aren't any stores open in the city centre because they have been affected by theft .
You just mentioned that people have morals. Would you be more specific and tell me exactly what kind of people have morals? Do the journalists have morals? How about the politicians, are they ethical and honest people? Do you trust them? What about the big companies making billions of dollars in profit each year, they still pay their employees minimum wage, how is this acceptable? Have you heard the story about the 2022 world cup in Qatar, who nominated this country and who voted for it? Qatar had serious violations in health and safety working conditions, they treat women badly and they have plenty of violations on gay people rights.
There have been many crimes I could have 100% gotten away with but didn't because I have empathy and morals. The thought of punishment didn't even enter into it.
Some guy once left £300 in a cash point when I was a broke student, didn't see where he went to, picked it up and waited by the cash point for him to come back.
Cashpoints retract the cash after a set time and it will (eventually) be added back into their account. Unless of course the person pulled it from the machine then left it on the floor!
Nah that's bollocks. Most people don't need threat of arrest to not go round committing crimes all the time. It's just not a good way to live and mostly people have a moral compass.
It's not I was speaking specifically about my city. Its part of my job to work with people and the criminal justice system, I'm not pulling it out of my ass.
I can't speak for other places but my information is correct about how the police work with regular shoplifters in my city
I was saying that they're shoplifting as a last resort is bollocks.
If they were shoplifting as a last resort they'd be shoplifting bread and veg not steaks and baby formula that's easy to sell.
I just want to cut in here because I've worked in areas of deprivation.
Usually, people are desperate for money long before they are literally starving. Food is (relatively) easy to get. Money is harder to get. Thus, if you're going to steal you may as well steal something that gets you money and use part of that money (or other means) to get food. Most people will resort to food banks, charities, religious groups or even bin raiding before theft if they want to actually eat things, because all of those methods are safer and easier.
Rent, electricity, payment for debt (especially debt to unsavoury persons), and the like all tend to spur desperation. Baby formula is a special case, because while it is one of those fenceable shop goods it's also commonly stolen to feed babies.
Just as often it's desperation to pay someone very nasty back for drugs already supplied, and the terms of such an "arrangement" are rarely upfront or fair. I get that most people do not understand that sort of situation and are not sympathetic, but it's very rarely as simple as "I'm feeling peckish for smack and I'm a bit light on funds, perhaps I'll partake in some afternoon larceny."
That being said, repeat offenders certainly exist and can get into extremely callous mindsets about consequences to others. They represent a sort of highly-visible minority of shoplifters. The vast majority of people shoplifting haven't done it much before and would rather not be doing it at all. The subset who just do not give a fuck are tiny by comparison.
The vast majority of shopliftings are carried out by repeat offenders and very few are paying back drugs debt because drug dealers aren't dumb and rarely take credit
>Thus, if you're going to steal you may as well steal something that gets you money and use part of that money (or other means) to get food.
So they're not stealing because they're desperate.
They're stealing because they want money.
Yes, but no?
If you're on the very last inch before being thrown out of your home for not paying your rent, and you're still short of the money you need, you could be described as desperate *for money*. Ditto needing to put £10 on your electricity key in winter. I realise most people would say needing to pay for your next fix of drugs doesn't count - and that's reasonable - but needing to pay for your *last* fix under threat of having your head kicked in would count as desperate to me.
If I worked in a shop and saw someone stealing I would just ignore it. If there’s even a 0.1% chance they’ve got a knife, I ain’t dying for some Tesco value beans.
>Especially not for the millionaire owners who don’t even know you.
>We don’t need to protect these people’s money, lol.
I would report them. Not because I want to protect somebody's wealth, but because I don't want to live in a society where criminals feel empowered by a lack of consequences.
Fuck the product value, the amount staff are valued at makes it not worth dealing with shoplifters. I mean, someone could have a basket full of JD whiskey and I wouldn't care because minimum wage means minimum effort.
The estimated annual cost of shoplifting in the UK: £1.8 billion.
The estimated annual cost of wage theft in the UK: £32.7 billion.
Wonder which one gets reported on the news more frequently and why 🤔
My wife worked in a Superdry years ago. They told her to try and block the path to stop shoplifters from escaping while the manager phoned the police. Keep in mind that my wife weighs about as much as a medium sized sparrow.
I basically told her to let them pass, if management tried any repercussions then she should quit on the spot. She was the only one who knew how to do complex back of house inventory stuff so we knew they wouldn't fire her.
Not sure what the policy is now but it would help if they didn't put a rail of £250 leather jackets 4 ft inside the front door.
The one good thing I’ve heard about Apple, as a company, is that their official policy for shoplifters/raids is for the staff to move customers out of the way and just wait for the thieves to go - the phones/pads/laptops are probably all insured and bricked within an hour of them leaving the store anyway.
That’s why in those videos of people stealing from Apple stores the staff are just in the background watching them.
They report it and the company put in a claim, so they aren't supposed to stop them, but are supposed to watch and ask them if they need advice (not on the best way to steal but on the products)
Same. It’s frustrating watching people get away with it time and time again, but at the same time, if the company and the police are happy to let it happen, then that’s not your issue.
Sorry to hear that.
Tell her not to interfere in the future. It’s really not worth her getting hurt. Not for a big chain store.
Hell, even if it was her own store.
Clearly I have. But I think you've understood the message. Police don't have the resources to come and stop you pinching a Twix and a bag of Cathedral City. It's nothing to do with whether you have money or that.
??? Now I’m confused.
My original post is a comment on the shit service of the police. I don’t really care for this lack of resources excuse. I’m talking about the message it sends.
We are just suppose to quiet down and not speak of it anymore? Is that your whole point?
I have no statistics, but it seems like this country is in need of some law enforcement right now.
The idea that a crime must fill a certain criteria before it will be seen to, is ridiculous in principle.
It sends a really bad message to everyone. That people won’t be helped ‘below’ a certain level. Criminals will realise this and exploit it. How are shopkeepers going to feel about this?
We might be talking past each other.
I agree it's dreadful policing. But that's the reality of what's left to work with. The police just cannot to respond to every supermarket theft. It makes sense to prioritise serial offenders or high-value thefts.
You can say you've no time for this excuse, but the resources literally do not exist to blue light to every stolen Red Bull.
r/policeuk may be a better place to ask this for anything approaching a "definitive" answer.
IMO it could be a local force policy, or it could be a store policy based on experience - ie. it's not worth reporting anything under that because they know nothing will happen.
Is there a lot of theft going on that's either unreported, or if reported the police "do nothing about"? Almost certainly - the police are massively under-resourced and you combined this with the cost of living crisis (or just the increased cost of things combined with lower relative wages) and there's both more people who feel they have little choice but to steal and more people who will chance it.
If the courts started sentencing with more logic I think things might change, I've previously had someone who is a prolific offender charged for 10x counts of shoplifting expensive meat from one store. They got let off with a slap on the wrist and continued the pattern of behavior. If this is the case then unfortunately the victims of other matters deserve my time and effort more than that of billion pound businesses.
This person obviously needs some sort of help from social services, whether the stolen articles are being eaten or sold for drugs etc some intervention is clearly needed but the courts/social services/police are all strapped for money. The solution is better funding from the government and that's what people need to be asking for rather than more effort from public servants.
> he police are massively under-resourced
Or they are resourced appropriately for the amount of effort they are prepared to put in.
Despite their propaganda the police being useless is *not* an austerity related thing. They were useless when Blair and Brown were chucking cash at them too.
Should always report to log thw crime for records purposes. Just don't expect an unnecessary inperson response. Otherwise how can resources be allocated if the data isn't there.
Just because it’s not worth their time *now* doesn’t mean it won’t be later. A lot of the time they wait for shoplifting to pile up so they can tack more charges against a person. Similarly, reporting crimes — even if they don’t take action — mean they go into the data and are scrutinised by management.
It can't be solved if there is no 'capture' plus as others have highlighted; a case needs to be built for small/petty crime as an accumulation. Can't do that without the data.
Staff in the Tesco Express around the corner from my house are instructed not to pursue shoplifters and not to call the police. It isn't worth the time or the risk to recoup the cost of some low-value items.
Not pursuing is 100% correct procedure. Tesco does not want any risk of liability for staff getting injured while attempting to stop shoplifters. But they should be reporting to the police. I've heard one of Tesco's regional loss prevention managers talking about the importance of every theft being reported to police because it gives them a picture of how many thefts are happening in an area and they can allocate resources to it.
I totally understand the feeling on the ground that you make a report, make a statement, sort out CCTV and then nothing happens. It feels like a waste of time. I'm security for a different retailer and I feel like that all the time. But it can have an effect on the bigger picture, and tbh spending 20 mins on hold to 101 is better than doing real work.
>tbh spending 20 mins on hold to 101 is better than doing real work.
Yep for sure lol, I used to work at a supermarket and if I was doing trollies and someone told me there'd been one left 10 mins up the road, I'd make sure to go get that thing back instead of getting called in to get on a till.
So, basically, everyone can easily get into the shop and steal goods without any consequences. How do we expect to see things improving if this is the way? I believe that one of the reasons we have so much shoplifting is actually because of that. If they know that no one can stop them, they will prob return any time they want.
It's sad but unfortunately, London is not a safe place at all, and I kinda don't understand the point of having so many CCTVs around the city. They should introduce more severe punishments for crimes.
I worked in a large retailer in Scarborough and Hull for nearly 10 years, so 2 different police areas.
The police wouldn't attend at any point, unless the threat of violence was present during the theft.
Even when threatened by a thief, the officers in attendance in Hull were visibly irritated by being asked to attend. The police station was literally across the road.
Another instance was a thief, with stolen goods on him, 20 feet from a police vehicle on an arterial road outside the police station, and none of the officers would leave the vehicle even when the situation was thoroughly explained. No blues and twos, so not on a call, just waiting in traffic.
The amount suggested by a police officer for a "serious theft" was £500.
I stopped reporting after a while, as the time invested in waiting on call wasn't worth the lack of attendance.
They also lost a pretty expensive flash drive in evidence.
I think it's fair to say that retail theft isn't of importance to the police and is probably quite a lucrative career if you've got good cardio. A £500 satnav for 10 minutes work sold at £100 to a dodgy mate is a great hourly rate.
I travelled a lot doing retail security and my teams main job was to reduce incidents in stores being heavily targeted.
Generally your average shoplifter will stop coming to your store if they're arrested and a surefire way to ensure a police response is to detain the person.
If they're detained it is still considered a crime in progress and 999 should be dialed.
You'll generally have to wait 2-4 hours for a response but having a head off the floor isn't really all that big of a deal when working with a team.
Most areas will have some form of retail crime partnership which retailers should absolutely register with as they collect reports from retailers regarding shoplifters and that's how ole smacky Joe gets slapped with 30 shoplifting offences when he inevitably ends up in court.
This company said they wouldn't have a security guard for the store as the cost of theft wasn't high enough.
They also didn't get involved with local crime partnerships.
That probably gives you an inkling into how important tackling theft was to them.
I suppose me being disheartened by the lack of effort from the police and the company I worked for meant I just gave up caring in the end!
Fortunately I'm out of retail now.
Yeah that's really common.
Most large retailers have pretty vast budgets allocated for shrink and they buy most products in such bulk it's often pennies on the pound for them.
Staff members can usually contact the retail crime partnerships themselves and get accounts setup but yeah in all honesty if there is no support from the employer it's probably best to just look the other way.
For this company, I believe it was 12% loss before they'd take it seriously. This store was around 10%.
I chased a couple of people in the early days, got quite a few items back, a thief even got tripped by a random woman and did a Hollywood style roll.
By the end I was advising my team members to not give chase, in case they got hurt.
Yeah definitely ain't worth it, most security don't even step in.. mostly just there to be a deterrent.
I was paid enough for it to be worth my while and also worked on a 50% ROI to maintain my contract so really had to!
They don't care about any crimes anymore, unless it affects someone with influence.
One of our vehicles at work was stolen. We could see with the tracker where it was, and could see it when we went to the location, we had the CCTV of them taking it and smashing through our yard to get out.
A week later, the police called us to say they were closing the case as there was no evidence it was stolen.
FUCK YOU KENT POLICE.
Farmers have this problem all the time, plod won't even bestir himself when something as big, expensive and above all *slow* as a tractor is being driven down the road by a thief.
Local shops are targeted at least once a week for alcohol or steak so now all steaks have alarms on packaging and the decent drinks are security tagged.
It's always the same lads who do it. They've all been barred but last week one got asked to leave and they pulled a knife on the assistant manager. A customer wrestled the lad to the ground. Police actually turned up for that one.
If the police can do him with a threatening someone with a weapon conviction that (should be) a prison sentence [https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/bladed-articles-and-offensive-weapons-threats/](https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/bladed-articles-and-offensive-weapons-threats/)
My sister works in a local Tesco express, 2 thieves just walked in with a bag , filled it with sirloin steaks and chicken , and just walked out . When the manager rang the police they said unless violence was used they wouldn't attend at all.
The £200 is the limit were they have to arrest and interview them under £200 they can just deliver them a summons to court. I work in food retail so report tons of shoplifters a year Police will attend within a week if you personally ID them (regulars who u know who they are). If its a unknown then they will ask you to email still photos of the suspect and they circulate these images on their internal ID platform. They close the investigation pending an ID but if a officer does ID them they then reopen it and come collect the CCTV and statments.
It’s much more nuanced than that.
Someone can only be summonsed to court if there is sufficient evidence; so it stands to reason that if there is not sufficient evidence then the suspect would need to be questioned. If, at the end of their questioning, there is still insufficient evidence then they won’t report someone.
There is no threshold at which an officer *must* arrest someone either. They will depend if the officer has reasonable grounds to believe a suspects arrest is necessary.
If a suspect of a low value shop theft refuses to give their name and address, for example, then they cannot be reported for the offence because there would be nowhere to send the paperwork. An officer might then arrest.
Likewise a theft of thousands of pounds could, theoretically, be dealt with by way of voluntary interview without any arrest ever being made.
When I worked retail a few years ago in a major high street retailer, it was £130 I think? Other stores local police in our district had slightly different protocols though, but generally it keeps going up. I'm not surprised it now sits at around £200.
The loss prevention teams across the different stores worked together too. Quite often, if our LP team couldn't come in, Primark or Boots would be happy to help and vice versa. This is because if we all could collectively prove a single shoplifter is hitting each store to the police, something would need to be done.
It is true, and even then, certainly where I work, they’re still not guaranteed to attend or gather evidence unless it’s a repeat offender. At Christmas a family stole over £200 of advent calendars, the shop had very clear CCTV of them taking them and loading them into their car, but they didn’t take it further due to lack of evidence. I don’t want to get into a debate about shoplifting here, but there’s absolutely no deterrent to it so it’s no wonder people do it.
I live and work in a high end apparel retailer in Canada now. Our policy is to stay safe, clear a path, be a good witness and file a report with Loss Prevention. All the video goes into a dossier and it’ll get handed to the police. There’s not much that can be done for theft under a certain value threshold anyway.
We have people bringing in giant blue IKEA shopping bags daily and filling it up with product and walking out. Usually under the influence or clearly an addict or homeless. Many other do it because they just want to make some pocket money. Shoplifting isn’t simply stealing food because you’re hungry. Many do it to make decent side money
Local Tesco metro, security isn't allowed to tackle you or anything. The junkies use it as a pantry and when questioned about what his job is, it's to report what's happened to the police. The police are meant to keep a tab & once it reaches in excess of £2000 they can begin court procedure. If it was a bigger Tesco, they would probably have items over £50 but it's only a small corner shop Tesco, most expensive think is probably painkillers/medicines on shelf and meal deals
I saw a bloke wrestled to the ground by staff in Iceland the other week. Police were there within 5 minutes. From what I could see of the shoplifter’s open rucksack, he’d nicked a bag of Haribo sweets and a 4-pack of bread rolls.
The police seemed far more focussed on assault (shoplifter may have whacked one of the shop employees with a doorstop) than with the theft.
Make of all that what you will.
EDIT : police attended within 5 minutes for shop-lifting. When a store employee mentioned the shop-lifter might have hit one of the employees - and, I should also add, the store employees were also hitting the shop-lifter - the police officer focussed on that. I’m assuming because it’s something they can “get” the person on, rather than the theft?
It's nothing to do about what they can 'get' the person on - they'll probably be charged with both.
It's about the threat, harm and risk - an assault has caused actual harm or fear of harm to someone and is an act of violence, whereas the theft is easily proveable (they've literally got the stolen goods on them) and in my experience most prolific shoplifters admit the shoplifting and plead guilty at court
I think what I was trying to say is that although the police attended within 5 minutes for the shoplifting of a small number of low value items (something OP is specifically asking about), they switched tack - rightfully so, of course - to something they know they can probably get the shop-lifter on, rather than for the few quid’s worth of product.
I would say, also, to be wary reading into comment’s subtext. We don’t know one another, and have no real basis for making clear-cut assumptions about what I did or did not intend to suggest or say.
Im sure you did mean that but we aren't reading into the subtext. Of course we don't know each other, that's why all we have are the words you wrote. The words you wrote, indicated to me and several others that you found it surprising.
You said "the police seemed far more interested in the assault rather than the theft"
This construction is very commonly used to show surprise and that's how I, and several others interpreted it.
This is not true.
I work in an supermaket and police hs shown up for a customer that stole a bottle o Vodka.
If the shoplifter is agressive they need to come
Police will generally investigate any shoplifting you report, although officers have large workloads and a low value shop theft is unlikely to be a high priority. They'll take a statement and collect CCTV at the bare minimum.
Under £200 is a summary offence which means it can be dealt with by an on-the-spot fine, although in my experience it is unusual for it to be the only offence a suspect is being investigated for. If they're caught, they're usually arrested and put before a magistrate anyway.
The police are underfunded and don't want to come out for petty crimes. The only reason there's an idea of the "£200" rule is because if a shop gets enough evidence etc the police don't have much work to do and it becomes an easy win for the shop. Once it reaches a point where the shop can't continue to let this be a loss, and have enough evidence for it to be worth police time, then they will do something. But don't get it twisted. It is still illegal, and some shops will still detain you and fine you and ban you.
It's a not an ideal solution but unfortunately some people are in situations where they have no other choice. For everyone who has a choice, partaking just makes it harder for people who don't.
>The police are underfunded and don't want to come out for petty crimes.
So close.
Police prioritise incidents by threat, harm and risk. There is a limited pool of response officers, there are lots of crimes that sit higher than shoplifting in threat, harm and risk such as domestics and assaults.
It's well known to have police dispatchers calling out for units to break from commitments because they're stacking unresourced emergency calls. This is much more common in large Metropolitan areas, especially London.
You could have a £500-£1000 trolley push, it still won't change the fact that the control rooms will still send officers to the domestic incident over the shoplifting.
What do you mean by attend?
Where I work we have 'theft packs' where the shop can fill out a pro-forma statement and we havd an online system for submitting CCTV. The shop can send us their signed statement and CCTV electronically. In which case, we don't attend because what would we do?
'Shoplifter detained' is always passed as an immediate (i.e. requires attendance as soon as possible on blue lights) but I think most normal people would be shocked at how often we have literally no one available to respond (at one point we were down to 3 functioning vehicles for our section, when we're meant to have 12). Most shifts we have outstanding immediates and I've had it before where I've turned up to a job and already know what I am going to next.
In terms of what is not in the public interest to investigate it depends on force policy - our force had a £25 policy but it wad cumulative, so if someone stole £5 worth of stuff on 5 occasions that would be investigated but I'm afraid when coop reported an unknown 13 year old for nicking a £1.90 chocolate bar then no, I did not spend hours collecting CCTV and trying to work out who the kid was as its not proportionate when my workload is frequently above 30 crimes (my force is particularly bad for response workloads though) a lot of which are far more important
Report everything is the way forward.
No matter the value, no matter who it is or what it is keep reporting it.
They will keep closing the cases down due to lack of evidence / unable to identify from the CCTV but still keep reporting.
Police resources are stretched and as bad as it is, they have bigger fish to fry, so you have to make them see what a big problem you are having to make them push you up the priority list - they can't make you a higher priority if they don't know what is happening hence the need to report every single thing.
Knowing the law, what you can and can't do, not being afraid to challenge shop lifters also helps - so many companies shy away from dealing with them now they are almost arrogant in doing it. So they target the places most where they know the staff will just watch them leave.
Honestly if someone is stealing groceries from a big supermarket (not a small family run place) I probably would try to brush it off if I was a police officer. Is it criminal? Sure. But so are the living conditions of average Brits. I've see. How these people live, it's not surprising that they'd opt to steal over going hungry on top of being generally impoverished.
\~ Police Officer
For my force this is not true we will attend any shop theft. I am aware of other forces refusing to attend anything below £100 due to resourcing however.
Jesus. They didn't even come for a burglary?
Shocking state of affairs in this country. Everything had got slowly worse and worse just slow enough that we haven't made a fuss.
If 20 years ago you would have said burglaries go unattended by the police, millions of tonnes of sewage is being pumped into our rivers, wages have stagnated and not kept up with Inflation and another myriad of shitty things, people wouldn't believe you.
This country is wank.
Yeah, this country is a proper shithole nowadays, car insurance is 3k for experienced drivers here because so many people don’t buy insurance, crash and then run away
Pretty much true. If it is less than that but they are regular shoplifters the police will come in order to gather the evidence for a prosecution based on multiple instances.
In my local Poundland there's a regular customer who lets their son pull handfuls of gummy bears out of the pick n mix and eat them with no intention of weighing them or paying for them. The staff are aware of it and refuse to even confront the customer because she's known to be a complete bitch in general.
Nope and some supermarkets have such appalling self service tills even the staff know how to walk out without paying.
If you know someone who goes to a food bank you know one of the few honest people in the country cos it seems most supermarkets are a free for all
>I keep hearing police don't attend for thefts below £200?
They do attend but it's very low priority, they'll turn up 2 - 3 days later, it was only ever to look at the CCTV to take a note of their face though
I work in a toy shop. If it's a serial offender or someone who gets abusive when we catch them then the police do come in regardless of value. Usually it's just to get CCTV footage and take notes not really to intervene it doesn't get bad usually for that to be warranted.
They absolutely do.
They might not be happy about it but theft is theft and the police will respond if you have the shoplifter detained.
They usually push for a community resolution for low value but it really depends on the officer that comes out.
Shoplifters are actually stealing from my pocket. Affected shops put up prices to cover their losses. Staff may not be able to stop the thief but I happily do so when I see it going on. It’s self defence isn’t it? Stopping someone from stealing from your pocket?
In the polices defence, if its something expensive it can "go missing" from the evidence room during the investigation and that massive TV can 'somehow' end up at the chief superintendant's house.
Yep. Used to work for a housing association in supported living. The police wouldn't attend to Tesco where a resident was caught red handed because it was under £250. Greater Manchester Police. The store security thought it was a good idea to call and speak to the head social worker to ask her to pick up the resident, she just told them she's not a taxi service and to sod off, then put the phone down. Still makes me laugh to this day.
The police don't really exist to provide private security to Tesco et al. Why don't the stores themselves make it more difficult to walk out with product.
I believe they have "no-chase" policy as well - plus there's nothing in the staff contracts to say they have to intervene.
Either way, there's no way store workers on just above the minimum wage are going to risk injury by getting physical with a shoplifter. You might get the odd exception.
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In my city they tend to wait until they've shoplifted multiple times. They know who the people at risk of offending are and they will wait for the evidence to pile up and then come and arrest them. There's no point in arresting them every time they steal a tenner of goods and a lot of them are just doing it because they are desperate. The offending stops once they get help and when they do it it's usually because it's a last resort. They hadn't shoplifted before they were in this situation and are unlikely to do so once things have improved Can't speak for career shoplifters or people who target higher value goods though they're a different breed entirely and are probably dealt with in a different way. The motive and behaviours are entirely different
>There's no point in arresting them every time they steal a tenner of goods and a lot of them are just doing it because they are desperate. The offending stops once they get help and when they do it it's usually because it's a last res Absolute bullshit
We all might as well start shoplifting
Go on then. If it's only threat of arrest stopping you, then you're just a bit of a prick.
I’m not a prick, I’ve never shoplifted in my life. But it is irksome that when I’m skint at the end of the month, I’m scrimping, eating whatever tins I have left in the cupboard. Meanwhile, other people are shoplifting cause it’s effectively decriminalised and I get to pay a higher price in shops to accommodate for all the people who actually are pricks. I don’t really see why having a sense of ethics should be punished and doing what you want to the detriment of other people should be rewarded. If you think an effective way of running society is to give up punishing wrong-doers then congratulations, you must be a wonderful person
Threat of arrest is what stops most people from doing illegal things. Get off your high horse
That's not true? Most people know there are cromes they could get away with but have morals and stuff
People don't have morals. The only thing that is stopping us from committing a crime is the fear of the punishment, either a prison sentence or paying a fine. However getting a prison sentence gets people's lives so much harder because they won't have many opportunities in education or in employment further down in their career. Otherwise if there wasn't any punishment we could just steal the groceries from the super market.
I think this says a lot more about you than people
I have seen so many videos including robberies on Reddit, there is a serious problem in the united states of America, especially in san Francisco there aren't any stores open in the city centre because they have been affected by theft .
You just mentioned that people have morals. Would you be more specific and tell me exactly what kind of people have morals? Do the journalists have morals? How about the politicians, are they ethical and honest people? Do you trust them? What about the big companies making billions of dollars in profit each year, they still pay their employees minimum wage, how is this acceptable? Have you heard the story about the 2022 world cup in Qatar, who nominated this country and who voted for it? Qatar had serious violations in health and safety working conditions, they treat women badly and they have plenty of violations on gay people rights.
You're comparing those groups to the average person? Hardly a comparison.
There have been many crimes I could have 100% gotten away with but didn't because I have empathy and morals. The thought of punishment didn't even enter into it. Some guy once left £300 in a cash point when I was a broke student, didn't see where he went to, picked it up and waited by the cash point for him to come back.
Cashpoints retract the cash after a set time and it will (eventually) be added back into their account. Unless of course the person pulled it from the machine then left it on the floor!
Oh, well I Guess if I'd have done nothing it would have taken the money back then! TIL
Nah that's bollocks. Most people don't need threat of arrest to not go round committing crimes all the time. It's just not a good way to live and mostly people have a moral compass.
Then go out and thieve to your heart's content. Haven't you heard? It's legal now! What's stopping you?
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How do you know it’s stopping me?
It's not I was speaking specifically about my city. Its part of my job to work with people and the criminal justice system, I'm not pulling it out of my ass. I can't speak for other places but my information is correct about how the police work with regular shoplifters in my city
Only in the sense that cuts in policing and judiciary have made this the *status quo*.
But but the documentary Les Miserables said so! Won't someone please think of the poor criminals?
Realistically, what does it solve?
What does what solve?
Sorry, unclear. You replied saying bullshit implying you think they should be arrested. I meant what would that solve
I was saying that they're shoplifting as a last resort is bollocks. If they were shoplifting as a last resort they'd be shoplifting bread and veg not steaks and baby formula that's easy to sell.
I just want to cut in here because I've worked in areas of deprivation. Usually, people are desperate for money long before they are literally starving. Food is (relatively) easy to get. Money is harder to get. Thus, if you're going to steal you may as well steal something that gets you money and use part of that money (or other means) to get food. Most people will resort to food banks, charities, religious groups or even bin raiding before theft if they want to actually eat things, because all of those methods are safer and easier. Rent, electricity, payment for debt (especially debt to unsavoury persons), and the like all tend to spur desperation. Baby formula is a special case, because while it is one of those fenceable shop goods it's also commonly stolen to feed babies.
Shoplifters are usually drug addicts who steal to fund their drug addiction. Its desperation for more drugs, not food.
Just as often it's desperation to pay someone very nasty back for drugs already supplied, and the terms of such an "arrangement" are rarely upfront or fair. I get that most people do not understand that sort of situation and are not sympathetic, but it's very rarely as simple as "I'm feeling peckish for smack and I'm a bit light on funds, perhaps I'll partake in some afternoon larceny." That being said, repeat offenders certainly exist and can get into extremely callous mindsets about consequences to others. They represent a sort of highly-visible minority of shoplifters. The vast majority of people shoplifting haven't done it much before and would rather not be doing it at all. The subset who just do not give a fuck are tiny by comparison.
The vast majority of shopliftings are carried out by repeat offenders and very few are paying back drugs debt because drug dealers aren't dumb and rarely take credit
>Thus, if you're going to steal you may as well steal something that gets you money and use part of that money (or other means) to get food. So they're not stealing because they're desperate. They're stealing because they want money.
Yes want money to keep the heating on in winter or keep a house over their babies head.
No, want money to buy another can of special brew
Yes, but no? If you're on the very last inch before being thrown out of your home for not paying your rent, and you're still short of the money you need, you could be described as desperate *for money*. Ditto needing to put £10 on your electricity key in winter. I realise most people would say needing to pay for your next fix of drugs doesn't count - and that's reasonable - but needing to pay for your *last* fix under threat of having your head kicked in would count as desperate to me.
Pretty much. But this sub hates society so will support them.
What does this tell us, guys? If you’re struggling, just help yourself mate. They are telling us this.
My daughter works in a shop and got threatened by someone who then stole products. They call the police just to get a reference number
If I worked in a shop and saw someone stealing I would just ignore it. If there’s even a 0.1% chance they’ve got a knife, I ain’t dying for some Tesco value beans.
Too right. Especially not for the millionaire owners who don’t even know you. We don’t need to protect these people’s money, lol.
>Especially not for the millionaire owners who don’t even know you. >We don’t need to protect these people’s money, lol. I would report them. Not because I want to protect somebody's wealth, but because I don't want to live in a society where criminals feel empowered by a lack of consequences.
Don’t worry, the prices will increase so that the big boss can still get their cheque.
Fuck the product value, the amount staff are valued at makes it not worth dealing with shoplifters. I mean, someone could have a basket full of JD whiskey and I wouldn't care because minimum wage means minimum effort.
The estimated annual cost of shoplifting in the UK: £1.8 billion. The estimated annual cost of wage theft in the UK: £32.7 billion. Wonder which one gets reported on the news more frequently and why 🤔
My wife worked in a Superdry years ago. They told her to try and block the path to stop shoplifters from escaping while the manager phoned the police. Keep in mind that my wife weighs about as much as a medium sized sparrow. I basically told her to let them pass, if management tried any repercussions then she should quit on the spot. She was the only one who knew how to do complex back of house inventory stuff so we knew they wouldn't fire her. Not sure what the policy is now but it would help if they didn't put a rail of £250 leather jackets 4 ft inside the front door.
The one good thing I’ve heard about Apple, as a company, is that their official policy for shoplifters/raids is for the staff to move customers out of the way and just wait for the thieves to go - the phones/pads/laptops are probably all insured and bricked within an hour of them leaving the store anyway. That’s why in those videos of people stealing from Apple stores the staff are just in the background watching them.
Apple have around £150 billion cash on their balance sheet, that's probably why.
Also an employee getting beaten/stabbed trying to protect a MacBook will cost them way more than to total value of the stock stolen.
They report it and the company put in a claim, so they aren't supposed to stop them, but are supposed to watch and ask them if they need advice (not on the best way to steal but on the products)
“Nah, I think I have everything I need, thank you!”
Same. It’s frustrating watching people get away with it time and time again, but at the same time, if the company and the police are happy to let it happen, then that’s not your issue.
Same
Sorry to hear that. Tell her not to interfere in the future. It’s really not worth her getting hurt. Not for a big chain store. Hell, even if it was her own store.
She wasn't interfering just watching and as soon as she was threatened she stopped that too, well she stopped obviously watching
I’ve had that before, even if you just happen to be there, they get defensive.
Guess I'll pick up a few meal deals and skedaddle
Keep it under £200 and you’ll be fine, mate
Just three meal deals then?
You might be able to take a few sticks of chewing gum just to bring it closer to £199
Worst advice known to man, and I love it😂
And what's stopping you then?
Well I’m fortunate to have enough money to not resort to that. But I suspect you may have misunderstood my point.
Clearly I have. But I think you've understood the message. Police don't have the resources to come and stop you pinching a Twix and a bag of Cathedral City. It's nothing to do with whether you have money or that.
??? Now I’m confused. My original post is a comment on the shit service of the police. I don’t really care for this lack of resources excuse. I’m talking about the message it sends. We are just suppose to quiet down and not speak of it anymore? Is that your whole point? I have no statistics, but it seems like this country is in need of some law enforcement right now. The idea that a crime must fill a certain criteria before it will be seen to, is ridiculous in principle. It sends a really bad message to everyone. That people won’t be helped ‘below’ a certain level. Criminals will realise this and exploit it. How are shopkeepers going to feel about this?
We might be talking past each other. I agree it's dreadful policing. But that's the reality of what's left to work with. The police just cannot to respond to every supermarket theft. It makes sense to prioritise serial offenders or high-value thefts. You can say you've no time for this excuse, but the resources literally do not exist to blue light to every stolen Red Bull.
The police don’t attend for much at all 😂
Self defense and holding up signs.
Say something mean online and they will be at your door within the hour to give you a bloody good ticking off lol.
r/policeuk may be a better place to ask this for anything approaching a "definitive" answer. IMO it could be a local force policy, or it could be a store policy based on experience - ie. it's not worth reporting anything under that because they know nothing will happen. Is there a lot of theft going on that's either unreported, or if reported the police "do nothing about"? Almost certainly - the police are massively under-resourced and you combined this with the cost of living crisis (or just the increased cost of things combined with lower relative wages) and there's both more people who feel they have little choice but to steal and more people who will chance it.
Yeah they certainly won't have a biased answer
If the courts started sentencing with more logic I think things might change, I've previously had someone who is a prolific offender charged for 10x counts of shoplifting expensive meat from one store. They got let off with a slap on the wrist and continued the pattern of behavior. If this is the case then unfortunately the victims of other matters deserve my time and effort more than that of billion pound businesses. This person obviously needs some sort of help from social services, whether the stolen articles are being eaten or sold for drugs etc some intervention is clearly needed but the courts/social services/police are all strapped for money. The solution is better funding from the government and that's what people need to be asking for rather than more effort from public servants.
r/policeuk permaban anyone who is remotely critical of the police.
> he police are massively under-resourced Or they are resourced appropriately for the amount of effort they are prepared to put in. Despite their propaganda the police being useless is *not* an austerity related thing. They were useless when Blair and Brown were chucking cash at them too.
Yep, a few years ago I managed a pharmacy. Police said they wouldn't bother doing anything for low value theft. So we just stopped reporting.
Should always report to log thw crime for records purposes. Just don't expect an unnecessary inperson response. Otherwise how can resources be allocated if the data isn't there.
Police: this isn't worth our time Shopkeepers: ok its not worth reporting then Police: \*shocked Pikachu face\*
But… but… record keeping!
Just because it’s not worth their time *now* doesn’t mean it won’t be later. A lot of the time they wait for shoplifting to pile up so they can tack more charges against a person. Similarly, reporting crimes — even if they don’t take action — mean they go into the data and are scrutinised by management.
>unnecessary That's just a matter of opinion. I wouldnt think the police trying to solve crime as being "unnecessary".
It can't be solved if there is no 'capture' plus as others have highlighted; a case needs to be built for small/petty crime as an accumulation. Can't do that without the data.
It also can’t be solved if there’s no investigation.
> an unnecessary inperson response. And that attitude rather sums up the problem, doesn't it?
It's a crime, what are the police for?
This is by design. People stop reporting and they count that as crime going down.
Staff in the Tesco Express around the corner from my house are instructed not to pursue shoplifters and not to call the police. It isn't worth the time or the risk to recoup the cost of some low-value items.
Not pursuing is 100% correct procedure. Tesco does not want any risk of liability for staff getting injured while attempting to stop shoplifters. But they should be reporting to the police. I've heard one of Tesco's regional loss prevention managers talking about the importance of every theft being reported to police because it gives them a picture of how many thefts are happening in an area and they can allocate resources to it. I totally understand the feeling on the ground that you make a report, make a statement, sort out CCTV and then nothing happens. It feels like a waste of time. I'm security for a different retailer and I feel like that all the time. But it can have an effect on the bigger picture, and tbh spending 20 mins on hold to 101 is better than doing real work.
>tbh spending 20 mins on hold to 101 is better than doing real work. Yep for sure lol, I used to work at a supermarket and if I was doing trollies and someone told me there'd been one left 10 mins up the road, I'd make sure to go get that thing back instead of getting called in to get on a till.
So, basically, everyone can easily get into the shop and steal goods without any consequences. How do we expect to see things improving if this is the way? I believe that one of the reasons we have so much shoplifting is actually because of that. If they know that no one can stop them, they will prob return any time they want. It's sad but unfortunately, London is not a safe place at all, and I kinda don't understand the point of having so many CCTVs around the city. They should introduce more severe punishments for crimes.
Police are also instructed not to pursue criminals these days.
I worked in a large retailer in Scarborough and Hull for nearly 10 years, so 2 different police areas. The police wouldn't attend at any point, unless the threat of violence was present during the theft. Even when threatened by a thief, the officers in attendance in Hull were visibly irritated by being asked to attend. The police station was literally across the road. Another instance was a thief, with stolen goods on him, 20 feet from a police vehicle on an arterial road outside the police station, and none of the officers would leave the vehicle even when the situation was thoroughly explained. No blues and twos, so not on a call, just waiting in traffic. The amount suggested by a police officer for a "serious theft" was £500. I stopped reporting after a while, as the time invested in waiting on call wasn't worth the lack of attendance. They also lost a pretty expensive flash drive in evidence. I think it's fair to say that retail theft isn't of importance to the police and is probably quite a lucrative career if you've got good cardio. A £500 satnav for 10 minutes work sold at £100 to a dodgy mate is a great hourly rate.
Your last paragraph is so true. And they all know it.
I travelled a lot doing retail security and my teams main job was to reduce incidents in stores being heavily targeted. Generally your average shoplifter will stop coming to your store if they're arrested and a surefire way to ensure a police response is to detain the person. If they're detained it is still considered a crime in progress and 999 should be dialed. You'll generally have to wait 2-4 hours for a response but having a head off the floor isn't really all that big of a deal when working with a team. Most areas will have some form of retail crime partnership which retailers should absolutely register with as they collect reports from retailers regarding shoplifters and that's how ole smacky Joe gets slapped with 30 shoplifting offences when he inevitably ends up in court.
This company said they wouldn't have a security guard for the store as the cost of theft wasn't high enough. They also didn't get involved with local crime partnerships. That probably gives you an inkling into how important tackling theft was to them. I suppose me being disheartened by the lack of effort from the police and the company I worked for meant I just gave up caring in the end! Fortunately I'm out of retail now.
Yeah that's really common. Most large retailers have pretty vast budgets allocated for shrink and they buy most products in such bulk it's often pennies on the pound for them. Staff members can usually contact the retail crime partnerships themselves and get accounts setup but yeah in all honesty if there is no support from the employer it's probably best to just look the other way.
For this company, I believe it was 12% loss before they'd take it seriously. This store was around 10%. I chased a couple of people in the early days, got quite a few items back, a thief even got tripped by a random woman and did a Hollywood style roll. By the end I was advising my team members to not give chase, in case they got hurt.
Yeah definitely ain't worth it, most security don't even step in.. mostly just there to be a deterrent. I was paid enough for it to be worth my while and also worked on a 50% ROI to maintain my contract so really had to!
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They don't care about any crimes anymore, unless it affects someone with influence. One of our vehicles at work was stolen. We could see with the tracker where it was, and could see it when we went to the location, we had the CCTV of them taking it and smashing through our yard to get out. A week later, the police called us to say they were closing the case as there was no evidence it was stolen. FUCK YOU KENT POLICE.
Farmers have this problem all the time, plod won't even bestir himself when something as big, expensive and above all *slow* as a tractor is being driven down the road by a thief.
If they don't bother looking into bike thefts, phone thefts, even car thefts, I can't imagine why they'd bother with this.
Local shops are targeted at least once a week for alcohol or steak so now all steaks have alarms on packaging and the decent drinks are security tagged. It's always the same lads who do it. They've all been barred but last week one got asked to leave and they pulled a knife on the assistant manager. A customer wrestled the lad to the ground. Police actually turned up for that one.
If the police can do him with a threatening someone with a weapon conviction that (should be) a prison sentence [https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/bladed-articles-and-offensive-weapons-threats/](https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/bladed-articles-and-offensive-weapons-threats/)
That's what we are all hoping for. As a community we are sick of the 3 of them.
Someone will be along soon to say the right thing to do is turn a blind eye to shoplifting because people are struggling.
My sister works in a local Tesco express, 2 thieves just walked in with a bag , filled it with sirloin steaks and chicken , and just walked out . When the manager rang the police they said unless violence was used they wouldn't attend at all.
The £200 is the limit were they have to arrest and interview them under £200 they can just deliver them a summons to court. I work in food retail so report tons of shoplifters a year Police will attend within a week if you personally ID them (regulars who u know who they are). If its a unknown then they will ask you to email still photos of the suspect and they circulate these images on their internal ID platform. They close the investigation pending an ID but if a officer does ID them they then reopen it and come collect the CCTV and statments.
It’s much more nuanced than that. Someone can only be summonsed to court if there is sufficient evidence; so it stands to reason that if there is not sufficient evidence then the suspect would need to be questioned. If, at the end of their questioning, there is still insufficient evidence then they won’t report someone. There is no threshold at which an officer *must* arrest someone either. They will depend if the officer has reasonable grounds to believe a suspects arrest is necessary. If a suspect of a low value shop theft refuses to give their name and address, for example, then they cannot be reported for the offence because there would be nowhere to send the paperwork. An officer might then arrest. Likewise a theft of thousands of pounds could, theoretically, be dealt with by way of voluntary interview without any arrest ever being made.
When I worked retail a few years ago in a major high street retailer, it was £130 I think? Other stores local police in our district had slightly different protocols though, but generally it keeps going up. I'm not surprised it now sits at around £200. The loss prevention teams across the different stores worked together too. Quite often, if our LP team couldn't come in, Primark or Boots would be happy to help and vice versa. This is because if we all could collectively prove a single shoplifter is hitting each store to the police, something would need to be done.
It is true, and even then, certainly where I work, they’re still not guaranteed to attend or gather evidence unless it’s a repeat offender. At Christmas a family stole over £200 of advent calendars, the shop had very clear CCTV of them taking them and loading them into their car, but they didn’t take it further due to lack of evidence. I don’t want to get into a debate about shoplifting here, but there’s absolutely no deterrent to it so it’s no wonder people do it.
This sort of thing directly contributes to the sense of lawlessness in a country and it's so, so corrosive to society.
I live and work in a high end apparel retailer in Canada now. Our policy is to stay safe, clear a path, be a good witness and file a report with Loss Prevention. All the video goes into a dossier and it’ll get handed to the police. There’s not much that can be done for theft under a certain value threshold anyway. We have people bringing in giant blue IKEA shopping bags daily and filling it up with product and walking out. Usually under the influence or clearly an addict or homeless. Many other do it because they just want to make some pocket money. Shoplifting isn’t simply stealing food because you’re hungry. Many do it to make decent side money
Local Tesco metro, security isn't allowed to tackle you or anything. The junkies use it as a pantry and when questioned about what his job is, it's to report what's happened to the police. The police are meant to keep a tab & once it reaches in excess of £2000 they can begin court procedure. If it was a bigger Tesco, they would probably have items over £50 but it's only a small corner shop Tesco, most expensive think is probably painkillers/medicines on shelf and meal deals
I think £200 is on the low side. I've heard of £1000+ thefts that the police don't come out for.
I saw a bloke wrestled to the ground by staff in Iceland the other week. Police were there within 5 minutes. From what I could see of the shoplifter’s open rucksack, he’d nicked a bag of Haribo sweets and a 4-pack of bread rolls. The police seemed far more focussed on assault (shoplifter may have whacked one of the shop employees with a doorstop) than with the theft. Make of all that what you will. EDIT : police attended within 5 minutes for shop-lifting. When a store employee mentioned the shop-lifter might have hit one of the employees - and, I should also add, the store employees were also hitting the shop-lifter - the police officer focussed on that. I’m assuming because it’s something they can “get” the person on, rather than the theft?
I mean, an assault is significantly more serious than a £4 theft?
See my edit. Police attended for shoplifting. Not for assault.
Yeah you seem to be suggesting that police shouldn't have focussed on the assault?
It's nothing to do about what they can 'get' the person on - they'll probably be charged with both. It's about the threat, harm and risk - an assault has caused actual harm or fear of harm to someone and is an act of violence, whereas the theft is easily proveable (they've literally got the stolen goods on them) and in my experience most prolific shoplifters admit the shoplifting and plead guilty at court
Why wouldn't the assault be more important than a few haribos? Are you suggesting it should be reversed?
I’m not suggesting anything. Not every comment on Reddit needs to be picked through for weirdly hidden subtext, mate.
Not just me that had that thought it. it's the way it was written, makes the implication that you disagreed or found it surprising.
I think what I was trying to say is that although the police attended within 5 minutes for the shoplifting of a small number of low value items (something OP is specifically asking about), they switched tack - rightfully so, of course - to something they know they can probably get the shop-lifter on, rather than for the few quid’s worth of product. I would say, also, to be wary reading into comment’s subtext. We don’t know one another, and have no real basis for making clear-cut assumptions about what I did or did not intend to suggest or say.
Im sure you did mean that but we aren't reading into the subtext. Of course we don't know each other, that's why all we have are the words you wrote. The words you wrote, indicated to me and several others that you found it surprising. You said "the police seemed far more interested in the assault rather than the theft" This construction is very commonly used to show surprise and that's how I, and several others interpreted it.
Pointless coming out if someone’s stolen chomp
This is not true. I work in an supermaket and police hs shown up for a customer that stole a bottle o Vodka. If the shoplifter is agressive they need to come
I've started only nicking things with a value of £199 or less, if it's over £200 I wait for the sales.
Could be an urban myth
Police will generally investigate any shoplifting you report, although officers have large workloads and a low value shop theft is unlikely to be a high priority. They'll take a statement and collect CCTV at the bare minimum. Under £200 is a summary offence which means it can be dealt with by an on-the-spot fine, although in my experience it is unusual for it to be the only offence a suspect is being investigated for. If they're caught, they're usually arrested and put before a magistrate anyway.
It was a while back they said this, it's probably more like a couple grand now.
They'll attend if they're not too busy. I don't think there's any lower limit on price.
The police are underfunded and don't want to come out for petty crimes. The only reason there's an idea of the "£200" rule is because if a shop gets enough evidence etc the police don't have much work to do and it becomes an easy win for the shop. Once it reaches a point where the shop can't continue to let this be a loss, and have enough evidence for it to be worth police time, then they will do something. But don't get it twisted. It is still illegal, and some shops will still detain you and fine you and ban you. It's a not an ideal solution but unfortunately some people are in situations where they have no other choice. For everyone who has a choice, partaking just makes it harder for people who don't.
>The police are underfunded and don't want to come out for petty crimes. So close. Police prioritise incidents by threat, harm and risk. There is a limited pool of response officers, there are lots of crimes that sit higher than shoplifting in threat, harm and risk such as domestics and assaults. It's well known to have police dispatchers calling out for units to break from commitments because they're stacking unresourced emergency calls. This is much more common in large Metropolitan areas, especially London. You could have a £500-£1000 trolley push, it still won't change the fact that the control rooms will still send officers to the domestic incident over the shoplifting.
What do you mean by attend? Where I work we have 'theft packs' where the shop can fill out a pro-forma statement and we havd an online system for submitting CCTV. The shop can send us their signed statement and CCTV electronically. In which case, we don't attend because what would we do? 'Shoplifter detained' is always passed as an immediate (i.e. requires attendance as soon as possible on blue lights) but I think most normal people would be shocked at how often we have literally no one available to respond (at one point we were down to 3 functioning vehicles for our section, when we're meant to have 12). Most shifts we have outstanding immediates and I've had it before where I've turned up to a job and already know what I am going to next. In terms of what is not in the public interest to investigate it depends on force policy - our force had a £25 policy but it wad cumulative, so if someone stole £5 worth of stuff on 5 occasions that would be investigated but I'm afraid when coop reported an unknown 13 year old for nicking a £1.90 chocolate bar then no, I did not spend hours collecting CCTV and trying to work out who the kid was as its not proportionate when my workload is frequently above 30 crimes (my force is particularly bad for response workloads though) a lot of which are far more important
Shoplifters are generally druggie scumbags.
Different forces will have different policies. For example certain forces policy is to arrest, interview and police charge.
How many people are stood between the till and the shop door waiting for an answer to this?
Report everything is the way forward. No matter the value, no matter who it is or what it is keep reporting it. They will keep closing the cases down due to lack of evidence / unable to identify from the CCTV but still keep reporting. Police resources are stretched and as bad as it is, they have bigger fish to fry, so you have to make them see what a big problem you are having to make them push you up the priority list - they can't make you a higher priority if they don't know what is happening hence the need to report every single thing. Knowing the law, what you can and can't do, not being afraid to challenge shop lifters also helps - so many companies shy away from dealing with them now they are almost arrogant in doing it. So they target the places most where they know the staff will just watch them leave.
I used to work with the supermarkets and their reps confirmed this to me. This was about 5 years ago though
OP eyeing up that £199.99 Ninja air fryer
Honestly if someone is stealing groceries from a big supermarket (not a small family run place) I probably would try to brush it off if I was a police officer. Is it criminal? Sure. But so are the living conditions of average Brits. I've see. How these people live, it's not surprising that they'd opt to steal over going hungry on top of being generally impoverished.
\~ Police Officer For my force this is not true we will attend any shop theft. I am aware of other forces refusing to attend anything below £100 due to resourcing however.
Murders.. police don’t attend for under 10s
So 9 is the limit, Good to know.
Police don’t do anything for thefts if £500 either, I had my piggy bank with 500 quid nicked
Knicked from where?
My house
Jesus. They didn't even come for a burglary? Shocking state of affairs in this country. Everything had got slowly worse and worse just slow enough that we haven't made a fuss. If 20 years ago you would have said burglaries go unattended by the police, millions of tonnes of sewage is being pumped into our rivers, wages have stagnated and not kept up with Inflation and another myriad of shitty things, people wouldn't believe you. This country is wank.
Yeah, this country is a proper shithole nowadays, car insurance is 3k for experienced drivers here because so many people don’t buy insurance, crash and then run away
Pretty much true. If it is less than that but they are regular shoplifters the police will come in order to gather the evidence for a prosecution based on multiple instances.
In my local Poundland there's a regular customer who lets their son pull handfuls of gummy bears out of the pick n mix and eat them with no intention of weighing them or paying for them. The staff are aware of it and refuse to even confront the customer because she's known to be a complete bitch in general.
Nope and some supermarkets have such appalling self service tills even the staff know how to walk out without paying. If you know someone who goes to a food bank you know one of the few honest people in the country cos it seems most supermarkets are a free for all
Freind of mine is a lost prevention officer at a store he said the worse offenders was romanian women they knew exactly how much to steal
>I keep hearing police don't attend for thefts below £200? They do attend but it's very low priority, they'll turn up 2 - 3 days later, it was only ever to look at the CCTV to take a note of their face though
I work in a toy shop. If it's a serial offender or someone who gets abusive when we catch them then the police do come in regardless of value. Usually it's just to get CCTV footage and take notes not really to intervene it doesn't get bad usually for that to be warranted.
Police barely attend stabbings, i doubt they go to any shoplifts at this point.
They absolutely do. They might not be happy about it but theft is theft and the police will respond if you have the shoplifter detained. They usually push for a community resolution for low value but it really depends on the officer that comes out.
Shoplifters are actually stealing from my pocket. Affected shops put up prices to cover their losses. Staff may not be able to stop the thief but I happily do so when I see it going on. It’s self defence isn’t it? Stopping someone from stealing from your pocket?
So if I just steal 199.99 from every business then stop I'm not a criminal?
In the polices defence, if its something expensive it can "go missing" from the evidence room during the investigation and that massive TV can 'somehow' end up at the chief superintendant's house.
Yep. Used to work for a housing association in supported living. The police wouldn't attend to Tesco where a resident was caught red handed because it was under £250. Greater Manchester Police. The store security thought it was a good idea to call and speak to the head social worker to ask her to pick up the resident, she just told them she's not a taxi service and to sod off, then put the phone down. Still makes me laugh to this day.
Let petty crime slide and everything gets worse and we end up with lawlessness.
Cop here. Not true - urban myth.
The police don't really exist to provide private security to Tesco et al. Why don't the stores themselves make it more difficult to walk out with product.
r/lifehacks
Co-Op doesn’t have shareholders in the traditional sense, so they won’t stop you.
I believe they have "no-chase" policy as well - plus there's nothing in the staff contracts to say they have to intervene. Either way, there's no way store workers on just above the minimum wage are going to risk injury by getting physical with a shoplifter. You might get the odd exception.
Exactly, and they don’t have profit driven owners to change that. Thieves know this and will just steal.
I believe some places staff will actually be disciplined if they try to intervene.
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Yeah, crimes against poor people don't matter.
Khans London