York retailers are ‘not bothering’ to alert the police to thefts, causing crime stats to become ‘skewed’.
That is the view of the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe.
She told senior police officers that it was a widely held view among retailers across York and North Yorkshire.
“I think the perception is that when crimes are reported, it’s not being actioned very quickly by North Yorkshire Police and the specific feeling is that shops are sometimes not bothering to report crimes,” Ms Metcalfe said in a meeting on 25 May.
“Because of that, I’m concerned that your stats are skewed because actually, you’re not getting the true picture.
“So can you tell me what work you’re doing with the retail sector to improve outcomes in policing?”
Assistant Chief Constable Elliot Foskett explained that a retail initiative currently allows shop owners to manually fill in a form with CCTV images to send to North Yorkshire Police.
“I think it’s fair to say that we probably haven’t had the best uptake on that one,” ACC Foskett said.
“I was talking to someone about this fairly recently and I hold my hands up and say we probably should have thought of this when we started.
“There’s going to be a digital way of doing it, rather than the manual way.”
He said the new way of reporting this type of crime will involve more ‘slick’ technology which should make it easier to report theft.
Investigating such crimes was important, he added.
ACC Foskett also emphasised that if there is violence involved or there is someone with a vulnerability then an officer will still attend.
He added that a report in a year’s time will be able to show the uptake of the new digital system.
Smaller stores targeted
David Skaith, director of the York High Street Forum and owner of independent York clothing store Winstons confirmed the problem is rife among smaller retailers.
“A lot of smaller retailers seem to be targeted because they don’t have the security they do in places like JD Sports or Boots,” he said.
“It’s usually small, cheap items that are nicked but it does add up.
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“Things don’t get reported because it’s not worth the time and there’s not enough police there to deal with it.
“The other day I saw two lads who had nicked a couple of polo tops from Browns department store, and they weren’t even rushing to get off.
“They had all the time in the world.”
Mr Skaith said he would support easier methods of contacting the police, as long as action follows.
“We have to make sure we have that security in place,” he said.
“You would get to the point where you could see a pattern of which stores are being targeted.
“But if it’s not being followed up, then it will be a waste of time.”
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