Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary supports national Safer Business Action week with activity across the county

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary and partners are supporting the national Safer Business Action (SaBA) Week, which launches today (Monday 14 October) to help tackle business and retail crime in our local communities.

As part of the initiative, police and partners across the force area will be holding Safer Business Action Days throughout the week and visiting local retailers and other businesses to understand more about the issues they are facing on a daily basis.

The objective is to deliver a focussed operation with joint patrols, the targeted intervention of prolific offenders and a range of crime prevention activity supported by the National Business Crime Centre, who organise SaBA Week.

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary’s retail crime lead, Chief Inspector Marcus Cator, said: “We are proud to once again be supporting Safer Business Action Week, showcasing the hard work that is put in all year round to tackle shoplifting and the crime associated with it, whether this is anti-social behaviour, violence towards retail workers or organised crime.

“Over the past 18 months, following national feedback on crime impacting on convenience stores in our communities, we have implemented dedicated operations with partners from UKPAC (UK Partners Against Crime) to tackle repeat offenders of retail crime in their client's stores. As a result, we have charged 557 crimes carried out by 47 people across their stores in our two counties. This positive approach has supported the victims and ensured a collaborative response to the impact of these offenders on this retail community.

“Dealing with retail crime requires a multi-faceted approach and all our work is done in conjunction with our retail partners, including local businesses, Business Improvement Districts, Business Crime Reduction Partnerships and local authorities.

“We will continue sending the message to repeat offenders that their behaviour and the impact it has on the victims, is not acceptable, while also signposting any support suitable that perpetrators may require to help steer them away from shoplifting. It is important that we continue to focus on retail crime, protecting victims and ensuring that offenders are held to account for their criminality.”

Superintendent Patrick Holdaway of the National Business Crime Centre said: “Last year’s week of action saw some fantastic results in targeting those who cause the most harm to businesses and also in building ongoing relationships between business, partners and the police.

“This is a great opportunity to shine a light on some of the current issues businesses face and also to highlight the ongoing work that police and partners are doing, supported by the NBCC, to tackle the problems that matter to local retailers and other businesses.”