Remembering to #ShopKind

Next week is #ShopKind week, a joint Home Office and Crime Stoppers campaign that encourages kindness to retail workers. Violence against shopworkers is a real concern, it is utterly despicable and unacceptable - after all, everyone has the right to feel safe at work. That’s why I am proud to say that I am a #ShopKind Champion and take a supportive role in promoting the campaign.

I believe violence against retail workers and other business crime to be so important that I have made tackling it a feature of my Police and Crime Plan and established the Dorset Safer Business Partnership. Through this partnership, I am working closely with business leads across Dorset around four key areas - crime prevention, crime reporting, engagement and visibility, and cyber-crime and fraud.

Last year, Dorset Police launched their Business Crime Strategy which demonstrates a commitment to working with businesses to improve confidence, prevent crime and reduce the harm it causes. It sets the tone for policing with and in our business communities. I know that this strategy and the partnerships it will create will help achieve those goals. Since the strategy launched, the force has been working closely with the business community through the Neighbourhood Policing Teams.

In terms of violence against shopworkers, the strategy states that Dorset Police is committed to taking action against offenders who use or threaten violence against businesses or their employees and will effectively use dispersal orders, behaviour orders and other civil remedies as well as prosecution to stamp out such offences. I will be working with Dorset Police through the Dorset Safer Business Partnership to closely monitor this.

Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) often causes or is linked to the violence and abuse that retail staff can be subjected to, so I have also made ASB a priority in my Police and Crime Plan. Dorset has its very own police operation, Op Relentless, which focuses on tackling ASB across the county. Part of the work happening under Op Relentless has included the Force increasing patrols in ASB hotspots, using intelligence from residents to guide their focus, including intel from business owners.

Finally, I know substance misuse is often also linked to violence against shopworkers and the other crimes businesses in Dorset face, so I would like to reassure you that Dorset is #NoPlaceForDrugs. Dorset Police are working hard to break the supply chain by relentlessly pursuing the criminals involved in county lines, through Op Viper and Op Scorpion. But this is only part of the solution, to truly combat the issue of drugs, we also need effective treatment and rehabilitation, and impactful education.

In February, it was announced that Dorset will receive over £1.4 million of funding from the government's Harm to Hope strategy. This funding will allow the Dorset Combating Drugs Partnership to deliver a world-class treatment and recovery system by enhancing existing services and providing additional access to treatment centres – increasing effective opportunities for people to enter treatment throughout the criminal justice service.

I hope that this newsletter demonstrates that business crime is a high priority to both myself and Dorset Police. I am determined to tackle the issues that the people of Dorset tell me they want dealing with, and that includes business crime and violence against shopworkers.

I hope that not just over the next week, but any time you shop you will remember to #ShopKind.

 

David Sidwick

Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner