Safer Business Action Week

During Safer Business Action Week, I want to highlight the work taking place across Dorset to target prolific shoplifting offenders, protect retail staff and make our high streets safer places to work and visit. Let me be clear: shoplifting is not a victimless crime. For shop workers, it can result in physical injury, damage their mental wellbeing and leave them feeling unsafe in their workplace. For business owners, it is an attack on their livelihoods, while for residents who witness these incidents, it can undermine confidence and make our communities feel less safe. Shoplifting also fuels wider criminality, including organised crime and drug-related offending. That is why tackling shoplifting and supporting those affected by it remains an important part of my work as Police and Crime Commissioner.

I am pleased to say that Dorset Police is achieving increasing success in tackling prolific shoplifters, the Retail Crime Team’s current positive outcome rate for cases where stores support police action is more than 65 per cent, more than double the positive outcome rate nationally for all shoplifting offences. This progress reflects the hard work of the force, my office and our partners of the Dorset Safer Business Partnership to improve the reporting of shoplifting, alongside more effective investigations through Operation Shopkeeper and the dedicated Retail Crime Team.

However, statistics alone mean little to the business owners whose livelihoods are threatened, the shop workers subjected to abuse and intimidation, or the security staff who work tirelessly to keep our communities safe.

That’s why in this newsletter I’d like to invite Inspector Ryan Corbett who leads Dorset Police’s Retail Crime Team to talk more about Operation Shopkeeper. Inspector Corbett explains how the operation is targeting Dorset's most prolific shoplifters, the difference this focused approach is making, and why partnership working and reporting offences remain vital to protecting retailers and bringing offenders to justice. 

My name is Inspector Ryan Corbett, and I lead Dorset Police’s Retail Crime Team. At its core, Operation Shopkeeper is about identifying and tackling high-harm, prolific offenders who are responsible for repeated shoplifting across our communities.

The operation was initially established because we know that, in many towns, a significant proportion of shoplifting is committed by a relatively small number of repeat offenders. By focusing our efforts on those individuals, we can have a much greater impact on the overall level of offending. We have examples of individuals who have been responsible for nearly 100 offences in just 12 months.

Since Operation Shopkeeper was first established in November 2023, it has evolved into much more than simply targeting prolific offenders. We now have a dedicated Retail Crime Team, which sits centrally and deals with shoplifting offences right across the county, whether they involve prolific offenders or single incidents.

In simple terms, our role is to bring information together and use it to get offenders before the courts as quickly and efficiently as possible. We see all the shoplifting incidents that are reported to Dorset Police and, where we identify a repeat offender, we will allocate that individual to a single officer within the team. That officer then takes responsibility for collating the information and evidence relating to all the offences linked to that person.

Having one officer bring all of those offences together, rather than having multiple local officers across different teams dealing with the same individual, makes the process much more efficient. It also means we can build a much clearer picture of the scale of that person’s offending. The officer will compile all the offences they can link to the individual. In most cases, the offender will then be sent a postal requisition, Which is a legal prosecution notice sent through the post by the police or the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that charges the offender with a criminal offense and orders the offender to attend a specific Magistrates' Court or Youth Court on a set date and time.

Once they have been summoned, they will be charged and bailed to appear at court. In these circumstances, there is often no need for an interview because the evidence is already there to demonstrate that they committed the offences. There are exceptions. If, for example, someone has assaulted a member of staff or committed another offence alongside the shoplifting, the process can take longer, and they may need to be interviewed. But in the majority of cases, where the evidence is clear, we can move the offender through the process and towards court much more quickly.

Bringing all the offences together also means the courts can see the full picture of an individual’s offending. Rather than considering one isolated shoplifting offence, the court can see the cumulative impact of their behaviour and the harm they have caused to businesses and their employees.

For those working in retail, shoplifting can be a constant and incredibly demoralising experience. I understand that reporting the same offender repeatedly can feel frustrating, particularly when it may seem like nothing is happening immediately.

But every report matters.

Each report helps us build a bigger picture of an individual’s offending and can provide the information and evidence we need to take action. Even when you don’t immediately see what is happening behind the scenes, there is work going on in the background.

We have also made significant changes to make the reporting process quicker and easier for businesses. The introduction of the new NICE reporting software and digital crime packs means businesses can now report shoplifting online or via 101 and receive a link to upload CCTV and other evidence digitally.

Previously, the process relied much more heavily on paper. A business would report an offence, wait for a paper crime pack to arrive, complete it, return it and then wait for an officer to scan the information into the police system. The new system has streamlined that process considerably. Evidence can be submitted much sooner after an offence is reported, helping us to progress investigations more quickly. It also means there is less time for prolific offenders to continue offending while we build a case against them.

Ultimately, tackling shoplifting is a partnership between Dorset Police and the businesses and communities we serve. Our Retail Crime Team is working hard to identify prolific offenders, bring their offences together and get them before the courts as quickly as possible.

But we need businesses to keep reporting incidents and providing evidence, even when it feels like you are reporting the same person again and again. Those reports are not simply individual incidents – they can be pieces of a much bigger picture.

The more information we have, the better placed we are to identify prolific offenders, understand the scale of their offending and take action against them.

My thanks to Inspector Corbett for sharing more about Operation Shopkeeper and the dedicated work being carried out to tackle prolific shoplifters across Dorset. I hope this insight demonstrates both the scale of the operation and the determination of Dorset Police and our partners to protect retailers, support shop workers and bring repeat offenders to justice.

As your Police and Crime Commissioner, I have always been clear that crime has consequences and those who choose to prey on our businesses and communities should expect to be caught. I will continue to back proactive policing, invest in the capabilities that deliver results and stand alongside victims - not offenders. Together, we are sending a clear message: Dorset is not a soft touch for criminals, and we will not tolerate those who make hardworking people feel unsafe.

 

David Sidwick

Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner