Retail boss ‘flabbergasted’ after Met Police chief says outlets have to ‘step up’ to assist sort out shoplifting | EUROtoday

A retail boss has mentioned he “could not believe” feedback made by the pinnacle of the Metropolitan Police, calling on the business to “step up and do better” to assist cease shoplifting.

In an interview with The TelegraphMet Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley mentioned some shops wanted to do extra to assist police sort out the difficulty.

Andrew Goodacre, CEO of the British Independent Retailers Association, acknowledged the latest police effort to crack down on such crimes, however mentioned he was “flabbergasted” by the feedback.

“It is slightly off field for him to come out and say ‘we have done our bit now come out and do yours’,’ he told the Mail Online.

“I am really surprised he has come out with this. In fact, we have all been working hard together – retailers, police and PCCs – as part of the Police and Retail Crime Action Group which was set up two years ago by the last government to tackle shoplifting and it has been a collaborative effort to get to that point.

“We are grateful that police forces around the country have ‘stepped up’ to use his words. Response times have improved for example and more recently there have been high profile raids on illicit shops.

“What disappoints me is that it has been collaboration that has got us to this point, not just him and police forces.”

He mentioned the sector was nonetheless dropping £2 billion in inventory a yr, regardless of having spent £1.2 billion on excessive tech additional safety measures within the final two years.

Speaking to The TelegraphSir Mark mentioned the retail business was “right to say to us, ‘please step up more’”.

He mentioned: “And we have done. They need to step up more. There are some of them who are fantastic and I’m not going to name a good and bad list, that would be invidious. But I’m just putting a marker down.”

He added: “The retail sector, a couple of years ago, was right to be cross with policing across the country. But in London, over the last year or so, we’ve really doubled down on it. We’re making a lot of progress, but I need to challenge back now to the retail sector. They now need to do better.”

He claimed that whereas some shops labored with the police to assist clear up crimes, others failed to supply photographs or statements blamed the associated fee.

“They can give them time to give a statement and they will pay them work time to go to court. Others won’t do any of that,” he instructed The Telegraph.

“So if they’re not prepared to roll up their sleeves as corporate victims, it’s going to be tough for us to make progress.”