March was the NBCC month of action to tackle retail crime.

I would like to share with you some of the work that has been completed during this month by the city centre beat team.

Being a city centre beat, addressing retail crime should, and does, form part of our daily business. For the month of March, the National Crime Business Centre (NBCC) looks to gain momentum from the police, as well as retailers and their security, to make a conscious push to drive down retail crime. 

In March we deployed several measures and initiatives in support of this aim; we held 5 retail specific beat surgeries. We conducted several high visibility patrols in specific locations at specific times based on crime data to deter crime. In addition to those patrols we conducted joint patrols with a Leicester Markets Officer and the profit protection team from John Lewis. On a more holistic level, officers held meetings with specific stores to discuss crime and ASB that affects them and attended a business crime reduction partnership (BCRP) meeting.

During this month we intensified our action to tackle offenders of shop theft. 

In total we dealt with 43 perpetrators making 35 arrests for the offence of shop theft resulting in 24 charges. 8 out of court disposals were issued and 10 were bailed whilst we seek to obtain remaining evidence to secure charges. Out of the 43 only 1 individual had no further action taken, this was due to evidential issues.