A retail boss has said he “could not believe” comments made by the head of the Metropolitan Police, calling on the industry to “step up and do better” to help stop shoplifting.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said some stores needed to do more to help police tackle the issue.
Andrew Goodacre, CEO of the British Independent Retailers Association, acknowledged the recent police effort to crack down on such crimes, but said he was “flabbergasted” by the comments.
“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 said the sector was still losing £2 billion in stock a year, despite having spent £1.2 billion on high tech extra security measures in the last two years.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Sir Mark said the retail industry was “right to say to us, ‘please step up more’”.
He said: “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 while some stores worked with the police to help solve crimes, others failed to provide images or statements blamed the cost.
“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 told 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.”
