THE CHALLENGES OF SECURING RETAIL

One of the hero groups of the pandemic, often ignored, frequently abused but essential to keep us going, has been retail staff. Retail has been hit hard by the pandemic with many of the high street big brands closing for good. 

However, crime in the retail sector, although it eased somewhat during lockdown periods where access was restricted, has adapted and in its latest release in 2021, the British Retail Crime (BRC) survey provided evidence that the retail sector is estimated to lose more than £1.3 billion a year to crime, an increase of £600m since 2017, with 75% of this loss due to theft by customers. Retailers are known to be experiencing up to 1,200 instances of theft each day across their estates.

According to the Mitie Retail Crime Report 2021/22: “The threat to retailers, from criminality, is multi-faceted both in terms of the types of crimes committed and the criminals committing them.”

It goes on to say: “A typical crime profile that a retailer has to manage includes Organised Criminal Groups (OCGs) committing fraud on large scales and Organised Retail Criminals committing robberies and burglaries, prolific criminals stealing low value products in high volume to feed drug habits, opportunist criminals stealing in order to feed their families and insiders exploiting their access to retailers’ systems and processes to commit crime.” The report estimates the financial impact from losses and prevention measures costing the industry £2.5 billion each year.

However, it also rightly highlights that: “Retail employees are often the last line of defence for a retailer from the concerted efforts of criminals and suffer personal harm by simply being at work.” The retailer isn’t the only victim of crime as often it is those ‘front of house,’ who get abused, threatened, assaulted and are often the forgotten victims of retail crime.

What does the future hold?

The future of retail crime, like any other security risk, continues to develop and adapt. The BRC and Home Office with major retailers have Working Groups focusing on specific activities that improve the safety of retail and retail security staff. However, there are several other issues that will impact the future. Barrie Millett said: “The blurring of lines between role and responsibilities of private security firms and law enforcement with developing evidence for criminal prosecutions will continue. As will enhanced reliance on technology to identify potential threats e.g. facial recognition or cash free payment methods.”

Retail is changing, in a recent report by Alvarez & Marsal and Retail Economics, it estimated that 17.2 million British consumers, about 25% of the country’s total population are changing to online shopping and that is likely to stay. This brings new avenues for criminals to exploit and Barrie Millet highlighted that we could see a shift to cyber/online crime and targeted attacks on delivery drivers when delivering produce ordered online (using fraudulent details).

The Mitie report gives some key takeaways that summarises the state of retail security today:

• The level of violence used against retail workers is increasing and generally driven by a retail worker preventing a theft from occurring and an offender wanting to escape.
• The willingness of criminals to confront retail workers with violence is increasing due to the ongoing enforcement of COVID-19 guidelines.
• 2/3rds of security officers have been involved in assault incidents in a 12-month period.
• 1 in 16 security officers have been injured because of being physically assaulted.
• Up to 1,200 thefts occur each day within individual retailer estates.
• 60% of retailers describe police response to retail crime as “poor” or “very poor”.
• Individuals, working within a retail environment, are often repeat victims of crime and are not receiving the level of support that they would if the crimes against them were committed elsewhere.
• 20% of retail criminals are known to be involved in other forms of criminality.
• 1 in 4 offenders captured during an operation in a single retailer location were wanted on warrant for other offences.

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