Shopkeepers should not keep the “high price” items closer to storing because “clearly people will be nick”, Labor The minister has told the shopkeepers.
After new figures it turns out that Shoplifting A record is at a high level, the retailers accused the police of not enough to deal with the problem.
Passing minister asked about this issue Dame Diana Johnson Said that expensive items such as liquor should not be displayed in front of shops and said that shopkeepers need to do more to stop shopkeepers.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 Today The program, Dame Diana said: “I think stores need to play their role in ensuring that high -value item stores are not in front of the store because it is an issue in some stores, that they put liquor bottles in front of the store, which will clearly nick.
“If they are going to steal again to useless, they will get such items nicketed. So I think it’s not just one thing, it should be an approach to work together with retail vendors, with the government and the police.”
But he warned the members of the public against facing the shoplifters, after the Crime Commissioner for Tory Police and Tems Valley Mathew Barber claimed that it was the duty of the people to stand for shopkeepers instead of completely trusting police officers.
“I would not advise people to deal with a person who was stealing. I came to someone who had stolen in a store in the plow.
“I went directly to the assistant to tell them what was happening. I felt that it was the best thing.
“Obviously, this is a decision to take individuals, but I am worried about people that they need to feel that they need to go. I don’t think it’s appropriate”, he said.
Shoplifting hit a record high in 2024, with the first number of more than 500,000 offenses.
In 2024/25, some 530,643 offenses were registered by the forces in England and Wales – from 444,022 to 20 percent in 2023/24 and the current police recording in 2002/03 is the highest total since.
Crimes that steal from individuals also remain at a record level. Some of these crimes were recorded by the forces in 151,220 years till March, from 131,584 to 15 percent in the last 12 months – again, the most started in 2002/03 since the current recording.
Speaking on Wednesday, the supermarket chain Iceland executive president Richard Walker argued that the shoplifting was deteriorating as the culprits appeared capable of working with “impurities”.
He said, “Now we have more than 1,000 serious incidents in a year, serious incidents gangs, violent attacks, needles, knives, hammers, you name it”, he said, ” Today Program.
“I go through the report of our weekly serious events every Monday morning, and it is clear that first of all, no area of the country is unaffected by this issue, it is everywhere from small market cities to big internal cities.
“But the second thing, and the important thing is that there is an impurities, an increasing level of violence that is due to lack of preventive.”
Responding to her comments, Dame Diana said: “I think she is really a point, and that’s why we are investing in neighborhood policing, because we know a police barrier in our city centers and is really important to deal with the theft and anti -social behavior in our high roads.
“We are bringing further laws to make it a specific crime to attack a retail worker, and we are getting rid of what we brought to the previous government, which was a limit of £ 200. If you steal below £ 200, the matter is not necessarily not necessarily proceeded.
“We want to clarify, if you steal, it is a criminal offense, whether it is £ 5 or £ 500, pounds.”
On Wednesday, the government announced the expansion of the use of facial recognition techniques in an attempt to deal with the crime.
After the recent deployment by London’s Met Police and South Wales Police, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Themes Valley and Hampshire will have a reach of seven English forces equipped with cameras with cameras.
Dame Diana said that she believes that the public would withdraw the use of the police’s live facial recognition cameras, if they are used “after going in a very measured, proportional way” the suspects are done “who are searching for the authorities.
But Labor Peer Baronic Shami Chakraborty alleged that the technology “was completely developed outside the law”, and it is feared that the government’s plan is “yet another step towards the total monitoring society”.
