Help us crack down on shoplifters this Christmas
Main article content
We’ll be taking robust action against people who commit shoplifting offences and retail crime in our communities.
Gwent Police recognises that shoplifting and retail crime can have a major impact on our communities, both on individuals and businesses.
Theft, and particularly shoplifting, is not a victimless crime and we’ll be working with businesses throughout this festive period to create safe shopping environments, to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.
It’s crucial that every shoplifting incident is reported to us, so that we can take action.
In the east of the force, which includes Newport, we’ve seen a month-on-month decrease in the number of recorded shoplifting offences for August, September and October.
Our neighbourhood policing teams will be carrying out increased high-visibility patrols, particularly in town centres and retail parks which typically experience the biggest increase in retail crime during the festive season.
We’ll continue to provide helpful crime prevention advice to businesses and target prolific and habitual offenders whose behaviour causes misery and impacts on our retailers and our communities.
Superintendent Jason White said:
“We will take robust action against people who commit shoplifting offences and retail crime in our communities.
"We’ll be working closely with our partners and businesses to deter, prevent and investigate shoplifting offences.
“Collaboration is the key to addressing shoplifting and, our latest figures this financial year show, we're taking more action against more shoplifting offenders.
“We'll be deploying covert tactics to target offenders and using CCTV images from businesses and retrospective facial recognition technology to further aid our efforts to identify offenders who commit retail crime.”
In Gwent, 3,164 shoplifting crimes have been recorded in this financial year to date.
As a force, our positive outcomes for shoplifting offences, which include arrests, criminal behaviour notices and warnings, have increased by 179 during this period.
Our officers are running a number of crime prevention advice stalls throughout December, including:
Cwmbran shopping centre on Tuesday 3 December between 10am and 2pm,
Caerphilly town centre on Friday 6 December and
Coleg Gwent's Usk campus on Thursday 12 December between 12pm and 3pm.
Superintendent White said:
“I would encourage all those employed in the retail sector to continue to report criminal activity.
"It’s important that you report every retail theft to us so that we can investigate it.
“I want to reassure businesses and shoppers that we are listening to your concerns.
“While the figures for shoplifting in our force area have increased this year, similar to the trend nationally, we're committed to making sure that Gwent continues to be among the safest place to live and work in Wales.”
For our latest crime prevention tips: https://www.gwent.police.uk/cp/crime-prevention/keeping-business-safe-from-crime/
If you see any unusual activity, report it to us by:
calling 101
messaging us on social media
reporting it online: https://www.gwent.police.uk/ro/report/.
Always dial 999 in an emergency.