Shoplifting in Lincoln city centre is now being tackled by police with the help of Lincoln BIG’s City Centre Warden Danny Mason.
The partnership comes as part of the local Neighbourhood Policing Team’s problem-solving for prolific shop theft in the city centre, and will mean Danny will now be taking on responsibility for the initial evidence gathering on reports of shop thefts to provide a complete package for officers to use to bring those responsible to justice.
The work builds on a previous initiative of shop theft packs, where businesses who had been targeted by thieves completed a statement about the incident and sent it to police along with CCTV. This way, the onus is taken off those businesses to collate the information needed for the investigation, and the support from Lincoln BIG means that officers can spend more time on patrol and working on investigations.
The investigation itself – viewing the CCTV, follow-up statements, identifying suspects, arrests, suspect interviews, seeking a charge with the CPS, attending court, and compiling other material for things like Criminal Behaviour Orders which can help to ban individuals from specific retail premises – will be handled entirely by police.
This new way of working is for all retail premises in the city centre, as well as the immediate outlying commercial parks along Tritton Road.
Community Beat Manager Sgt Steve Parker said: “Tackling shop theft is something we have been working directly on for some time, and we have good news to share: of the top 20 prolific offenders, which we know can be repeat offenders, 13 are in prison, one is out on licence, one has a suspended prison sentence, and a further three are due in court imminently.
“But we still know what an impact shop theft has on our community, and we wanted to introduce something that will make a real difference, so we suggested this way of working to Lincoln BIG, and got a very positive response. This new way of working builds on an existing relationship between Lincolnshire Police and Lincoln BIG, and will help us to realise our ambitions to significantly reduce shop theft and related offences in the city centre. The more our local businesses can help us – via Danny – by providing the evidence we need to secure convictions, the more offenders we can take off the streets.”
