Southend: Thirteen people arrested for shoplifting

Our officers have arrested 13 people on suspicion of shoplifting across Southend in the past fortnight.

Of them, ten people have been charged with a total of 37 shop thefts* and one has also been charged with three counts of assault.

Southend Town Centre Team (TCT) launched Operation Raker last September to target persistent offenders responsible for thefts, assaults and public order offences.

Since then, two officers have been dedicated to working with Southend City Council’s community safety officers, BID (Business Improvement District) Rangers and retailers to identify and arrest individuals and prevent their offending from escalating.

TCT Sergeant Steve Wells says this focus is paying dividends, as can be seen by the volume of arrests in the past fortnight.

“Officers have considerable local knowledge, which, together with our close working relationship with retailers, the city council and the BID team, means we can identify and arrest those individuals who are causing the most harm in the city centre.
“And we operate a drug test on arrest scheme where people arrested for acquisitive crimes, such as shoplifting and burglary, are tested for cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin when they arrive in custody.
“If that is positive, they are required to attend an assessment for a specialist drug treatment programme with Forward Trust.
“People often steal to fund their drug habit so we want to prevent their need to commit theft in the first place.”

Cases involving two people arrested between 2 & 15 September 2024 are still being investigated while no further action will be taken against one.

* Arrests for shop theft. This relates to the number of arrests our officers have made. A person may have been arrested more than once for theft from a shop during the time period. And they may have been arrested for more than one offence.

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