‘It’s a team effort’: Officers secure more than 2,540 charges of shop theft during 2024

‘Tackling shoplifting is a team effort’, say our business crime officers, who work closely with retailers and business partners to target shoplifters and bring them to justice.

During 2024, our officers made 1,397 arrests for shop theft offences* in Essex, secured 2,545 charges** and solved 102 more offences than in the previous 12 months.

Sergeant Christian Denning says:

“We understand how shoplifting affects communities. Related confrontation and anti-social behaviour can make people feel less safe.
“Affected businesses suffer significant financial losses, which can be passed on to customers through higher prices and, if stores are forced to close, that leads to local job losses.
“So it’s in everybody’s interests to work together to tackle shoplifting – it’s a team effort.”

This joint working includes Essex Chambers of Commerce and, at a national level, the National Business Crime Centre and National Business Crime Solution.

The Essex Police Business Crime Team also works closely with loss prevention and security for major retailers such as BP, East of England Co-op, John Lewis Partnership, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, as well as smaller, more local and independent outfits.

Christian explains:

“Together with the businesses themselves, partner agencies and the public, we work to create a safer environment for everyone. 
“In this way, we continue to identify emerging crime trends and evolve our approach while encouraging better reporting of crimes, which helps us to build a more accurate picture of shoplifting across Essex.
“Capturing evidence of shoplifting is crucial to tackling it. High-quality CCTV and body-worn video footage and witness statements help police and businesses to take appropriate action against offenders, which can deter future incidents.
“Making shoplifters uncomfortable through visible security measures, attentive staff and changes to store layout can also discourage theft, creating a safer environment for retail staff and their customers.”

Christian urges customers to report shoplifting and other suspicious activity to store staff or security. He warns:

“Don’t put yourself at risk of a confrontation. They can handle the situation or call the police if necessary.”

All this activity runs alongside the work of our local and community policing teams who make the majority of shoplifting arrests across Essex. Local knowledge means that many persistent offenders are arrested when they are spotted by an officer in the street.

Officers also apply for criminal behaviour orders to be imposed by courts on prolific offenders, which can ban them from certain shops or even entire store chains across the county.

And anyone arrested for an acquisitive crime, such as shop theft, in Essex is tested for cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin on arrival in custody.

If they test positive, they are required to attend an assessment with one of three drug treatment services we work with in Essex.

* 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.

** Shop theft charges. This figure will not be the total number of shop theft charges which will be secured against people arrested during a specific time period.

While many are charged before being released from custody immediately following their arrest, some suspects will be released under investigation or bailed while officers continue investigating.

When an investigation is complete, a suspect may be charged or may have no further action taken against them.

So this figure will include charges relating to arrests made before the time period begins and won't include charges which are secured beyond the end of the time period but which related to arrests made during it.