A retail trade association has written to Sadiq Khan calling for more to be done to protect shop staff and crack down on thieves, amid a marked rise in retail thefts.
New research by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reveals theft from the capital’s retail premises soared by 13 per cent last year, compared to the previous year.
The BRC says the nature of such crimes is changing, as thieves became “bolder, and more aggressive”, and is urgently calling on Mayor Sadiq Khan, and Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime Sophie Linden, to ensure it is being treated as a priority, with “adequate resourcing”.
“Every time I speak with retailers, crime is getting worse,” said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, which represents around 70 per cent of the UK retail industry.
“Thieves are becoming bolder, and more aggressive. Violence and abusive behaviour are on the rise.
“Many employees are facing threats with weapons, physical assault, and racial and sexual abuse.
“While these confrontations might be over in a matter of minutes, for many victims, their families and colleagues, the physical and emotional impact can last a lifetime.”
A spate of thefts and hammer attacks in the Bethnal Green area earlier this year left dozens of shops and restaurants suffering thousands of pounds of damage.
Worried business owners were left pleading for extra CCTV cover, after the area was hit with around 50 incidents in the space of several months, with some premises targeted multiple times.
Windows of independent pizzeria Flat Earth Pizza, in Cambridge Heath Road, were smashed on three sepparate occasions in just six months.
Owner Sarah Brading described the repeated attacks, which inflicted thousands of pounds of damage on her year-old business, as “sad and scary”.
”It’s a cost that as a small independent business, we weren’t forecasting for,” she told the Standard at the time. “So it’s super damaging financially. We’ve just put so much time and love into this place. It’s very upsetting.”
Florist Grace & Thorn in nearby Hackney Road was also targeted twice, in attacks that saw windows smashed and an empty till stolen.
Owner Nik Southern was forced to spend almost £8,000 on CCTV, alarms and protective shutters to prevent another incident, and said her “mainly female” staff had been left “quite paranoid”.
Across the UK, the BRC says violence and abuse against shop workers has almost doubled since before the pandemic.
Incidents including racial and sexual abuse, physical assaults, and threats with weapons, have risen from a pre-pandemic high of more than 450 a day in 2019/20, to more than 850 per day last year.
The group says that as well as taking a “huge” emotional and physical toll, UK businesses are said to have lost almost £1 billion to theft last year alone, while they spent an extra £720m on crime prevention measures.
BRC chief Ms Dickinson said: “Retailers are playing their part...but more needs to be done.
“We know that Sadiq Khan and Sophie Linden will be concerned about the impact of such crime on local retail workers, so we ask them to ensure the Metropolitan police is giving retail crime the focus and resources it so desperately needs
“Every Londoner deserves the right to go to work without fear and we must all help in stamping out this scourge of crime once and for all.”
Addressing Mr Khan and Ms Linden in her letter, Mr Dickinson said: “With your support, we can ensure that our retail workers receive the legal protection they need, while also signalling London’s unwavering stance against violence and abuse.”
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “Nothing is more important to the Mayor than keeping Londoners safe and Sadiq has today written to Ministers urging them to provide emergency funding to address the impact of the cost of living crisis on crime and violence in our city.
“The rise in these offences and attacks on retail staff highlights the real challenges businesses and too many Londoners are facing as the cost-of-living crisis continues to deepen. More Londoners are being pushed into poverty as food and energy bills soar and young people are unable to access activities and are at greater risk of exploitation. Ministers must recognise this and act now by properly funding our police and providing more help to those in desperate need.
“The Mayor is working closely with the Met Commissioner to revitalise neighbourhood policing in our communities, directly funding 1,300 additional Town Centre officers and recruiting 500 new Police Community Support Officers to deal with local priorities, understand and respond to the needs and the concerns of London’s communities, including retail theft and violence against retail workers, to build a better and safer London for everyone.”
A Met police spokesperson added: “In London we recognise shoplifting greatly affects businesses, retail staff and the public.
“We focus our effort in precisely targeting offenders that commit these crimes with a view to bringing them to justice and disrupting their criminal behaviour. We also work closely with business crime reduction partnerships and retailers to prevent offences from happening and offering advice around how to keep their staff and businesses safe.
“We are enhancing our community crime fighting capability to tackle theft even more by recruiting more PCSOs, equipping the frontline with the resources they need and using technology in identifying offenders.
“We will continue to work collaboratively with retailers and business crime reduction partners to tackle this neighbourhood crime.”
