Meeting Date: 20 July 2026
Decision of PCC: Assured
Rationale:
The Police and Crime Plan 2024 – 29 sets out the PCC’s commitment to seek assurance that the Force and its partners are effectively tackling retail and business crime.
In light of this commitment, the PCC was looking to:
- Assess how effectively the Force is responding to retail and business crime, including call handling, deployment, investigation quality and the consistency of outcomes for victims and businesses;
- Evaluate the Force’s use of problem-solving approaches – such as partnership working, hotspot policing, and targeted prevention – to reduce repeat offending, protect vulnerable premises and address underlying drivers of crime.
Questions
- What is the Force’s strategy to tackle shoplifting effectively? To include details on:
• How effectively the Force responds to reports of retail and business crime and what does the data show?
• How the Force identifies, monitors, and proactively deals with retail offenders? Is there evidence to show that interventions are reducing their offending and protecting frequently targeted businesses? - How is the Force using problem-solving approaches – for example, hotspot analysis, targeted patrols, offender focused interventions, and the drone as first responder?
- What positive outcomes are being achieved for victims and businesses – including any case studies demonstrating good practice?
- How are partnership arrangements with local authorities, Business Crime Reduction Partnerships, and retailers contributing to problem solving and prevention?
- How is the Force measuring the impact of its activity and what measurable improvements would it like to see in 6-12 months?
Please see notes, attached, for more information
Notes – Scrutiny meeting on Retail and business crime – 20 July 2026 (application, 172kB)