Gravesend businesses use new technology to fight rise in shoplifting
Gabriel Morris visits business owners in Gravesend who are using a new scheme to help tackle shop theft to keep them safe after it's the highest it's been in seven years.
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00:00Terrorising shopkeepers and the number of reported incidents are on the rise.
00:05Kemperley saying shoplifting has reached a seven-year high.
00:09Gravesend is no exception.
00:11Off to High Street is this fashion boutique.
00:14Here they say it's becoming a growing issue.
00:18I think it's gone quite downhill with the clientele that come into town.
00:24You can spot the signs, they'll be in a couple of people and they'll distract you etc.
00:30But another time a lady, a customer actually alerted me because it's quite busy in the shop
00:35and she just popped the dress in there and I just followed her out and took it out basically and said you're barred.
00:40They're now part of a scheme that can report any suspicious behaviour.
00:46I've just seen a couple of undesirables. I do recognise them from the G-safe.
00:50They are hanging around making a bit of a nuisance of themselves.
00:53The Business Crime Reduction Partnership says they've recorded more than £100,000 worth of goods
00:59stolen in the past year alone in Gravesend.
01:02The scheme allows businesses to report crimes, upload CCTV
01:06and work together with police to try and catch offenders.
01:10But they say they're up against it with more and more people becoming involved in shop thefts.
01:15You find that there's so many different people also doing shoplifting.
01:19You've got opportunists, people who are doing it as a career lifestyle, organised crime
01:25and also people with substance misuse problems as well.
01:28The partnership works in conjunction with the local authority.
01:32For too long our businesses have been a lone voice in this area
01:36and the councils, both the County Council through my role and also the Borough Council here
01:41need to play a better coordinating role in getting all of the partnership agencies around the table
01:46so that we can solve some of these societal issues.
01:49Across Kent many other towns have a similar scheme
01:53and Kent Police has just launched the Retail Crime Board to bring together themselves with businesses.
01:58With a little less than 30% of crime going unsolved, they say this will help them catch offenders.
02:05I'd rather know about 100% of something and we can act on that
02:09rather than us know about 80% of something and celebrate a reduction in the crime statistics
02:14because that's artificial.
02:16What we want people to have is the confidence to come forward
02:19so we can deal with as much as we possibly can
02:21and therefore we give people the confidence and offenders are brought to justice.
02:26Kent Police say the number of reports being solved is on the rise.
02:31While shopkeepers across the streets of Gravesend and the rest of the county
02:35still say that's not enough to let their guard down.
02:38Gabriel Morris in Gravesend.