Stores enjoy safety in numbers 
(04/10/2001)
THE REPUTATION OF THE Wolverhampton Retail Crime Initiative is such that Gap and TK Maxx, two of the UK’s leading clothing retailers, joined the initiative even before they had opened stores in the West Midlands city.
The two retailers, which have both opened stores in Wolverhampton in the last four months, wanted to benefit immediately from an initiative which won a Home Office Safer Shopping Award last year.
Pat Oliver, loss prevention manager for TK Maxx in the West Midlands, explains why. He told SecurityPark: “The initiative creates an aura around the city. Lots of information from every store about crime gets put into the initiative’s database and is spread out to all the members."
 Store detectives employed by one of the other retailers will stand at the entrance and make their presence felt. |
Sandy Craig, initiative co-ordinator |
Crime cut
Sandy Craig, a retired West Midlands Police detective superintendent who runs the initiative, says the scheme has reduced retail crime in the city by a third since its launch five years ago. What is more, the initiative’s impact on crime is growing as more members join.
Craig recalls: “When the scheme started in December 1996 there were only nine members and no co-ordinator.”
Today, the initiative has 88 members, which share security staff, CCTV footage and intelligence on shoplifters. Most of the members are encouraged to join the initiative’s Retail Radio Link, and all members are part of an Exclusion Order Scheme which bans persistent shoplifters from members’ stores.
Smaller retailers
As well as major retailers such as Gap, TK Maxx, BHS and Marks and Spencer, smaller retailers have signed up to the initiative and benefit from the ‘safety in numbers’ that the initiative provides, says Craig.
He explains: “If they’re suspicious of someone in their store but haven’t got store detectives of their own to keep an eye out, store detectives employed by one of the other retailers will stand at the entrance and make their presence felt.
“It prevents any nonsense. When shoplifters see three or four security officers watching them, they give up,” he says.
Retailers pay between £100 and £200 – depending on their size – to join the initiative.
Marks and Spencer
As it has grown it has definitely become more effective. |
Elaine Jubb, Marks and Spencer |
Elaine Jubb, loss prevention manager for Marks and Spencer in Wolverhampton and the Merry Hill region (Marks and Spencer’s Wolverhampton branch was the first store to join the initiative), says: “An awful lot of people come here to look at what we do. The scheme was very effective with a very small nucleus [of retailers], but as it has grown it has definitely become more effective.”
The initiative is constantly evolving, and has joined up to the West Midlands Retail Crime Database, which will be launched shortly by the British Retail Consortium. If the Database proves a success, it is likely to go national.
Craig says: “In theory, it will enable me to very quickly disseminate any information around the West Midlands area. If I get told this afternoon of a gang that live in Stoke committing bulk theft in Wolverhampton, as soon as I’ve got the details I can put them in the system and e-mail them to every [retail crime] scheme in the West Midlands.”
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Retailers prepare to pilot crime database
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