To think that shoplifting should be taken seriously by the police and public?

[ScarySpinster]

I used to work in retail. The police would rarely come out for a shoplifter, even if it was £1000s of pounds.

My local village shop may have to close because of teenagers regularly shoplifting. It's just not profitable for them to stay open with the losses they have.

Looking at the bigger picture, shoplifting raids are taking place regularly in London, and all the big cities, with the people involved rarely being prosecuted.

I think that we need to take this crime much more seriously. I don't want to live in a world where there are no repercussions for bad behavior. Because where will this stop? Will burgarly and mugging start to become okay next?

Yeah I guess they don't have the resources to investigate every single thing that happens. They do take it seriously though as do most people. I guess you can only do so much.

These self checkouts don't help matters. Theft always goes up after one of those gets installed.

@TheChippendenSpook I just wish the people who slag the police off no end because of what they see in the media would actually go and see how different it is to their perception.

If we had a rule change where all shoplifters would be dealt with through court, fines and banning them from shops... then it might stop.

We'd need quite a lot of police staff to deal with that and fast track courts.

Those who shoplifts to feed themselves are a bit different to the grifting drug twats who steal to sell for drug money.

So people being dealt with for buying stolen goods might need to happen too.

That's going to cost a lot of money. But perhaps society would be a nicer place eventually?

I’ve heard several times that police don’t have the time to come out for low level crimes because they are dealing with social work style problems. Who makes the decision that the police go to a “social” style call rather than a shoplifting/minor crime instead?

Doubt it

They dont come out for burglarys or harrassment in my own experience

They can't ignore calls for help so have to go and often are the only ones available to attend.

A local garage posts CCTV images of people who drive away without paying, and people have been quick to turn them in. I think similar tactics might be the best way for local businesses to deal with theft.

I know that the cost of living has hit people hard and that probably does increase the number of shoplifters. But I've also known people who seem to steal just because they can.

No point voting LibDem either- experience tells us that they will be susceptible to being bribed to support tories with the offer of a few Government posts.

(Whatever they say before an election to get you to vote for them, they will change their minds after - remember their promise to abolish student loans. )

I work as a civilian member of staff alongside police officers and it’s difficult to send officers when shoplifting is in progress due to the number of officers and other jobs being called in. However if the stores do have cctv and they submit it to our force we do what we can to identify the offender and build a prosecution file for numerous offences rather than a sole instance of shoplifting as invariably the offender is known and they can be arrested and charged with a pattern of offending. Like this case
https://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/nottinghamshire-police/news/shoplifter-stole-thousands-worth-of-items-during-fortnight-long-spree-470824

I completely agree. I think it's cool for people to hate 'the police' these days, just like it's cool to hate teachers.

People are putting their energy into the wrong thing, instead of campaigning for change... i.e. more funding for a start. Instead they blame the people trying to do do a good job with limited resources and limited numbers of colleagues alongside them.

Agree

We live in a niace area. The amount of times the alarm goes off people walk out with boose no one goes after them. Apparently they are caught on camera and when it's worth it they prosecute.
It's not worth the risk to go after them.

I disagree. It's the retailers. The vast majority don't care that much because they can recoup their losses from me and you. If it was costing them, then they'd up their security and take better measures to protect themselves. I once met a band of "professionals" on their 3rd prison sentence. They would literally walk out of M&S with ten 30ft racks of clothes straight past "security" and nobody stopped them. If they get caught, then half the time the store refuses evidence to prosecute. Two times out of three, if it gets to court they get a few months. They easily put and do it again.

And the the police don't prosecute. It's the CPS. It's them that don't think the cases stand up for court.

This.

If someone is in danger that would logically take priority over stolen property with nobody in danger.

Because mental health provision has also been underfunded dealing with people "off their meds" or having an episode is a significant chunk of police time these days.

And the Tories sold off police stations so they are further apart so the fewer police officers we have due to the underfunding spend most of their time driving across massive patches.

I'll vote Lib Dem if they can beat our Tory MP @ElizaMulvil

Getting the Tories out is the priority for me.

If the police didn't have to constantly deal with the same people, resources would go further. 90% of crime in your local area is committed by a tiny number of people. If one of those people gets locked up for a decent stretch the local crime rate drops considerably. Trouble is that the courts (restricted by the sentencing guidelines, but also their own doing) persist in imposing pathetic sentences, regardless of the effect that crimes such as burglary has upon the community.

I'm not suggesting that you should rugby tackle anyone but it's the shareholders who will take the hit, not just the CEO.

A significant shareholder tends to be pension funds.

Good point. Why isn't it easier for the trouble makers to be locked away after a fair number of chances and interventions?

Yes they do
Yanbu.

People get away with it then progress onto worse things.

Need to nip it in the bud.

There's so many thefts around from peoples cars and sheds too.

There's no deterrent and nothing happens to people who get caught.

I think the police should spend less time spying on feminists' social media accounts and posing with furry fetishists at Pride marches and more time on catching shoplifters.

Wait till you call a policewoman a lesbian, They'll find the resources then.

Totally agree about posting the pictures of thieves on social media but a couple who posted photos of thieves removing all the portable contents of their hotel room to their car have been told by the police to take the photos down as the named thieves were 'distressed'. They deserve to be distressed, I wonder how many times they've not been caught?

One of our local taxi drivers has had people run off without paying He doesnt bother reporting it any more He did the first time but the police came round wanting to interview him several days later without any notice and he had to cancel a well paying airport run to be interviewed. He said he cant afford to lose more money to accomodate the interviews

A local garage posts CCTV images of people who drive away without paying,

I can recall having to pay before fuelling in the 80s ?