"Shoplifter: Police need to stop people like me"

[timpanie]

"A persistent shoplifter has said the police need to do more to stop people like her stealing from businesses.

[...]

She thinks the police could do more to combat the actions of people like her.

"When people shoplift, they [police] should start putting pictures of the shoplifters on the internet, maybe on the front doors so people can see 'warning', you know, 'shoplifter'.

"I don't think police quite do their job properly.""

From here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66974506

I'm hoping she was prodded into saying that (i.e. asked by the journalist whether the authorities could do more about shoplifting) rather than it being spontaneous but I can't help but despair a little. So much commentary on crime is now a complex analysis of who else could be blamed other than the perpetrator. Can people not take responsibility for their own actions?

Shop-lifting can be a bit addictive as I understand it - people get hooked on the little buzz they get - so I find it perfectly plausible that someone could do it but still also feel intellectually that it was a social ill that ought to be prevented.

I don't think it necessarily means she believes she isn't responsible for her own actions, tho I do see what you are saying.

Anyway, I wouldn't worry. She is just one person, and her words may well have been twisted to make good click-bait.

I don't understand the problem here. She's offering advice to police as to what would stop her shoplifting. What would make her think twice about doing it. She's not blaming police for her actions.

I’m annoyed that the shops don’t do anything -not so much small shopkeepers (but even they could move all the booze behind counters)- but the supermarkets where there are sod all staff, wide open door ways, everything on huge shelves and walkways -just make it a bit harder you lazy sods, stick swing doors in, get more blooming staff. But no we will just wring our hands and blame the police.

It probably proves shops are passing costs onto shoppers, not affecting their prifits.

When a criminal tells you what would stop them committing crimes, we should probably listen.

Shoplifting has clearly been viewed as petty crime, not worthy of much attention. It can hardly be a surprise that it’s escalated, got bigger and more organised - it’s a total failure to nip it in the bud.

I was struck by this bit:

"His girlfriend, Rose, who is in her 20s, flips down the sun visor above the steering wheel and looks in the mirror. She pulls out a pink tub of Soap & Glory Body Butter and begins rubbing it into her face.
"I robbed this," she says. "I'd rather pay for it, really. But it's too much, I can't afford to pay for it. So you have no other option."

Well, there is another option - do without it. 'Soap & Glory body butter' is not a necessity of life. I've lived nearly 50 years without any kind of 'body butter' in my life.

I think shops should have powers to hold people until closing time IF it is 100% proven that they shoplifted. In little shop jails like an old western movie. That would be a deterant.

Shops could ask for ID at the door or proof of cash/card, no more browsing. You can browse online.

Only allow a certain amount of people in like covid times and you have to be let out of the shop by someone you can't just leave.

Shoplifting is endemic, certainly in my area of SW London - M&S simply food seems to particularly hit - only yesterday in a big M&S SF on a "nice" high st a bloke was walking out with six bottles of prosecco in a carrier bag. An 18 or so security guard was trying to hold an arm to stop him leaving the shop and the guy yelled in his face "touch me and I will fucking batter you". The guard just let him walk out.

The truth is that security guards and shop staff don't have the power to stop shop lifting (and why should they put themselves at risk) so people know they can simply walk into a shop and walk out with stuff.

As the police are not interested then there is no answer.

These people saying "shop staff should do more" - get real - so you on a minimum wage job would confront and "sort out" (usually) violent criminals who don't give a shit? Aye right.

Remembering that a.) your employers tell you not to confront and that if you get hurt it's hence your fault b.) Any harm that comes to a shoplifter you physically touch in anyway is your liability.

I wouldn't even call it shoplifting anymore as people are just walking in and emptying shelves into bags . I call it looting.

In another M&S in a "nice" area last week, a bloke just picked up 20 or so steaks, into an M&S carrier bag and walked out - the alarms beeped on the exit but he just casually walked on. Again what can the staff really do?

So you want supermarket STAFF to tackle the shoplifters?

As I just said in the post below yours : it's looting a free for all . They know the police won't come out because they are too busy . They know staff can't stop them . They know there is no security staff to try and stop them . It's only going to get worse , fuelled by SM . There are loads of videos on line showing people blatantly shoplifting. People do what they think they can get away with.

there are 2 elements to it though, aren't there?
Yes, you're completely right in that it's an individual's responsibility not to shoplift and tbh that woman's suggestion is completely impractical and unlikely to work anyway - shoplifting is so commonplace, perhaps a tesco extra might be able to paper the walls with pictures but your local agent would be sitting in the dark with all their natural light blocked within a day if they put photos on their door. Not to mention everyone complaining about their human rights, it's slander to suggest I've stolen anything unless I've been legally convicted etc.
Also, if one shop puts a photo of her up, she won't think 'right that's me out of my life of crime' she'll just go into the next shop. Even if eventually every single shop in her town has her photo up she'll just move onto the next town. Serious shoplifters are known to go on trips for massive thefts where they know they'll never be caught.

Basically she was obviously asked to say something by the interviewer and thought of the most random, crap, deterrent rather than being honest and saying 'the only way I will stop is if I am penalised much more heavily,' whether that be prison/large fines/telling my employer/public shaming, who knows. There are lots of countries where stealing is practically unheard of because the deterrent is so high. Those countries' ways of dealing with it might seem abhorrent to us, but if your aim is to reduce theft then it clearly works!

But it's also a fair point that shops could absolutely be doing more to protect themselves if they really wanted to but have decided to just pass the lost costs onto the honest customers instead. I absolutely don't think low paid staff should be expected to risk themselves, but, for example, minor theft is rife since shops introduced self-serve and people cottoned on to putting a more expensive item through as a cheaper one.

But shops would rather reduce their staffing bill by having more self checkouts.

They could have all alcohol in a separate section of the shop with its own doors that can only be opened by staff, full on wide screeens cctv so you can see your face clearly broadcast etc so it's literally impossible to get out without paying for it. It could even save time because it means they wouldn't then have to get some one to check ID/remove tags when they bought their other stuff. Again, it's completely normal in the US to not be able to buy anything harder than beer in a supermarket at all, so just going to a separate area of a shop to buy alcohol separately isn't a huge demand.

minor theft is rife since shops introduced self-serve

Someone in head office will have decided the thefts are costing less than the salaries of the staff the self-service tills have replaced.

No one's getting misgendered, so the police won't prioritise shop lifting at all.

It makes me laugh when people say that it's the staff who need to do more. Like if they all worked in ASDA, they would happily wander around confronting people and tackling them to the floor

Quite simply, they are not paid enough for that shit.

A few weeks ago I went into our local naice Coop. The staff were under siege from a bunch of children, by which I mean 11-15 year olds.

One child ride his bike into the shop. One was squirting drink into the letterbox. A group were taunting the two members of staff trying unsuccessfully to stop them coming into the shop. There were three others inside filling their pockets!

How is this right?

Before you ask, yes I did step in. I'm old and ugly and I cannot believe children, who loudly started yelling their rights to me! Can be allowed to do this with impunity, so I'm even less surprised adults fill their boots and stroll out.

Not only are they not paid enough, it's also not in their job description to go around confronting people and physically preventing them from leaving the store.

I don't think people realise that shop/security staff have practically no powers in that regard. When I worked at ASDA, we were told not to confront shoplifters and to go to security, who were told that once someone had left the store, they were to call the police and never risk their own safety.

I work in a convenience store (part of a chain) in a “nice” area and we have thefts every day, usually organised ones, so one of them comes in for laundry detergent, another for formula, meat, coffee. These people are increasingly more brazen, more arrogant and more violent. Other times it’s kids nicking energy drinks. We ban them over and over and report each and every single incident but the police do nothing. Even when one of my colleagues was grabbed by the throat by one of them.

I will back up my colleagues and they will back me when we’re in trouble but no way am I getting my head kicked in over a fucking steak or a box of persil. My kids need their mum to be uninjured and employed. Anyway, if we pursue them and are hurt we risk a disciplinary. They also won’t/can’t legally back us up if the thief is injured at all once they/we leave the shop.

That would be just awful to live like that

Have run our family shop and been plagued by shoplifters for decades. When the police stopped coming to shoplifting it moved from a surreptitious form of theft into brazen removal of your stuff with threats of violence. Shopkeeping is fucking miserable now.

I absolutely do blame the police for this

That's why putting up photos and names won't work . Plus people can drastically change their appearance and rename themselves.

It would but could you deal with the inevitable price rises instead?