TAKING THIEVES ON CCTV, public shaming all part of retailers’ war on shoplifters
TOWNSVILLE retailers are fighting back against shoplifters, using hi- tech CCTV footage to identify the light- fingered criminals.
Businesses are also publicly identifying shoplifters on Facebook and on walls of their stores.
Lucy Downes, of Gecko Interiors, said she was left with little choice but to publicly identify people found shoplifting at her Flinders St store.
“Shoplifting is not a victimless crime and by publicly identifying these people I want to send a strong message that their behaviour is not acceptable,” she said.
“The latest shoplifting incident that happened in my store was on Friday and because of footage that I posted on Facebook, they were identified and their details provided to police.”
Ms Downes, a Townsville City Council City Image committee member, said her latest Facebook post reached 45,000 people in Townsville.
“I may not get my stock back ( from the thieves) but at least I can rest easy knowing that police are dealing with them,” she said.
“I feel I don’t have any other choice but to identify these people. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from the community about doing so.”
The latest police statistics show that in the past financial year 1094 shop stealing offences were reported in Townsville — an increase of 100 offences from the year before.
Townsville District duty officer acting Senior Sergeant Shane Turner said police encouraged retailers to provide footage and still images of suspected shoplifters.
“We will do our best to find the offenders if we have the footage from retailers,” he said. “We have a whole network available to use — from the ID ME system in local police stations, to getting help from PLOs ( police liaison officers) on occasion, to our officers’ knowledge of repeat offenders.”
Otto’s Fresh Food Market owner Don Peel said his shoplifter wall of shame at the entry to his Currajong store was an effective anti- shoplifting tool.
“Before the wall of shoplifting shame went up, we’d have daily occurrences of shoplifting,” he said.
“That has significantly reduced to about once a month. To ensure we get a good shot of any shoplifter in our store, we upgraded our CCTV.
“We take a still image from the