Businesses encouraged to sign up to anti-crime scheme
BUSINESSES in Ashbourne are being invited to sign up for a crime-busting scheme that connects high street venues with local police.
Retailers, bars, cafés, restaurants and others are being offered a year’s free membership to a scheme run by the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce that aims to reduce town centre crime and anti-social behaviour.
The online crime-information sharing platform, known as “Disc”, is being rolled out as part of a Derbyshire Business Crime Reduction Partnership, which also involves Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner Angelique Foster.
So far the system has around 300 members across Derbyshire, and it usually costs up to £100 to join, but the chamber of commerce secured funding from the UK Community Renewal Fund to roll out a year of free membership.
Jackie Roberts, Business Crime Reduction Partnership manager at East Midlands Chamber, said: “Businesses in town and city centres have been hit hard by the direct impact of the pandemic and for those struggling the most, being a victim of crime can sometimes be the tipping point.
“The Disc portal is an integral part of crime reduction strategies as it makes it so much easier for businesses to share intelligence about incidents and offender images between members, police, community safety officers and other partners such as the Business Crime Reduction Partnership team – ultimately creating a safe town centre for everyone.
“Police resources have become really stretched so the Business Crime Reduction Partnership fills the gap where police can’t deal with petty crime, and we’re delighted
to offer this scheme for free to businesses in order to support them in becoming more resilient during the post-covid economic recovery.
“We’re seeing an increase in the number of unknown offenders who are travelling between towns across Derbyshire, but we’ve already had some successes in helping to identify shoplifters who are doing this.
“The more businesses that are involved in the BCRP scheme and sharing information, the stronger it will be – and the better the area will be as a result.”
Becoming a member of the
scheme gives business owners access to a Gdpr-compliant data-sharing system that lets them report concerns and incidents directly to the police without the need to use the time-consuming 101 system.
Intelligence and crime reports can be submitted electronically to the police and other Business
Crime Reduction Partnership members, who also have access to app and web-based image galleries of people who have been arrested or are known offenders. A radioonly version of the scheme was previously available in Matlock and Bakewell before the recent upgrade to an online system.
Councillor Garry Purdy, leader of Derbyshire Dales District Council and retired police boss, said: “This is an example of partnership working at its best.
“Anything we can do to make it harder for criminals to operate is positive, and I am delighted to support this initiative.
“One of our key priorities is to make sure our district remains a safe and welcoming place to live, work and visit and I would encourage Derbyshire Dales businesses to get involved with the scheme.”
The British Retail Consortium’s 2021 Retail Crime Survey found there were 455 violent or abusive incidents towards staff per day nationally in 2019/20 – up seven per cent from the previous year.
The total cost of crime rose from £700m in 2016/17 to £1.3bn in 2019/20 – with customer theft the most significant, costing companies £935m – while the cost to retailers of crime and crime prevention was £2.5bn last year, an increase of 14 per cent on the previous 12-month period.
To find out more about the Derbyshire Business Crime Reduction Partnership, email jackie.roberts@emc-dnl.co.uk or call 07919 303816.
This is an example of partnership working at its best.
Councillor Garry Purdy