Don’t call police over shoplifters – tell their parents, store staff urged

YOUNG shoplifters should be reported to their parents instead of the police, store staff have been told.

In a move it is feared will give a green light to criminals, officers will not attend thefts with a value of less than £200, it has been claimed.

A member of a security team in Truro, Cornwall, says his local force told him they could no longer afford to respond to shoplifting complaints.

The security guard, who wishes to remain anonymous, claims a member of Devon and Cornwall Police advised him not to detain adults for longer than 30 minutes. With offenders under the age of 18, the force suggested it would be better to call their parents.

This is despite the fact shoplifting in the city has spiralled ‘out of control’, according to a local councillor.

The security officer said: ‘Police are no longer going to attend shoplifting arrests in stores.

‘We have also been advised that we cannot detain anyone for longer than 30 minutes.

‘But if anyone is under 18 we’ve been told we have to just get the stock back and release them, with parental consent. We were told we should only call the police if the parents can’t be contacted.’

Although reports of shoplifting could still be submitted to police after, the security guard said they would likely be ‘shelved’ if less than £200 of goods were taken.

This in turn creates difficulties for the civil recovery of stolen items, watering down the ‘deterrent’ of being caught, he added. Police in several parts of the country are believed to operate a nonattendance policy for lower-value shoplifting offences.

Retail chiefs last year warned the Government that ‘prolific and persistent offenders’ were exploiting

‘Losing £800 a week’

the £200 loophole by taking just under that amount each time.

The policy comes after shock figures in June revealed just 9 per cent of crimes in England and Wales are being solved – and fewer than 5 per cent of robberies and burglaries. Falling detection rates have been partly blamed on cuts to police numbers.

Rob Nolan, a Lib Dem councillor in Truro, said: ‘I’m not surprised to hear this. I hear that shoplifting is out of control in Truro, and the manager of a large store told me that they were losing £800 a week in alcohol alone.

‘The police are working flat-out, but their resources have been cut to the bone and they don’t have enough officers to cope.

‘We need the Government to do a U-turn and properly resource our police, or stores are going to have to employ security guards and look after themselves.’

Inspector Rick Milburn, of Devon and Cornwall Police, denied the force operated any shoplifting policy based on value.

But he added that his resources were ‘finite’, therefore factors such as risk to the public and any of violence would help ‘determine and prioritise our attendance’.

Mr Milburn said: ‘During [busy] periods it is inevitable that some incidents will be assessed as a lower priority. Shoplifting per se is not a low priority offence.

‘Any force used by security guards using common law has to be reasonable, especially where the shoplifter is a child.’

The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner said it was working with retailers to help tackle shoplifting in Cornwall.