Daylight robbery

SIR – Police are no longer to take action over shoplifting when the sum involved is less than £200.

We recently had a very specialised piece of forestry machinery stolen, there being very few such machines in the country. When notified, the police issued a crime number, but stated that they would take no further action.

The cost of the machine was £25,000. How much must something cost before the police will take action? Michael Parry

Naunton, Gloucestershire

SIR – Your headline, “Police spark shoplifting boom” (December 27), reminded me of a meeting with major retailers that other magistrates and I attended in the Nineties, when shoplifting was highlighted.

At that time, retailers told us that 15 per cent was added to the price of goods charged to customers to cover the losses from shoplifting.

What it is now, I hate to think. Theft from shops is too often wrongly dismissed as a victimless crime when clearly it is all of us who suffer from inflated prices caused by shoplifting.

Shoplifting is a crime, and seeking to downgrade it to the level of speeding sends the wrong message. It makes one wonder which criminal offences will be next to be treated in the same way. Brian Higgins JP

Eastbourne, East Sussex

SIR – You highlight the rise in shoplifting, but this is mirrored in other areas such as burglary. The current policing policy not only leaves citizens feeling vulnerable but increases the crime rate.

In the Nineties, Mayor Rudy Giuliani brought the decades old serious crime in New York under control by concentrating on the “minor” crimes now being ignored.

His policy of “zero tolerance” of even the most minor crime had a knock-on effect in bringing crime under control. Would a reverse policy not act to increase crime? When will we learn the lesson? A J Myers

London NW4