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  • 5 months ago
Labour has sparked outrage after urging shopkeepers to hide “high value” items in an attempt to tackle Britain’s shoplifting epidemicDame Diana Johnson, the policing minister, said alcohol and other products should not be displayed at the front of stores because it will incentivise thieves. It comes as shoplifting in England and Wales reached record levels, with reported offenses rising by a fifth in the year ending March 2025.Last week, it emerged that the Run Ragged, a vintage store in Wrexham, Wales, was forced by police to change the wording of a sign criticising “scumbags shoplifting” because it was deemed “offensive”.

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00:00I would not advise people to tackle an individual who was stealing.
00:04I came across someone stealing in a store in Hull.
00:07I went straight to the assistant to tell them what was happening.
00:10I felt that was the best thing to do.
00:12Obviously, it's a judgment for individuals to take,
00:14but I am worried about people feeling they need to have a go.
00:18I don't think that is appropriate.
00:20I think we need to have that neighbourhood police presence.
00:22I think stores need to play their part in making sure that items
00:26that are of high value are not at the front of the store
00:28because that's an issue in some stores,
00:31that they put bottles of alcohol at the front of the store,
00:34which obviously people will nick.
00:36If they're going to steal, to resell, they will nick items like that.
00:40So I think it's not just one thing here.
00:42It has to be an approach with the retailers,
00:45with the government and with the police to work together.
00:48I chair a retail crime forum of all the big national retailers.
00:53We sit down together and we work out how best we can start to tackle
00:57what's happened over the last few years
00:59where we have seen this increase in shop theft and it has to stop.
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