00:00A mob of teenage shoplifters rampaging through this street in London
00:03looked like social breakdown in real time, but it wasn't.
00:07Frankly, it was predictable, maybe even preventable.
00:09Shoplifting in England and Wales has surged.
00:12Offences more than doubled to over 500,000 between 2021 and March 2025.
00:17And those are just the incidents that get recorded.
00:19The British Retail Consortium says there were 5.5 million thefts last year,
00:23which is around 15,000 a day.
00:25This didn't happen by accident.
00:27In 2014, punishment for theft under £200 was downgraded
00:31and overall policing was cut back sharply.
00:34The message, intended or not, was clear.
00:37Shoplifting isn't a priority.
00:39Shoplifters became bolder.
00:41Organised gangs moved in.
00:42Even ordinary shoppers started skipping scans at self-checkouts.
00:46If people see others walking out without consequences,
00:48some will ask, why am I paying?
00:50We've seen this before.
00:52California took a similar approach and is now reversing it
00:54after seeing one of the biggest retail crime surges in the US.
00:57Britain is about to do the same.
00:59But here's the part that often gets missed.
01:01This isn't a general crime wave.
01:03Total theft is below its pre-pandemic levels
01:06and far below where it was two decades ago.
01:09So the scenes here aren't evidence of the country coming apart.
01:12They're what happens when deterrence breaks down in one specific area.
01:15And the upside is, it's fixable.
01:17So...
01:17...
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