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Some, including Onkar Sandhu, of Sandhu Stores in Tamworth, Staffordshire, and Amit Puntambekar of Ash’s Shop in Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire, were critical.
Puntambekar described the plan as “lip service” and Sandhu said that “it does nothing for us that I can see”.
Sandhu blamed the crime problem for shops on a police lack of resources, which he argued had got worse in recent years.
In one case, he said, a “racially aggravated assault was downgraded to an apology letter and a £50 compensation in cash from the offender, delivered by the police”.
But Samantha Coldbeck, of Wharfedale Premier in Hull, said that there was some merit in the plan.
She said: “A named officer for each area is a start. PCSOs [police community support officers] are doing a good job to reconnect to some communities but education and help is needed and something is better than nothing”.
Coldbeck added that retailers should be equipped write basic statements and be able to provide good CCTV to the police when needed.
She said: “The police are far more engaged when we work with them in partnership. Do not be too quick to dismiss their efforts.”
The ‘Beating Crime’ plan, as it is called, specifically recognised that shops have become vulnerable to criminals.
It said: “Shops are critical to areas, and often have become as much part of community identity as the church or pub.
“There has been too much violence targeted at retail workers and too much acquisitive crime on these premises.”
The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) welcomed the plan but said that it had to translate into “real action”.
The plan included recommendations to:
- Ensure everyone living in England and Wales has access to the police digitally through a national online platform
- Improve the responsiveness of local police to 101 and 999 calls
- Expand the use of electronic monitoring for serious acquisitive offenders to a further 13 police force areas
- Encourage prison leavers to turn their backs on crime by securing employment
Figures from the 2021 ACS Crime Report show that there were over 40,000 violent attacks against people working in convenience stores and 1.1m incidents of theft over the last year, many of which were committed by repeat offenders with a drug or alcohol addiction.
