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The union has branded this ‘DIY policing’ as dangerous and irresponsible.
Chris Philp MP (Con, Croydon South) is reported to have told Tory activists attending the meeting organised by the think-tank Policy Exchange “…the wider public, including shop staff and security guards, do have the power of citizen’s arrest and where it’s safe to do so I would encourage that to be used.”.
His comments come on the back of disturbing evidence of an epidemic of retail crime.
Latest police recorded crime figures show that shoplifting has increased by a quarter in the last twelve months; Usdaw’s annual survey found that three-quarters of shopworkers were abused, threatened or assaulted and a third of those incidents were triggered by theft from shops, along with Co-op Food discovering through a Freedom of Information request that police failed to respond to 71% of reported serious retail crimes.
Paddy Lillis, Usdaw General Secretary, said: “This kind of ‘DIY policing’ is dangerous and irresponsible. The Minister needs to rethink his strategy, invest in putting more police on the beat and introduce a standalone offence for assaulting a shopworker, like they have in Scotland.
“This week we joined with retail employers in calling for action to tackle growing retail crime, but this passing of responsibility to shopworkers and shoppers is most certainly not the answer.
“Usdaw’s very clear advice to our members is not to intervene or try to detain a shoplifter, their priority is to keep themselves safe. The retail employers we deal with also give the same advice to their staff. So it demonstrates a complete lack of understanding by the Minister to suggest staff should be doing the job of the police.
“We are even more alarmed that he suggests the public should be performing citizen’s arrests in stores. Our members suffered first-hand when the public tried to police each other on Covid rules, with fights breaking out in aisles and shopworkers refereeing arguments between customers. We do not want to see a return to that.
“Having to deal with repeated and persistent shoplifters can cause issues beyond the theft itself like anxiety, fear and in some cases physical harm to retail workers. There must be better coordination to ensure that government, retail employers, police and the courts work together to help protect shopworkers, giving them the protection they deserve.”
Matt Hood, managing director of Co-op, responded to the comments with a social media post:
Unbelievable comment that completely misses the point. In 80% of cases where @coopuk do make ‘citizens arrests’ the police don’t turn up so we have to let them go. The priority has to be an effective police response to build on what businesses are already investing in. https://t.co/qMWjbH0GUE
— Matt Hood (@MattHood20) October 3, 2023
Muntazir Dipoti, national president of the Federation of Independent Retailers (The Fed), said: “When shop staff challenge thieves they are often subject to abuse and sometimes assault. We tell our staff to never try to physically stop a crime. It goes without saying that we would never want our customers to expose themselves to this high risk either.”
Dipoti said the answer to the runaway increase in shoplifting is increased resources for the police and judiciary, together with better CCTV and other security to help police with their investigations.
“We want the police to be able to attend more crimes and quickly. But the Fed is urging the UK and Scottish governments to provide a £1,500 grant to small shops which can’t afford the security they need.”
The minister said he is also planning to tackle crime levels by enabling facial CCTV images to be matched with information on passport and other government databases. The Fed said creating an IT system for this will take about two years.
