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Ministers, police and retailers have agreed on a new “zero tolerance” plan to crack down on the increase in shoplifting crimes, The Sunday Times has reported.
It is understood that police chiefs will reveal plans on how they intend to tackle shoplifting at a summit in Downing Street today (23 October), as the number of incidents have risen to more than 1,000 per day.
The zero tolerance plan comes as the police have been accused by retail bosses of not taking the crime seriously enough and not responding to their reports.
According to the new plan, shoplifting will be given a dedicated national unit – Operational Opal – that will investigate cases from an organised crime perspective.
Analysts in Operational Opal will also analyse footage from CCTV, dash cams, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and information collected from crime reports to identify organised crime groups that are behind mass shoplifting of goods.
The police will also run each CCTV image of shoplifting offences provided by retailers through its national database, which includes facial recognition technology.
In addition, the new unit will receive a £600k investment from a group of 13 retailers including John Lewis, Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Next, under a new agreement called Project Pegasus.
The Downing Street summit will also reveal how store security guards are expected to detain shoplifters under a citizens’ arrest.
