Navigating Retail Crime Trends in New Zealand: A Unified Approach by Key Stakeholders
Retail crime is a global challenge, and New Zealand is no exception. The retail sector faces its share of threats, from shoplifting and organised retail crime to employee theft and fraud.
To effectively address these concerns, the New Zealand Retail Association (NZRA) is playing a pivotal role in bringing together key stakeholders to combat retail crime trends.
In this blog we'll review the NZRA's latest retail crime update where they highlight the current state of the industry as well as provide a roadmap on how to address these issues.
These are a fantastic resource for Allied, as it allows us to check in to see where we can grow or modify our services to better support our clients and the wider communities we serve. It also demonstrates how the NZRA is fostering cooperation among stakeholders to protect businesses and promote a safer retail environment.
Some of the trends worth noting include:
- 92% of retailers have experienced some form of retail crime over the past 12 months, in comparison with 81% when we last surveyed in 2017.
- The risks to physical health, injuries and in the worst cases, death continue to be very real..
- Retail is seen as a more dangerous and less desirable place to work, leading to staff retention issues and higher recruitment and training costs.
- Areas affected by retail crime are increasingly seen as dangerous places to shop.
What's the answer?
Retail NZ
• Reducing retail crime, by
working in partnership with our
members, Police, and other
organisations with an interest
in crime prevention.
• Advocating for real
consequences for those
involved in retail crime.
• Creating a sector wide
approach to the use of
facial recognition and other
proactive technologies to
identify a person who has
previously committed retail
crime. and communicating to
the public the “why and how”.
• Running a public awareness
campaign on the impacts of
retail crime, which needs
sector buy in and government
funding.
• Working with education
providers to develop training
modules to support the sector.
• Facilitating information sharing
and evaluation of crime
prevention initiatives and their
effectiveness across the sector.
Government
• Adequately resourcing Police to
deal with retail crime.
• Unclogging the court systems
so that there are adequate
deterrence tools.
• More effective mechanisms to
respond to and support children
involved in retail crime.
• Creating specific offences for
crimes against retail workers.
• Creating instant fines for petty
offences.
• Working to strengthen current
trespass laws with more
effective provisions (e.g.
Criminal Behaviour orders
used in the UK)
• Enabling retailers to introduce
new technologies to proactively
combat retail crime.
• Supporting a public awareness
campaign on the impacts of
retail crime.
• Ongoing review and evaluation
of effectiveness of retail crime
policies and interventions in
partnership with Retail NZ.
Retailers
• Having strong health and
safety programmes including
prevention, training,
de-escalation, and post-event
support.
• Communicating with other
retailers and the Police.
Knowing what is going on
and reporting all crime.
• Investing in and reviewing
security systems – using
cameras, physical barriers,
and ensuring there are clear
lines of sight to the street.
• Collaborating with Retail NZ to
share information about crime
prevention initiatives and their
effectiveness.
Source: Retail NZ
We are currently assisting our customers on many of these areas.
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We are constantly improving cooperation and relationships between our clients and local police. In some areas we have facilitated meetings for multiple retailers and had the local police come along to discuss how tighter communication and networks can improve outcomes.
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Retail NZ emphasis trying to push sector wide adoption of facial recognition, we are working with multiple partners on implementing this very thing.
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We partner with clients to develop bespoke training fit for their particular type of environment.
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We are helping deploy information sharing technology between our clients for more effective criminal detection.
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Ensuring we are attending as many business association meetings as possible to highlight basic best practice strategies to
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Carrying out consulting and security reviews for retail premises weekly.
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Facilitating regular contact between police and local retailers. Matthew Murray who was with the police for 26 years and was a senior member of the National retail crime investigation unit spearheads many of these reviews for Allied.
Like the New Zealand Retail Association, Allied Security is actively working to address the evolving retail crime trends in the country.
By bringing together key stakeholders, sharing knowledge, advocating for policy changes, and facilitating collaboration, we are helping create a safer and more secure retail environment.
