In the first 10 weeks since Police Scotland’s Retail Crime Taskforce was launched, its three uniformed officers working in Edinburgh made 30 arrests, resulting in approximately 162 charges.
Accumulatively, three of those arrests resulted in retail offenders being remanded in custody, and several others resulted in bail conditions whereby restrictions were imposed regarding relevant retail premises and then wider areas, including city centre exclusion. The approximate value of thefts relating to those arrests was in excess of £21,000.
During the same period, the three officers have assisted with 110 identifications for ongoing investigations and thereafter provided coordination and advice in respect of the progression of those separate investigations.
One particularly successful initiative supported by the Taskforce is the new Shopwatch information sharing scheme between city-centre stores in Edinburgh.
As a result of funding from Essential Edinburgh, 52 stores on Princes Street, St James Quarter and the surrounding areas have been provided with radios so that they can communicate with other businesses whenever a crime or suspicious activity took place.
The City of Edinburgh Council CCTV team were also provided with a radio to monitor transmissions and follow individuals believed to be involved in retail crime on the city centre’s CCTV network. Information has then been communicated to Edinburgh officers, including those within the Taskforce, so they can more quickly respond to ongoing incidents.
Since April, when Shopwatch began, eight people have been reported to the Fiscal, having been arrested following information shared between stores, the CCTV team, and Edinburgh Division officers.
Five of these individuals were charged in connection with shoplifting offences, while another was charged for an assault.
Superintendent Paul Gillespie, who leads on Acquisitive Crime for Edinburgh, said:
“Shopwatch underlines our commitment to collaboration and finding new approaches that better equip businesses to prevent crime happening, while also enhancing our ability to respond when an incident does arise.”