A YES vote keeps shoplifting at the top of the agenda.

One of our most significant achievements in our current BID term was to bring the scale of shoplifting to the attention of decision-makers.

It was easy to understand how businesses became disenchanted with reporting crime, because the “low” value did not elicit a considered appropriate ‘Law and order” response.

In 2023, we employed My Local Bobby to assist businesses with shoplifting during the Christmas period. It quickly became evident that low-value theft resulted in significant losses, low morale among staff, and was the modus operandi of prolific offenders who remained under the radar and unpunished.

Through My local Bobby we identified offenders, created reports using GDPR-compliant software, and reported all offences to the MET database. We shared information with the police and joined them on operations to identify prolific offenders. Check out the latest joint operation with the Make It Ealing, My Local Bobby team, the police posted on Instagram here.

As the stats increased due to continuous reporting, attention began to focus on the area’s issues.

As a result, Policing on Ealing Broadway is already changing for the better, delivering a substantial positive impact for businesses. 

Following the analysis of reported incidents, the MET police are actively recruiting a dedicated town centre police team consisting of seven officers and one Sergeant. In addition, immediate funding has been received from the Home Office to fund Operation Martello, keeping town Centres safe this summer. 

There is significant police planning underway to tackle shoplifting and the associated crime.

Emilie Waite (MET Police) is contacting crime prevention managers to start identifying

  • Peak times of day for shoplifters/ days of week
  • Hot products (specifics)
  • Prevention plan (Do you employ security, and what is their working pattern)
  • Description of repeat offenders
  • Are you interested in police collaboration
  • Whether they would be interested in policing workshops on crime reporting.

Our role now, if you give a YES vote to a new BID term, will be to support the new Town Centre team with local intelligence and business information. Our ShopSafe alert system has already proved to be a valuable asset to identify prolific offenders, and is available for all BID businesses to access.