Suffolk police walk around town to tackle shoplifting

During a week of action, this newspaper joined officers in Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich to find out the problems that businesses were facing and how the police were planning to help them.

One of the initiatives shared by both teams was showing shop managers how to access the Digital Asset Management System (DAMS), a system that UK-wide law enforcement teams have recently started using. 

This system allows shopkeepers to report crimes online and upload CCTV footage via an online link, rather than having to download it onto a hard drive.  

Inspector Dan Fiske, who is heading this initiative, said: "The main aim is to familiarise people with the new system and tell them to 'Report it, and do it online'." 

In both towns, staff members from shops we spoke to during the walkaround said they were not reporting any shoplifting cases to the police, because they thought it would be "a waste of time". 

Bury St Edmunds police officer talking to resident on St Johns street (Image: Shikhar Talwar)

The police want to talk to everyone in the town centre to know how better to assist them (Image: Shikhar Talwar)

In Poundland, on Bury St Edmunds Cornhill, one member of staff said: "We don't report anything that costs less than £200, because we don't think it would be worth your [police] time or ours." 

Many shops in Ipswich made similar points, with the manager from the Ipswich Outreach charity shop saying they believed there is a threshold amount that the police have before they would take the report seriously.  

This was a belief that the officers termed a "rumour" and said that any shoplifting could be reported.  

Ipswich shops seemed more comfortable talking to Street Rangers, who have been patrolling the town centre and curbing down on anti-social behaviour.

Many agreed the Street Rangers had become their first port of call.  

"It just takes a long time to report anything on a call to 999," explained a manager at Trespass. "And you may not get an instant response." 

Others added that Street Rangers could come in instantly - but officers said in saying the Rangers do not escalate the complaint further, so there is no way to "see someone arrested for shoplifting". 

Police wish to closen the gap between themselves and shopkeepers. (Image: Shikhar Talwar)

Reduction of shoplifiting crimes is the police's main focus (Image: Shikhar Talwar)

This complaint was not the same in west Suffolk town, which recently increased police patrol in the town centre.  

CEX managers said: "Once I report it, the police are generally here in five minutes."  

Others added that the increased police presence in the town has on its own become a theft deterrent.  

Many shops were unaware of DAMS and its purpose in this town - so the police teams approached to get people familiar with it, by handing out leaflets and flyers.

Sergeant Joe Nettleton, who headed the team in Bury, said: “We always want to look at every CCTV footage we can for crimes, and this would make it easier for us.

"We want to make sure that businesses are confident in reporting crime." 

Meanwhile, Ipswich took a different approach as Insp Fiske said: "We are not going to use flyers, they waste paper, no one reads it and always end up in the bins." 

Instead, he asked his officers to make people aware of this and direct them to the website if need be.   

Currently, one issue facing businesses is that filling out forms to make a complaint with the police takes too long to complete too many “irrelevant questions".

A shopkeeper said: "You would have to answer tonnes of questions like 'Do you think the theft was motivated?' or 'Do you think that it was a hate crime?' but who has the time for that?"

Yet, to people in both towns, this was a welcome change, as they believed it would make their communication easier, especially if they could hand over their own CCTV footage. 

Pictured left to right: Business Improvement District CEO Mark Cordell and Sgt Joe Nettleton (Image: Shikhar Talwar)

The police encourage everyone to get a CCTV camera for their shops. (Image: Shikhar Talwar)

The chief executive of Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District, Mark Cordell, also supported these changes. 

He said: "Local people were only reporting crimes that they felt were severe enough. We need to encourage everyone to report crimes and have it not be a long process to get through. 

"Police and people have to now get together to help each other."  

Shops in the two towns also noted different culprits that they generally saw coming in and stealing a lot of their items.  

Overall the police force hopes that through this initiative they can get local shops the support they need.