Ripon businesses are being given new radios to help combat crime.

The number of businesses with two-way Apex radios has more than doubled in the past few weeks, from 12 to 27.

Ripon Business Improvement District has funded the radios for its members as part of an attempt to take a proactive approach to crime.

Shopkeepers can use the radios to alert a central CCTV room in Harrogate to focus CCTV cameras directly onto potential shop thieves.

North Yorkshire Police have also agreed to carry the radios, where resources allow.

The scheme also operates in Harrogate and Knaresborough.

Participating businesses are sent the names and photographs of suspected shoplifters four times a year.

The radios can also be used to find missing people.

A Ripon resident with dementia was found safe after the radios were used to report their disappearance.

Lilla Bathurst, manager of Ripon BID, said:

Ms Bathurst also suggested it could help keep women working alone or in small teams safe.

Despite these safety measures, Ripon has a low crime rate.

The data analysis website CrimeRate reports that Ripon's crime rate is 45% lower than Yorkshire and the Humber as a whole.

It is also 28% lower than the national crime rate.

However, shoplifting is more slightly more common in Ripon than the rest of North Yorkshire.

Ripon BID is funded by city centre businesses who pay a levy on their business rates. The organisation then runs initiatives to boost the city centre for traders.

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