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29
Jul 2024
Shoplifting 'effectively decriminalised' in North Yorkshire by police inaction, mayor told
Shoplifting has been “effectively decriminalised” in North Yorkshire because police don't investigate it, the new mayor has been told.
Councillor Michael Pavlovic, a member of the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel, which scrutinises the mayor, warned some shopkeepers could have to cease trading unless retail theft was taken more seriously.
Cllr Pavlovic, a Labour councillor on City of York Council, raised concerns at last week’s panel meeting.
He said:
Please don’t say it doesn’t happen because I have talked to some of the supermarkets in my ward. They cannot get an investigating officer to come out when hundreds of pounds of stock’s been stolen.
The Mayor of York and North Yorkshire is responsible for ensuring the police and fire services are held accountable, and public concerns are taken seriously.
Labour's David Skaith, who ran the menswear shop Winstons in York before his election as mayor in May, said retail crime was “on our radar”.
Mr Skaith said the issue was “the thing that came up time and time again” at a recent meeting with business improvement districts, which represent traders in their areas. He added:
Every single BID, every single stakeholder, said about retail crime. Not just the retail crime also the anti-social behaviour and the violence that comes from the crime.
Mr Skaith appointed City of York Labour councillor Jo Coles as deputy mayor with responsibility for holding the police and fire services accountable.
That role was previously performed by the Conservative North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe until the new mayor’s office swallowed up her role in May.
Ms Coles told the panel shoplifting and retail crime was “a huge problem” that had fallen off the agenda.
She said:
It kind of fell off the agenda over the last couple of years. The impact on businesses of a period of austerity combined with the cost of living crisis and then a lack of response on certain callouts at certain types of crime and the expectation that people will just report things to their insurance companies and that kind of covers it actually means people are getting away with it when they shouldn’t be getting away with it.
Ms Coles said gangs targeted hotspots “where they know there will be very little police presence” and frequently stole hundreds of pounds worth of goods.
She told Cllr Pavlovic:
So I absolutely hear you and that has to be part of the mix of how we then restructure policing to ensure we are keeping communities safe.
Cllr Lyndsay Burr, an independent who represents Malton on North Yorkshire Council, told the panel she was delighted to hear the issue was being picked up as shopkeepers were “the lifeblood of our communities”.
Cllr Burr said she did her own crime survey with retailers in Malton. She said:
One in two said they had serious issues with known perpetrators because now there are no police that react. Delighted to hear it was being picked up. These are the lifeblood of our communities.
The Stray Ferret investigated the impact of crime on retailers in Harrogate as part of our Trading Hell series of articles this year.
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