Data intelligence is invaluable in identifying incident patterns, which can be used to track down repeat offenders and organised crime groups. Analysts can scrutinise incident reports to pinpoint activity and crime patterns relating to location, type of crime, and items stolen and send out alerts to guide security officers on the ground.
Taking this one step further, many of our retail customers have a dedicated Security Operations Centre (SOC), which finds trends in this data to build a bigger picture of networks of crimes, rather than isolated incidents.
Crucially, the SOC teams can act as a bridge between retailers and the police, using this intelligence to package up evidence, including CCTV footage, dates, times, details on what was stolen, and even witness statements, so the police have everything they need to secure a conviction and remove ongoing risk from stores.
As a result of using intelligence in this way, Mitie’s iSOC team has helped to secure 1,269 arrests since April 2020. But with more stakeholders embracing and engaging in intelligence gathering and sharing, we’ll be able to stop even more prolific offenders. We were proud to pioneer data-sharing agreements, which share anonymised information between retailers. Late last year, we also supported the launch of Pegasus – the initiative bringing together 13 retailers with government and police officials to tackle retail crime, including the creation of a new data-sharing platform.
threat levels at their fingertips through a digital portal. Based on incidents logged by store colleagues on the ground, alarm activations and open-source data gathering, the software generates intelligence on threat levels across retailers’ portfolios. This means security professionals can stay one step ahead of potential threats, inform relevant stakeholders and make intelligence-led decisions on which stores need the most support, such as allocating more resource or 24/7 high-alert CCTV monitoring.
Collating cases
According to Home Office data, during 2022 and 2023 only 14% of all shoplifting incidents resulted in a charge. We know that when an offender gets away with shoplifting, they’ll try again, so the aim is to take them off the streets, offer rehabilitation and end the cycle of crime.
Analysing data across brands, geographical regions and police forces makes it easier to track down organised crime groups and increases the scale of evidence that can be collected against them, with the retail industry creating a united front against shoplifters.
Alongside technology, collaboration is truly our greatest defence to stay one step ahead of criminals. Not only is the collaboration between our intelligence teams and our frontline colleagues helping to keep people safe in stores, but on a wider scale, adopting an intelligence-led approach, the collaboration between retailers, security providers and the police is the most effective way to tackle retail crime.
Jason Towse
Managing Director of Business Services Mitie
www.mitie-intelligence.com © CITY SECURITY MAGAZINE – SUMMER 2024
www.citysecuritymagazine.com >
Retail
crime is on the rise
with 16.7m incidents of
shoplifting a year...
so how can technology and intel help?
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