Cambridge retailers have been told to expect a sharper focus on shoplifting from police in 2025.
Waikato police sergeant Greg Foster with I Am Me programme founder Anne Morrison, left, and ECLIPSE Family Violence Services founder Debbs Murray. Photo: Viv Posselt
At a retailers’ gathering last week Cambridge police sergeant Greg Foster said Richard Chambers brings that focus as the country’s new police commissioner.
Father of two Chambers, who has family in Waipā, is 52 and was appointed last month to succeed Andrew Costar.
Foster told retailers police in Cambridge had recently got on top of “massive car crime” and would be looking at shop crime.
He acknowledged that police success was not always highlighted. Cambridge does not have its own courthouse and offenders who are caught in the town are often from out of town.
The News can vouch for the difficulties in getting information from courts when cases relating to Cambridge are heard. The courts do make information available easily and when they do it can be so long after the event as to no longer be newsworthy.
The weekly On the Beat column in the Cambridge News penned by Senior Constable Deb Hann does provide updates on police successes.
At last week’s gathering Foster repeated an often heard warning from Waipā’s community constables to make 111 call a priority over posts on social media.
“Empower your staff – someone’s got to pick up the phone when offending is detected,” he said.
Deb Hann – Senior Constable
Deb Hann told the audience appearance was not the ultimate way to identify a thief – “anyone can be a shoplifter”.
She encouraged retailers to look at their closed circuit television (CCTV) and ensure cameras were pitched at a level to help police with identification. The view of offenders’ faces from a point above shoulder height can be obscured by the peaks of caps.
Police provided retailers with a retail crime prevention checklist which included nine points related to access points, customer engagement, use of CCTV, how aisles should be arranged and the provision of a secure place for staff in case of danger.
Retail NZ, which describes itself as the voice of the retail sector in New Zealand, says the $2.6 billion annual cost of retail crime flows through from retailers to customers to the New Zealand economy.
It says aggression, violence, and other retail crime is getting worse.
“Criminals are becoming increasingly organised and brazen, putting retail employees and customers at risk.”
Shopping. Photo: Brett Sayles, pexels.com
