The national police intelligence unit is launching a new team, funded by the Pegasus partnership which was launched by Sussex PCC Katy Bourne in 2023, to gather retail crime information and offer retailers and police forces virtual training.

The training sessions are set to provide understanding of requirements for referrals, and demonstrate how the team will work with forces, retailers, businesses and organisations to gather information.

The police said the new team will be ‘instrumental’ in identifying and tackling the organised crime groups responsible for a large proportion of retail crime.

The virtual sessions take place:

• Wednesday 10 April 10am – 11am and 2pm – 3pm
• Thursday 11 April 10am – 11am and 2pm – 3pm
• Monday 15 April 9am – 10am and 1pm – 2pm
• Tuesday 16 April 9am – 10am and 1pm – 2pm

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Stephanie Coombes, head of intelligence at Opal, said: “Opal has been carrying out this role for other crime types for a number of years and we have seen significant successes from having a national overview of what’s happening in the organised crime world.”

Coombes added that the new team brings together information from different areas in order to centralise intelligence, followed by working with relevant forces.

“We know that many retailers have intelligence built up through their own systems and processes and the training sessions aim to demonstrate how they can work with us to share that information so action can be taken,” she added. “We need to stress that Opal’s service does not replace reporting incidents to your local police force, it is a route for sharing information and intelligence packages and one of the key requirements for making a referral is having a crime number for the related incidents.

“We want to make it clear and straightforward for retailers, businesses, organisations and police forces to share information with us and the training sessions are an important element in achieving this.”

Chief constable Amanda Blakeman, National Police Chiefs’ council lead for Acquisitive Crime, said: “Partnership working is essential in tackling many different crime types, a fact emphasised by the Retail Crime Action Plan which we launched last year and which is showing positive results through greater collaboration between forces and retailers.

“Opal has provided a vital service to police forces for a number of years and will significantly boost the response to retail crime, showing these organised crime groups that there is quite simply nowhere to hide.”

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