Retailers must work together to combat retail crime and reveal its devastating impact on small businesses, according to director of Palmer & Harvey

“A collaborative voice is the only way to tackle retail crime” says Derek Bruder, director of Discovery Risk Solutions, a subsidiary group of P&H.

He told Retail Express that independent retailers must stand together in order to get their “low-level crime” taken seriously by the police.

He said MPs are not taking retail crime seriously and they are clueless to how it damages business.
“It’s not getting enough traction from MPs and it could affect jobs,” he said. [pull_quote_center]“Something like youth annoyance will deter potential customers from entering in the shop, in turn there will be a loss of sales.”[/pull_quote_center]

The former police officer warned that after the General Election retailers should expect to see a decrease in the number of police present on the streets. “It’s inevitable, these things always happen after an election, there will be cuts,” he said.

Some retailers have already taken action against the crime in their sector by creating online forums to exchange information and advice on deterring criminals. Dan Cock of Whitstone Village Stores in Devon used Facebook to launch The Retailers Security Exchange, a closed forum for independent retailers to share issues in their store and how discuss they can tackle the problem.

An example of CCTV used to hunt down robbers in Birmingham

Bruder called independent retailers to action at Pro-Retail where the company launched their free Discovery Risk Solutions app. Available to Android and Apple phones, the service allows retailers log in details of incidences in-store, see the location of other retail crimes, and contact P&H approved suppliers to help their store become safer.