Retail crime surges in the first 5-months of 2024
12 August 2024
Retail crime data released by the Dairy and Business Owners’ Group shows retail crime continues to worsen, with 2024 showing a 17% increase on the same period in 2023 (1 January-31 May).
“Dairyowners are yet to see any meaningful dent on retail crime,” says Manish Thakkar, Chairperson of the Dairy and Business Owners’ Group.
“This isn’t helped by Police declining to give us result codes for retail crime scenes. Information they previously gave us up to a few months ago we have going back to 2015. We’ve gone to the Ombudsman as we want to know if arrests have increased. In 2023 it was 3%, but in 2015 it was 45%.
“So, let’s start with good news. Ramraids in the first five months of 2024 are down 62% on the same period in 2023. They’re at their lowest since 2020 but the numbers in 2024, to 31 May, are still more than twice higher than in 2020. Yes, it’s less bad, but it is still bad.
“The good news you can put into inverted commas includes a 5% fall in robberies but that still sees 2.5 robberies a day on average so far this year. Burglary is down 10%, but with 2,636 to 31 May, it means an average of just under 18 burglaries every single day.
“The bad news is that “acts intended to cause injury,” like we saw with the recent hammer attack on a security guard, are up 4%. To the end of May, there’s been 1,670 assaults; around 11 every day.
“Worryingly, sexual offences are up 19% on the same period in 2023; 106 so far recorded in 2024.
“Theft has again yet exploded and now means retailers are reporting an average of almost 14 thefts every hour of every day. 325 a day and 49,505 to the end of May. This rate will surpass 2023, a record crime year that beat the previous worst year, which was 2022.
“New Zealand is heading down the disastrous UK route where shoplifting is not seen as a police priority that greenlights theft on an industrial scale.
“We know that past-chairperson Sunny Kaushal is putting together a package when he assembles his retail team and we repeat what he called for. A return to the pre-2017 Policing Model where retail was the literal canary in a crime mine and not an afterthought.
“Clearly, the Coalition has a lot to do to because we’re seeing things continue to worsen. We just hope the old saying is true. Things may get worse, before they get better,” Mr Thakkar said.