A dedicated retail crime team set up in Waikato District to disrupt and target prolific retail crime is netting results.
Waikato District launched a new retail crime model last month, setting up bespoke area-based Retail Crime Teams dedicated to tackling retail-related offending and targeted enforcement of our most active offenders.
Retail crime is one of Police's priorities, and Waikato District is focused on identifying top offenders who cause harm, pose risk to the public and financial losses to stores in the district.
By boosting our retail crime response, Waikato Police are targeting those hotspot areas and stopping our most prolific retail offenders.
Since the introduction of the dedicated teams on 10 November, a total of 172 charges have been laid, 38 adults are facing charges and one youth is before the courts.
Police in Waikato West recently responded to two male shoplifters fleeing from a retail store in the main street of Cambridge. Both were promptly arrested and charged with shoplifting offences.
Detective Senior Sergeant Ian Foster of Waikato West Investigations says: "With 10 and 17 previous shoplifting charges each in the past respectively, it was great to see these recidivist offenders identified by the retail staff and a swift response from police meant they could be apprehended."
A couple of hours later, Cambridge staff and retail crime unit responded to another priority shoplifter, and have charged the woman with six shoplifting charges - in addition to the previous nine she was already facing.
This follows on from the first day on the job, when the Hamilton-based Retail Crime Team arrested two of the district's top offenders for shoplifting. The two men, aged 25 and 32, had allegedly been targeting power tools from large retailers across Waikato, Rotorua and Tauranga regions.
Both are now facing multiple charges of shoplifting both under $500 and over $1000. They have also been trespassed from all stores nationwide of two major hardware retailers.
Detective Inspector Stephen Ambler, Field Crime Manager, says these are just some examples of the work being undertaken by the Retail Crime Teams in the past month.
In Huntly, the West team have connected with members of a local retail association and are working with them to support increased reporting and cooperation to hold offenders to account.
The teams are focused to following up on reported offending and identifying those involved, who are often already known to police or can be identified on CCTV.
By taking a tailored specific area approach, we will have the right resources working in their own communities to get the best outcomes.
The model includes a dedicated Hamilton Central Retail Crime Team and area-based teams in Waikato East and West focused on priority retail offenders while also working with local retailers to enhance security and environmental factors to prevent offending, and support workgroups in response to retail crime.
