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Data sharing technology achieves 26% reduction in shoplifting
Once labelled as having the highest rate of shoplifting in the UK, Croydon Business Crime Reduction Partnership (CBCP) was created to provide a safe and secure town centre for customers, staff and visitors to Croydon. Working in partnership with local retailers and business owners as well as a number of local authorities, CBCP has significantly reduced crime in the area, achieving a 26% stock loss reduction for May-August 2009, compared with the same period in 2008.
The Partnership has been using web-based data sharing technology NBIS (National Business Information System) by Hicom, which enabled the organisation to share crime data between members, track offenders and produce detailed reports and analysis on criminal activity in the area.
As a result, Croydon Business Crime Partnership is succeeding in its goal of making the area safer for shoppers and retailers alike and no longer has the highest rate of shoplifting in the UK.
Croydon Business Crime Reduction Partnership is a proactive partnership between retailers, business owners and key local authorities such as the Metropolitan Police and Croydon Council. The partnership also includes local transport agencies such as taxi companies, car parks and the British Transport Police and works in collaboration with other business crime reduction partnerships throughout the UK. CBCP is separated into three sectors: Business Watch, Pub Watch and Travel Watch.
Each ‘watch’ monitors anti-social behaviour and criminality across particular sections of the Town Centre. Business Watch focuses primarily on the retail and business sector of the day time economy, whilst Pub Watch focuses on the town’s Pubs and Nightclubs and is currently being extended to include late-night take-away and fast-food outlets. Travel Watch operates across the town’s transport scheme and includes the Cab Safe scheme and local taxi companies along with all car parks located in the town centre.
In order for CBCP to improve Croydon town centre and reduce levels of criminality and anti-social behaviour, the partnership required a sophisticated data sharing system in order to gather and store intelligence on the most prolific and active offenders involved in crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour. Alan McWilliams, Business Crime Reduction Manager at Croydon Business Crime Reduction Partnership explains, “One of the key ways we are tackling crime in the area is by using Hicom’s NBIS system to share data between the various different agencies involved in the Partnership. It is well-recognised that prolific offenders and shoplifters in particular, often operate on a national scale, moving around the country stealing from one town centre to another.
“A key advantage for CBCP is that NBIS is a national system capable of tracking the movements of known offenders throughout the country and sharing this information with other UK crime reduction partnerships.”
McWilliams adds, “By sharing information via a tool such as NBIS, all partnerships linked with the system are kept up to date on the movements of prolific offenders as they travel around the country. Wherever these offenders appear, that partnership needs to be aware that they are operating in their area. Using NBIS each partnership can find valuable information on these individuals and take the necessary precautions and actions to limit their criminal activity. By sharing information amongst partnerships, local authorities, the police and other law enforcement agencies, we can effectively target people and reduce crime.
“CBCP went live with NBIS in April 2009 and has so far experienced great success with the system. Following our initial training on NBIS, the Croydon Town Centre Inspector and I have discovered 34 offenders on NBIS that were currently living in Croydon but that we were previously unaware of as offending in the town. By acting on this information and checking on local police records we found that seven of the 34 flagged were offending in Croydon but had managed to stay off our radar. Those seven individuals were then followed up by the police who took the appropriate action against them. This would not have happened had we not been using NBIS and shows that sharing information is the best thing that partnerships can do in order to target offenders and reduce criminality and anti-social behaviour in the area.”
“Having access to specific information on an individual’s behaviour allows us to target criminal activity quickly and more effectively. If the authorities are not aware that the individual or group of individuals are offending in the area then it is more difficult to catch them. However, by interrogating a national system such as NBIS we are able to monitor people’s behaviour across the country and stop the offender before one shoplifting incident turns into twenty.”
Hicom specialises in providing crime reduction and risk management software solutions to retailers and corporate business sectors. Through its long term association with the Business Information Crime System (BICS), Hicom has developed NBIS as an advanced concept of business crime management. The network has an assurance level of EAL4 in accordance with HMG Infosec Standard No1 (IS1)[c] for data integrity, confidentiality and availability. There are now over 70 towns, cities and shopping centres throughout the UK connected to either NBIS or BICS.
McWilliams continues, “The reporting capabilities of NBIS are very useful, as the comprehensive management reports created by the system can be presented to criminal boards to show current patterns and trends of criminality within the area. By creating in-depth reports using NBIS, we are able to see where the current shoplifting hot spots are. Because the reports provide detailed information we are able to see exactly which shops are being targeted and at what time, helping us to work with retailers to put preventative measures in place throughout the stores to reduce the risk of theft.”
One way in which CBCP disseminates key information to its members is via a weekly e-newsletter. McWilliams explains, “The e-newsletter is a great way of informing stores and local authorities of offender activity that is happening in other town centres throughout the UK. This enables the partnership to give retailers in Croydon a heads-up on the latest scams and ‘hot’ items being stolen, so that stores are aware of what may affect them.”
McWilliams concludes, “By using NBIS to share information between partnerships and the local authority we are achieving great success in reducing the levels of crime throughout Croydon. We have experienced a 26% reduction in shoplifting over the past year, which is in part due to our use of NBIS. By looking on and interrogating the system we are able to pass information and intelligence onto stores and advise them on how best to protect themselves and their stock.”
