Retail New Zealand chief executive Carolyn Young.
Photo: Supplied
Retail New Zealand says its members will be devastated that while police were directed not to investigate reports of shoplifting below $500, retailers reported almost 5500 incidents of shoplifting that fell into that category.
As a result, they were never investigated.
The shoplifting complaints were made between March and May this year while the police directive was in place not to investigate reports of shoplifting valued at below $500.
Other crimes police were directed not to investigate included general thefts of below $200, petrol drive offs, $150, online fraud and scams of under $1000 and other fraud, $500.
But after RNZ reported the directive it was walked back by Police Commissioner Richard Chambers who launched a review to establish how many reports of retail crime were filed away under the controversial directive.
That figure has been revealed by RNZ as 5454.
Retail New Zealand chief executive Carolyn Young said shop owners were disappointed at the number.
“I’m sure they’re absolutely devastated that the impact that’s happened in their store has not had any follow up and we know from our research that our members have told us that 40 percent of retail crime is not reported and one of the reasons they give is ‘cos they think nothing will happen.
“So if there was 5400-odd incidents in that two month period, add another 40 percent on and you’re probably at the right level of what was occurring.
“It just reiterates how big a crime issue is when you say that’s the level below $500.”
She said it was a systemic problem with a devastating impact on the retail system.
Young said while it was disappointing when retail crime was not followed up, Retail NZ understood it came down to resourcing.
“Whilst we are always really disappointed that the police are unable to follow up on every incident that occurs, we know that one of the principle problems that we’ve got is resourcing and we just need more police.”
Young said shoplifting was often repeated by the same offenders and when police didn’t investigate the cumulative harm was greater.
“One of the things that we know is there is a lot of small level offending. You think about drive-offs at the petrol station – invariably that’s under $500 but someone offends five or six times, it’s a significant amount of money.”
“And when you have people that are offending in a supermarket or an apparel store three or four times a week the cumulative factor of that adds up and so the dollar value is not the material piece.
“It’s actually what harm is that individual doing and how often are they offending and how can we stop that individual person.”
She said the Police Commissioner had acted swiftly and made a commitment to combating retail crime and Retail NZ was working closely with the police on it.
Retail Crime Ministerial Advisory Group chairperson Sunny Kaushal called the number of uninvestigated shoplifting complaints “a shocking figure”.
“That’s why it was so important that Commissioner Chambers responded so quickly to our call for it to be reversed at the earliest opportunity.”
He said the directive was clearly having an impact on investigations.
“Shoplifting is costing New Zealand $1.4 billion a year, and the bill is being paid by every hard working Kiwi through increased prices at the till.
“Shoplifting of any value is not okay. Offenders need to know that police will investigate any and all cases reported to them.”
He also said the Police Commissioner planned to make retail crime a key priority for police.
“Retailers are now seeing the benefit of this change in priority, especially in areas that now have a dedicated retail crime team.
“I encourage police to scale these efforts so that every area across the country can benefit from the great work of those teams.”
The police’s executive director of service, victims, and resolutions Rachael Bambery told Morning Report that only a small number of those complaints were affected by the monetary threshold, but did not have figures to hand.
She said they were now being reopened.
“They’re going to districts to be prioritised to have a look to see how they fit now.
“Every piece of information that comes in can also change the status of these cases.”
Brambery said the directive was no longer in place and police were “working closely” with retail advocacy groups to make sure they understood police shoplifting processes.
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