New evidence gathering with the help of Lincoln BIG

Shop theft in Lincoln city centre is now being tackled by police with the help of Lincoln BIG’s City Centre Warden, Danny Mason.

The partnership comes as part of the local Neighbourhood Policing Team’s (NPT) problem-solving for prolific shop theft in the city centre, and will mean Danny will now be taking on responsibility for the initial evidence gathering on reports of shop thefts to provide a complete package for officers to use to bring those responsible to justice.

The work started in February. It builds on a previous initiative of shop theft packs, where businesses who had been targeted by thieves completed a statement about the incident and sent it to police along with CCTV. This way, the onus is taken off those businesses to collate the information needed for the investigation, and the support from Lincoln BIG means that officers can spend more time on patrol and working on investigations.

The investigation itself – viewing the CCTV, follow-up statements, identifying suspects, arrests, suspect interviews, seeking a charge with the CPS, attending court, and compiling other material for things like Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs) which can help to ban individuals from specific retail premises – will be handled entirely by police.

This new way of working is for all retail premises in the city centre, as well as the immediate outlying commercial parks along Tritton Road.

From now, if there is a shoplifting offence in a store, businesses are asked to follow the below process:  

• Make an initial report to Lincolnshire Police via 101 – you can call 999 if a crime is in progress.
• Make a note of the crime reference or incident number.
• Danny visits the store to gather initial complaint statements, facts including date and time, inventory of what was stolen, and CCTV footage of the offence/ offenders. He will have his Lincoln BIG ID on him and will have no concerns about you making any calls to check his visit is legitimate.
• From there, officers will then investigation the allegation, and wherever possible, charge those responsible.
• The evidence bundle provided by shops via Lincoln BIG will support the court process when it comes to securing a conviction.

Community Beat Manager, Sergeant Steve Parker, said: “Tackling shop theft is something we have been working directly on for some time, and we have good news to share: of the top 20 prolific offenders, which we know can be repeat offenders, 13 are in prison, one is out on licence, one has a suspended prison sentence, and a further three are due in court imminently. 

“But we still know what an impact shop theft has on our community, and we wanted to introduce something that will make a real difference, so we suggested this way of working to Lincoln BIG, and got a very positive response. This new way of working builds on an existing relationship between Lincolnshire Police and Lincoln BIG, and will help us to realise our ambitions to significantly reduce shop theft and related offences in the city centre. The more our local businesses can help us – via Danny – by providing the evidence we need to secure convictions, the more offenders we can take off the streets.”  

There are also 23 CBOs active against shoplifters which prevents them from entering any retails store in the entire Lincoln City, apart from one nominates store to enable them to do their shopping.

Yvette Mills, Project Manager at Lincoln BIG, added: “We’ve always worked really closely with the police to ensure that our city centre is a place people feel safe working in and visiting. By providing Danny to act as a conduit for the evidence gathering, we can reduce the burden of time on officers so that can continue to patrol the area and carry out other important work, while still having all of the evidence they might need to secure a conviction. Danny has worked as a City Centre Warden for more than a decade and is well known to the local businesses, which has helped make this is a simple transition.”