Fed receives positive response from Police and Crime Commissioners

The Fed has received a positive response from Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to a letter sent by National President, Hetal Patel, expressing continued concern about retail crime and the Fed hopes to organise further meetings with them in the new year. This follows from the news that PCCs will only serve until the 2028 election, and the Fed’s promise to continue engaging with them.

As reported in the Fed’s membership magazine Your Fed in January, Mr Patel reiterated concern and outlining the latest alarming statistics indicating a rise in shop theft by 13% in the year to June according to the Office for National Statistics and that 72% of Fed members had direct experience of retail crime in the previous period when last surveyed.

Replies to December’s letter have included responses and acknowledgements from the Bedfordshire PCC John Tizard, the Hertfordshire PCC Jonathan Ash-Edwards, West Midlands PCC Simon Foster, the PCC for Cambridgeshire Darryl Preston and from the offices of Warwickshire PCC, Philip Seccombe, Lancashire PCC Clive Grunshaw, Dorset PCC David Sidwick, as well as Jo Coles, Deputy Mayor of Police, Fire & Crime, in York and North Yorkshire.

Mr. Ash-Edwards wrote: “I am always keen to hear the experiences and ideas of independent retailers and so I would welcome any opportunity to attend a meeting of your local members.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Darryl Preston wrote: “I recognise that independent retailers play an essential role in the social and economic fabric of our communities, and that increasing levels of retail crime threaten their overall stability and wellbeing. Incidents of shoplifting, abuse, intimidation, threatening behaviour, harassment and violence against retail workers are totally unacceptable.”

On 15th December, the Fed’s National President met with the Crime and Policing Minister Sarah Jones MP at the Home Office and they discussed a number of the points raised in the letter and engagement with constabularies across the UK. the Fed hopes to work closely with all branches of law enforcement – including representatives from the Police, local authority trading standards teams and the Home Office – in the new year.