Shoplifting cases continue to rise, figures show

Shoplifting from businesses across the West Midlands has increased in the past two years, according to the latest figures.

There were 55,271 business offences in the year ending in March, a rise of 2.6%, data presented to the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner's (PCC) Accountability and Governance Board showed.

A key factor identified for the rise was the continued increase in shoplifting nationally as well as regionally.

Across the West Midlands, recorded cases rose by 30.2%, with 31,620 offences in the 12 months to March, compared with 24,295 for the year up to March 2024

Despite this increase, there was an improvement in the proportion of shoplifting crimes having a positive outcome for victims, the report to the committee said.

In the year up to March, there were 9,511 positive outcomes recorded, a rate of 30%, 15.6% higher than the 12 months to March 2024.

The report said this "reflects targeted activity aimed at bringing more offenders to justice".

At the meeting, police bosses said there was increased confidence from business owners in reporting crimes to them.

Temporary assistant chief constable Andy Parsons said: "I think it's fair to say for a significant number of years the approach to shop-related crime was not on a similar par to other areas of crime investigated by West Midlands Police.

"We've taken significant steps to address that. That now features in terms of the number of arrests we're making for shop-related crime.

"We've definitely got more of a focus from a force perspective. We know there was a huge amount of under-reporting when it came to shop-related crime previously."

Parsons said increased confidence in the policing response was likely to generate an increase in reporting shoplifting offences.

He added that working with retailers was key as a large proportion of shop-related crime that was reported was committed by a small number of individuals.

"The individuals that commit that crime are often doing so, not for financial gain, but to fund an addiction of either drink or drugs," he said.

"We're in the process of where we are rolling out the offender-to-recovery programme across all seven local policing areas.

"That programme is targeted on tackling the cause of the offending rather than punishing the offender."

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