Huge crackdown on Portsmouth city centre shoplifting as retail staff reveal scale of thefts

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary police and crime commissioner Donna Jones joined Chief constable Scott Chilton - along with local police officers - and met with traders in Portsmouth city centre to discuss their efforts to tackle a spike in shoplifting incidents. The pair spoke to The News on Commercial Road, a hotbed of retail thefts.

A key part of the force’s Retail Crime Action Plan has involved the use of facial recognition technology, which it says has helped to target serial offenders.

Police and crime commissioner Donna Jones said: “Over the last few years, people have been reporting to the police - and to me as their police and crime commissioner - that there has been an increase in shoplifting, and of course this makes people in high streets feel unsafe in their local community.  My job as police and crime commissioner is to represent the public, and I’ve made it very clear that I will do everything in my power to tackle shoplifting and to make sure, for the chief constable, this is a priority for him and police officers across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. We're sending a very clear message to criminals, and also to organised crime gangs who are shoplifting to order, that you will be caught, you will be brought to justice and it's no longer going to be seen as a crime that police do not respond to.

“The police are rolling out facial recognition technology. What we know is that there are often a handful of people in places like Commercial Road in Portsmouth where there are criminals who are shoplifting daily - sometimes hourly, particularly drug addicts and alcoholics. The police know who they are, so actually by working with the retailers here, overlaying facial recognition technology into their CCTV, it helps the police to detect and bring people to justice very, very quickly.”

Jones added that the force can point people struggling with addiction and the cost of living crisis towards the help they need - but warned repeat offenders “we’re coming after you.” She also explained that police need to win back the confidence of local businesses in their ability to tackle shoplifting.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary chief constable Scott Chilton said: “I think we have all seen, post-Covid, that shoplifting has increased significantly. The public has been telling us that as well as our own recorded crime. What we have seen in the last year - which I am actually very pleased about - is a 40 per cent increase in reporting across the county. A number of months ago, I made changes to the way the force operates.

“We’ve got more dedicated beat officers in local communities working with businesses, I’ve put more officers into neighbourhood teams, and I’ve got more proactive and covert police officers out there targeting offenders. I know that we’ve got a lot of work to do. I know that many members of the public say ‘what’s the point in reporting it?’ Hopefully they are starting to see more offenders brought to justice, and they feel confident having a local beat officer talking to them, engaging with them, and knowing who these people are. When you look at the conviction rate as well, we have now increased the number of people who have been identified and brought to justice up 86 per cent in the last year.”

Rebecca Mudie, who works at River Island in Commercial Road, shared how the scourge of shoplifting impacts retail staff. She said that colleagues have been threatened both in and outside of the workplace by perpetrators and have felt often unsafe as a result.

Rebecca said: “They tend to come in in groups. They come in and they hit all of our handbags, all of our stock at the back. They will also come in and take whole fixtures out of the shop. They know that they can’t be touched. Once they’re outside of the shop, we can’t do anything about it once they’re outside the shop. It’s just horrendous. The police, in general, in Portsmouth are fantastic at dealing with the shoplifting going on in the centre at the moment. I think maybe more foot patrols [would help] and for the police to have more power when it comes to arresting repeat offenders and aggressive offenders as well - and just to be more present on the high street.”

Among the most heavily targeted shops in the city centre is Sainsbury’s local in Guildhall Walk which sees roughly five to ten shoplifters steal from the premises each day. Items such as meat, cheese, alcohol and coffee are most commonly taken by thieves.

Manager Daisy Potter said: “In the beginning it was very difficult, a lot of anxiety around coming to work - you don’t know what people have on them, whether they’re going to be aggressive shoplifters or just the type that will leave when you ask. Back in December, the police set up a PCSO unit in the city centre, which has really made a big impact in crime reduction and we as a store have liaised really well with them.”