Opinion: Retail crime is a city killer, but technology can help us take back our high streets

By Auror Senior Director of Trust & Safety Nick McDonnell

Nick is the head of Trust and Safety at Auror, the global leader in retail crime intelligence. Auror helps retailers record instances of crime and anti-social behaviour in their stores in a structured and privacy-enhancing way, linking previously isolated events to repeat offenders. Its digital platform allows retailers to securely share relevant information with police, and is used in more than 48,000 retail stores and in 3000 law enforcement agencies across the UK, North America, Australia and New Zealand.

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Retail crime has become a scourge on communities, stripping the vibrancy from our high streets and making the places we gather to shop and socialise less safe.

In the UK, it’s reached unprecedented levels. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics recently confirmed that retail crime has reached its highest levels since comparable records began.

Retailer data entered into Auror is confronting and shows the harm is being driven by organised and repeat offenders. In fact, in the UK, we know 70 per cent of retail crime is committed by just 10 per cent of offenders - one in every 10 events are violent, driven by those repeat offenders, who are more than four times more likely to be violent. 

In all our work around the world, the leadership we are seeing from the government and police in the UK with crime-fighting initiatives like the Tackling Retail Crime Together strategy and Safer Streets mission has been world-leading. 

But to truly deliver on their promise, we must empower police and retailers to work together by arming them with the right tools.

As a society, we must find and implement the right tools to reduce this high volume crime type. Public safety is a shared responsibility and the violence, aggression and threats from prolific offenders directed towards frontline retail workers is taking an immeasurable toll.

The question is; how do we find these repeat offenders in order to make these initiatives successful? The answer lies in information and collaboration. 

For too long, retailers have relied on outdated methods - spreadsheets, USB sticks, insecure emails, even public ‘walls of shame’ to record incidents. These fragmented systems allow repeat offenders to slip through the cracks and thrive in anonymity.

Information is power and bringing information together in the right way at the right time can make our shops and communities safer. Technology can make this possible.

Offenders are not brand, or county, or city loyal. Through their use of Auror, retailers have digitised and simplified the way they collect information about crime. This information becomes intelligence and allows them to connect the dots, linking what were once thought of as isolated offences, to the repeat offenders and organised crime groups responsible for the highest levels of harm on our streets. 

This community driven information will be core of effective police intervention in violent, organised retail crime.

Police officers are stretched around the world. They are asked to be everything from social workers to mental health responders. Recruitment for policing is also tough, so this is all the more reason to give our police the right tools and information to make them as efficient and effective as possible. 

In New Zealand, through the use of tech like Auror, police gained the equivalent of 450 frontline officers’ time in just one year. Recent data from one UK police force showed using Auror’s technology increased charge rates by half. These statistics show the power of smart collaboration and the digitisation of high-volume, labour intensive tasks, like retail crime evidence gathering.

It is incumbent on us all to assist police to be as effective and efficient as possible, especially when dealing with high volume crime. The right information, at the right time, focuses precious resources, freeing up police from time consuming administrative tasks, helping them to find those repeat offenders, while also providing retailers the tools they need to better protect their colleagues.

In 2025, we need to look to the modern tools to combat the modern, post-covid exponential rise of retail crime. By using the technology already at our fingertips, working together to deliver actionable information, law enforcement can effectively hold violent repeat offenders to account - making us all safer.

Retail crime is a threat to the fabric of our towns and cities. Let’s treat it as such, and let’s use the responsible, fit-for-purpose tools at our disposal to fight back.