SLR speaks to Inspector Emma Wright of the Retail Crime Taskforce about how how Police Scotland is making meaningful progress in the battle against retail crime.
Last year, the Scottish Government finally took meaningful action against the retail crime epidemic that has been affecting our industry, allocating £3m to tackle shoplifting and abuse against shopworkers. Police Scotland’s Retail Crime Taskforce was established in April 2025 with a clear strategy, explains Inspector Emma Wright.
“When we started out, we had a baseline that over a third of all shoplifting offences were committed by just 4% of offenders,” says Wright. “We’ve been working hard to target those high-harm recidivist offenders so that we make sure that we have the most impact for retailers.”
In its first year, the Taskforce made:
- Over 5,760 shoplifting charges and detections
- 648 retail worker offence charges
- 1,330 arrests
The Scottish Government has now committed to providing a further £9m over three years to fund the Taskforce until March 2029.
Wright talks us through its multi-strand approach to combatting retail crime using the four Ps – prevent, pursue, protect, prepare – and what the Taskforce will focus on going forward.
Online reporting progress
Up until recently, reporting retail crime by calling 101 had frequently been a time-consuming and disheartening ordeal.
“We’ve had a lot of feedback from retailers that 101 can be frustrating,” concedes Wright. “It can take too much time away from the shop floor and sometimes they haven’t bothered to report.”
However, an online reporting tool for shop theft, which removes the need to use 101, is transforming the reporting process. Following a successful pilot, the tool went live for all retailers in mid-March. More than 8,582 reports of shoplifting were made via online reporting between 1 January and 31 May, accounting for a third (33.9%) of all shoplifting crimes recorded.
“That’s relating to over £830,000 of goods stolen,” says Wright. “The uptake of online reporting has been really good and as its use increases, we’ve seen a reduction in the use of the other reporting methods. Obviously, that gives us efficiencies. It allows call handlers to deal with calls that are the highest threat, harm and risk on the 101 system. And it saves time for retailers.”
- Report a shop theft on the Police Scotland website
Third-party partnerships
The online form is only the beginning for digital reporting – the next stage is extending reporting capabilities to third-party suppliers.
“The online reporting is the first step but we know that a dedicated platform is what some retailers want to see introduced,” says Wright. “We’re working with third-party suppliers, such as SentrySIS, Retail AI and Aura, on building the platform. Work is ongoing to address any technical limitations, just so that we can ensure that that product is user friendly and it meets the needs of retailers and Police Scotland.”
Making it easier to share CCTV
Digital Evidence Sharing Capability, known as DESC, completed rollout across all Police Scotland divisions in September 2025.
“When using the online reporting form, retailers will be shared a DESC link and then they use that to send CCTV footage direct to our system,” says Wright.
This saves time by eliminating the need to provide footage physically via USB sticks or discs and significantly reduces the risk of footage being lost before it can be secured.
“It allows us to have the CCTV evidence at the time of the first hearing at court, which can really speed up the criminal justice process.”
Faster court resolutions
The Summary Case Management (SCM) initiative was rolled out to all Sheriff Courts in Scotland earlier this year, requiring the police to submit key evidence in shoplifting cases to the Crown at the time of reporting. That key evidence will be disclosed early to the defence with a view to achieving a swifter resolution.
“It doesn’t just save us time, because that evidence is there up front, it allows for discussions at the court there and then to either resolve a case, perhaps at the first hearing, or resolve it very soon afterwards, which reduces the amount of witnesses called from retail to go to court,” states Wright. “So it reduces police officers needing to go as witnesses, but it also reduces the time and impact on retailers who might get called to court as a witness.”
Local policing initiatives
All 13 of Scotland’s local policing divisions submitted bids to get Retail Crime Taskforce funding in its first year.
“We’ve had over 80 different bids that have been approved and all have undertaken initiatives that work with local retailers to improve engagement and reduce retail crime,” says Wright.
Initiatives include high-visibility and plain-clothes police patrols, the provision of posters and leaflets, and local radio schemes such as the Shopwatch scheme in Edinburgh.
“Essential Edinburgh funded the majority of that project, but we were able to provide some additional funding for additional radio sets and pieces of equipment like earpieces to help,” says Wright. “Retailers really feel that it not only increased their safety, but it has increased shopper safety too and retailers feel like they have a network. That’s been really positive and we’ve seen that expanding from Edinburgh into areas in Leith as well.”
Banning offenders from shops
Where appropriate, officers will seek a preventative order for high-harm offenders.
“We’ve got orders called post-conviction ASBOs, which can be applied on conviction for a retail crime offence that involves anti-social behaviour,” explains Wright. “They’re really useful where an offender may get a non-custodial sentence or a short custodial sentence. They can be imposed for a period of time and that period is open-ended in terms of what can be applied by the courts. It can prevent the offender from going back and re-victimising the stores that they’ve targeted previously. Then if they breach that order, they would be liable for arrest and it’s imprisonable.”
The Taskforce has already secured a three-year post-conviction ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order) in respect of a male who had been targeting businesses in the northwest of Edinburgh. The shop ban will kick in after he has served a 14-month custodial sentence.
The Taskforce has also been raising awareness of ASBOs with colleagues in the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
“We’ve been making them aware that it’s an option they’ve got to strengthen their sentencing options,” she says.
Raising victim impact awareness
The team has also been highlighting the effect of shoplifting on shopworkers’ mental health to argue the need for ASBOs.
“Shop theft isn’t just a victimless crime where the shopkeeper is losing financially, it causes fear and anxiety in the shop workers when a repeat offender comes in,” says Wright. “Showing the impact has allowed us to get the orders in these cases. Where we have used them, we’ve seen a real difference.”
Raising awareness of the devastating impact of retail crime goes far beyond the courts. The Taskforce has been providing advice on conflict resolution and staff safety, while issuing posters to be displayed in store stating that offences against staff will not be tolerated and that retailers are working with the police.
The Taskforce has also worked with other groups, including Crimestoppers, trade union Usdaw, the National Business Crime Centre, the Scottish Retail Consortium and the Scottish Grocers’ Federation to spread the word.
“We’ve been involved in all of their campaigns to support awareness about retail worker offences and push that behaviour change messaging amongst offenders and the community that it’s not victimless.”
Education and diversion initiatives
Victim impact awareness is also being used in educational and diversion programmes supported by the Taskforce to reduce offending.
As an example, Wright points to a scheme called Supporting Opportunities for Life (SOL), which works with young offenders and those at risk of offending in Lothian and Borders. Through a restorative justice approach, young people attend meetings alongside shopworkers to understand the real impact of retail crime. They are also paired with peer mentors — for example, ex-offenders — who draw on personal experience to communicate consequences in a relatable and impactful way.
“We’ve been able to expand their funding, and we’ll also be looking at carrying on that education piece around behaviour change in year two with a particular focus around offending by young people,” says Wright.
Resale market crackdown plans
Over the coming months, the Taskforce is also planning to increase its focus on the resale market, where stolen goods are being sold on.
“We have had increased information about that in year one and we’ve been able to act on it,” says Wright. “We’ve been able to work with Trading Standards and we’ve been able to undertake warrants activity and go out and seize suspected stolen goods that are being resold. But we need more information about that.”
She hopes that working more closely with retailers will help unlock further intelligence.
“What we are finding is quite often shop staff or small retailers who are being targeted know where their goods are being sold on. So we need that information to get fed in so that we can start to target those markets because if there isn’t a resale market, people won’t steal the goods.”
Work with the force
There are lots of different ways retailers can share intelligence with the Taskforce, including talking to the police directly or via the dedicated Taskforce email address.
“We’ve seen intelligence submissions increasing as a result of the work that we’re doing locally with the Taskforce,” says Wright. “If people don’t feel confident reporting directly to the police, Crimestoppers is another option to report information anonymously and that will filter through to us.
“In some areas, retailers are signed up to [crime partnerships, such as] Retailers Against Crime, so that’s another way that information can be shared. We can join up the intelligence, link together cases and identify offenders.”
- Contact the Taskforce directly on: SCDRetailCrimeTaskForce@scotland.police.uk
- Call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or report an incident via its website
Have your say
The Taskforce wants SLR readers to join its new quarterly Teams forum for small, independent retailers. Information exchanged in the forums can prove crucial.
“Sometimes the people that we know are causing the most harm may not be the same as those people that are causing the retailers the most harm,” says Wright. “It may be that that person hadn’t been identified yet or the crimes hadn’t been reported into police, so we don’t actually know the volume of what’s occurring and we can then tailor our response to the people that are affecting the retailers the most.”
The next meeting is at 11am on 19 August.
- Contact: SCDRetailCrimeTaskForcePrevent@Scotland.police.uk for a link to the forum.
Growing trust
While there’s clearly still plenty of work to be done, there are positive signs that Scottish retailers are beginning to have more faith in the police.
In the 2024/2025 Scottish Grocers’ Federation Crime Report, almost half (48.2%) of retailers said that they were not likely to report to the police. In 2025/2026, this figure has fallen to just 10.9%.
“We know that confidence in the police response is improving,” says Wright. “Coupled with making reporting easier, this is leading to an increase in reports and that’s what we are seeing.”
At the end of May, year-to-date figures show the number of shoplifting crimes recorded had increased 26.8%, equating to around 183 crimes per day (up from 146 crimes per day last year).
“The increase that we’re getting now is perhaps not reflective of a huge increase in offences,” says Wright. “It’s perhaps the industry data and the police data coming together and meeting. So we’re getting a more accurate picture of what’s happening. We don’t doubt that there is some increase still, but certainly some of that is about the reporting and confidence picture.”
Keep the faith
Wright is keen to acknowledge the support retailers have given the Taskforce so far.
“We know that prior to the Taskforce being formed, the picture was increased offences, a loss of confidence, and people feeling that nothing was being done about retail crime,” says Wright. “I would say a huge thank you to retailers. We’ve had a bit of a hill to climb in gaining that trust and confidence, but retailers have embraced it and they have come on board, so we just need to keep doing more of that.”
