The initiative is organised by the National Business Crime Centre, which represents UK police forces, to work in partnership with the business community to tackle crimes against businesses. Crimes against business is becoming ever more sophisticated with increasing levels of complexity with organised criminality targeting businesses, threatening to undermine their existence.
At the heart of the action week is the #ShopKind campaign, which urges the public to be mindful of shopworkers’ essential role serving the public and emphasises that workers should be treated with respect, kindness, and gratitude.
Joint approach by Warwickshire partner agencies working in Community Safety has been taken to raise awareness of business crime.
Activities throughout the week include:
· Focus on prolific offenders;
· Raising awareness and tackle ASB in retail and licensed premises;
· Promote crime prevention to local businesses;
· ANPR operations and joint working with DVSA;
· High visibility patrols;
· Community engagement events in town centres.
Warwickshire Business Watch
Warwickshire Business Watch has been created in partnership between the Warwickshire County Council Community Safety Team, Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner and Warwickshire Police. Its main aim is to provide information and advice to businesses, helping them to protect themselves from becoming victims of crime.
This site contains many useful downloadable documents and links which will help protect your business from becoming a victim of crime. More information is available at www.warwickshirebusinesswatch.co.uk
Warwickshire Retail Crime Initiative
The Warwickshire Retail Crime Initiative Limited (WRCI) is a County wide Partnership approach to prevent and reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in retail and licensed business premises in Warwickshire with members in Leamington Spa, Warwick, Kenilworth, Stratford, Rugby, Atherstone, Nuneaton and Bedworth and villages in Warwickshire.
Administrators are working to bring businesses together to work in partnership with the Police, the Police and Crime Commissioner, Warwickshire County Council, District Councils, CCTV, BIDS, the National Association of Business Crime Partnerships and other national and local organisations to tackle crime and disorder in our business communities. This ranges from shoplifting to violence in licensed premises. Find out more about the scheme and sign up at www.wrci.org.uk.
How to report
When a business has been the victim of a crime, or suspect they have been a victim of crime, it is essential that this is reported to the police. This can be done online via Warwickshire Police website or by calling 101. In an emergency please dial 999.
If you have been a victim of Cyber Crime, please visit Action Fraud 24/7 Live Cyber Reporting for Businesses at www.actionfraud.police.uk.
There are many reasons why businesses may not report a crime, but there any even more reasons why they should. Sometimes businesses are reluctant to report a crime as they may think it isn’t serious enough, it feels like a waste of time and effort to report it, or they are concerned about damage to the reputation of their business and losing the confidence of customers or clients.
It is also important for police to understand what crime is impacting businesses in their areas, by reporting crime they can identify patterns and hotspot areas which can enable them to alert businesses of the threat so they can take preventative action both in terms of physical crime as well as cybercrime and fraud.