Source: Northamptonshire Police
Northamptonshire Business Crime Partnership (NBCP) works with Northamptonshire Police and the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (OPFCC) to prevent, disrupt and deter retail crime and anti-social behaviour in town centres and retail areas.
Thanks to this partnership, the Force has seen its detection rate for shop theft rise to 31 per cent, the fifth highest in the country, resulting in more offenders being charged and dealt with by the courts.
Now the NBCP is joining similar bodies across the UK for the first ever National Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) awareness week, which runs from March 17-23.
Supported by the National Business Crime Centre, the week will highlight the work done by BCRPs, which bring together business communities and statutory bodies including police forces and councils, to identify repeat offenders and coordinate action against them.
In Northamptonshire, the NBCP works hand in hand with the Force’s Retail Crime Team (RCT), employing two civilian evidence gatherers funded by the OPFCC to work alongside police officers to target prolific retail offenders.
By working with retailers in completing statements and uploading CCTV, the evidence gatherers have a vital role in ensuring offenders are charged and brought before the courts as quickly as possible.
Reflecting their successes, the RCT and NBCP were jointly given the Northamptonshire Police Team of the Year award in 2024.
The not-for-profit NBCP also runs all the retail crime initiatives across the country, with member businesses benefitting from an app called DISC which offers quick and easy reporting to police, alerts to help staff recognise prolific and violent offenders, and support to reduce and detect theft and increase staff and customer safety.
Neil Cowley, retail crime officer for the NBCP, said: “We’re joining this national awareness week to help spread the word about our work, and encourage businesses to become members so we can work together to reduce offending and bring retail criminals to justice.
“We’ve got some great tools to help retailers, from our civil exclusion scheme which bans offenders from all member stores, to security briefings to keep staff up to date with who is committing crime where, and live alerts on active offenders, so they can protect their stores in real time.
“Working together with retailers and the police, we make sure information is shared in both directions, which is having really positive results in driving up the charge rate for retail crime in Northamptonshire, and leading the way at a national level in tackling retail offending.
“Our message to any retailer who isn’t yet a member is to get in touch, so we can show you the benefits that working together can bring to your business.”
Chief Inspector James Willis, who leads Northamptonshire Police’s work tackling retail crime, added: “The NBCP is an invaluable partner, providing vital information to support our investigations as well as retailer feedback to help us continually improve our support to businesses and stores.
“Together, we are raising the Force’s detection rate and our reporting rate, reflecting greater public confidence in both the police and the NBCP, and making Northamptonshire as hostile as possible to retail offenders.”
Sophie Jordan, CEO of the National Association of Business Crime Partnerships, added: “Most towns and cities in the UK are supported by a local BCRP, yet their highly effective work to keep communities safe is widely unknown outside the immediate industry sector.