'Unacceptable' attacks on retail staff triple as police chief offers support
The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner has warned against the unacceptable violence against shop workers.
The move follows the publication of figures showing that attacks on retail staff tripled between the period April 2020 to March 2021 with 1,300 incidents reported every single day compared to 455 per day in the previous year.
Responding to the figures from the British Retail Consortium, the commissioner Simon Foster he was supportive of tougher sentences for perpetrators of violence against shop workers.
Mr Foster said: “I want to offer my unconditional support for retail workers who have or are experiencing abuse and violence in the workplace. Retail staff should be thanked and heralded for being front line workers who provide a necessary service to people every day.
“For them to be targeted like this is never acceptable. My Police and Crime Plan sets out my pledge to rebuild community policing to keep people, their families, retail workers and the local community safe and secure.
“I will also continue to lobby government for fair funding to level up policing in the West Midlands and replace our 1,000 missing officers.”
He added: “However, my starting point will always be prevention, because the prevention of violence towards shop workers is always better than having to deal with the consequences of violence towards shop workers.
“A key example of this is the offender to rehab programme, which diverts prolific shoplifters, who steal to finance an alcohol or drug addiction, into abstinence based recovery.”
Mr Foster said he and his team had been meeting with retailers to address some of the issues and that businesses spent £715 million on crime prevention in 2020/21 including equipment, security teams and staff training.
The commission said that throughout the pandemic retailers worked tirelessly to ensure food and goods were available. And that alongside NHS and care workers they were applauded by the government for their hard work.
It added that during the lockdown periods staff were met with an unacceptable level of abuse and violence taking an emotional toll on workers and their families.
