It's according to Thames Valley Police's police and crime commissioner.
Matthew Barber has been celebrating the success of Disc, a free system available retailers in the Thames Valley.
He says it's one of the reasons Thames Valley Police have managed to "significantly increase" the number of arrests and charges for shoplifting.
Disc is described as a crime information-sharing system which allows businesses to be aware of criminal activity in their communities, view galleries of offenders, submit reports of incidents and act as an alternative to 101 for reporting non-emergency crimes.
It was launched in May 2024, and as of May last year 1563 businesses had signed up.
Matthew Barber says it's resulting in more retail crime reporting and more information being passed to police.
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