Charges for shoplifting offences in the Thames Valley Police area have risen by 98 per cent in the space of a year.
A total of 1,691 charges for such offences were made between April 1 and October 13, 2024, compared to 852 during the same period in the previous year.
Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Barber, welcomed the crackdown on shoplifting across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Milton Keynes.
He said: “I’m pleased to see real progress in tackling shoplifting with an increase of over 90 per cent in charges for shoplifting offences across the Thames Valley.”
Before the police boss’s re-election in May, he pledged to try and help the force tackle the rise in retail crime, which has been reported in several towns across Buckinghamshire as well as the country as a whole.
As part of efforts to tackle shoplifting, Barber, who controls the force’s budget, funded the rollout of Disc, an information-sharing and reporting platform and app for retailers.
The technology is designed to make it easier for shopkeepers to report and access information about crime such as shoplifting and anti-social behaviour.
Earlier this year, Barber also published a retail crime strategy to help reduce violence against shop workers, identify prolific offenders and improve investigations.
He said: “Combined with an increase in the visible presence of police officers and PCSOs in retail spaces through ‘Operation Purchase’, this operational focus on retail crime is clearly paying dividends.”
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