Business Crime Reduction Partnership launched in Solihull

Hosted by Solihull BID, the first official gathering of the Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) provided an opportunity for interested parties to come together, discuss the problems associated with business crime and set out a plan for how they could work collectively to address these issues.

We acknowledged the negative economic and social impact of business crime, particularly shop thefts and other offences among the town’s high proportion of retailers, and Solihull LPA Superintendent Michelle Davies provided an overview of the work we’re doing to deal with the problem. She highlighted that thanks to the efforts of our dedicated business crime team, court outcomes for business-related crimes have gone up from 25% to 60% over the last year. But Superintendent Davies added that while we’ll always investigate crimes where we can and use tools such as exclusion orders and other deterrents, we also need to look at the nature of these offences and the people committing them.

Educational initiatives and rehabilitation programmes can play their part in tackling the problem, so we need a joined-up approach, and we should also be open-minded about how we achieve long-term solutions.  

BCRP Neighbourhood Policing Supervisor, Sergeant Kev Vince, also presented revealing figures about the extent to which business crime goes unreported and the high number of female workers within the retail sector, both of which inform our policing approach.

Sergeant Vince said: “We know that offences like theft, fraud, and abuse and assault of staff members are a blight on our business community, so we want to hear about them. We’re here to help and it’s through cooperation and communication with businesses that we can build up a picture of what the main issues are and how can work together to tackle them.

“A lot of business-related crime links to our wider work dealing with antisocial behaviour and harassment and preventing violence against women and girls, so it’s absolutely a priority for us.  We want our town centre to be a safe and welcoming place where businesses thrive so it’s great to be involved in this partnership to achieve these aims.”