SOLIHULL businesses, voluntary groups and police joined forces for the launch of a new initiative to tackle crimes against businesses in the town centre.
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.
Solihull’s Local Policing Area Superintendent Michelle Davies provided an overview of the work West Midlands Police is 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 per cent to 60 per cent over the last year.
She added that while the force investigate crimes where it can and use tools such as exclusion orders and other deterrents.
A joined-up approach on educational initiatives and rehabilitation programmes were also highlighted as part of the solution to tackling the problem.
BCRP Neighbourhood Policing Supervisor, Sergeant Kev Vince, also presented 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 the 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.”
