Report Summary
The Scottish Police Authority is hosting a series of knowledge exchange events over 2025/26, including webinars and in-person roundtables/conferences, covering a range of thematic and topical policing issues.
This is the Authority's second topical webinar held on 10th October 2025 on the theme of retail crime. This webinar looked at what we know about retail crime in terms of both current data trends and its strategic positioning within the partnership landscape. While the focus was primarily on Scotland, attendees also explored common academic research and retail crime themes across England and Wales.
Key Messages from the Webinar
A number of key messages and discussion points formed the overall focus of the webinar, summarised as follows:
Retail theft remains a significant issue across the UK, both in terms of organised gangs and opportunist offenders. Classes of offenders include:
Organised (networked and mobile),
Criminal Entrepreneurs (calculated, profit driven),
Prolific (local, typically underlying drug/alcohol addiction)
Opportunistic (amateurs)
There is a need to review how retail theft is described. In Scotland, it is currently labelled as “theft by shoplifting”, which makes it sound like a minor offence. However, the reality is that this type of crime is often organised and much broader in scale. Referring to it as “retail theft” would better reflect its seriousness, and the organised nature of many offenders, and the wider impact on businesses and communities.
Opportunities for national benchmarking were discussed including successful activities with;
National Police Chiefs Council – Operation Opal,
Metropolitan Police – Operation Kelleher,
Nottinghamshire Constabulary – Operation Motivation.
The current landscape in dealing with retail theft in Scotland is demanding. Attendees heard that:
48.2% retailers unlikely to report theft incidents to police,
96.6% - police response times to retail incidents are either unsatisfactory or significantly delayed.
One of the challenges described is the lack of direct reporting to Police Scotland, currently retailers have to call 101 and report. There was a strong opinion from attendees that further work is required in how these volume crimes are reported and enabled to ensure an accurate national picture of this problem profile.
Scottish Government has provided significant support to Police Scotland with £3 million allocated to the Retail Crime Task Force. Police Scotland have also allocated 24 dedicated Officers to the Task Force, who are available to deploy nationally to areas of greatest demand and provide support, investigations and national coordination of prevention activity.
This is not a single service issue, police and retailers remain committed and coordinated, and criminal justice are also engaged, 48% of crimes are committed by recidivous offenders, with 14% committed by young people under 18. There is a need to strengthen greater networks of criminal justice workflows to manage alternatives to prosecution and pathways out of addiction supported by educational packages to intervene at an earlier stage.