A former detective at the Metropolitan Police has taken aim at his own force for the latest shocking shoplifting statistics.
On Friday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley instructed local shops and businesses to roll up their own sleeves to tackle the rise in theft.
Sir Mark claimed security staff were working alongside gangs to help them steal from the high street, while others were said to refuse to give up CCTV footage of the alleged theft.
But, speaking on GB News, ex-detective Mike Neville blasted the force’s organisation, claiming that the current top chiefs are “allowing the system to fall apart”.
Mr Neville said: “My expertise is catching people with CCTV. And so I’ve got a lot of experience of dealing with the retailers. They’ve got a lot of grievances against the police.
“So straight away, you’ve got the fact that shoplifting is really out of control. There are 500,000 reported offences.
“There’s millions of offences because people only report shoplifting if they’ve caught the offender or the items stolen is so valuable, they’ve got a claim on insurance.
“But for most of it, they just let it go.”
Mike Neville criticised the London police force on the People’s Channel
|
GETTY/GB NEWS
He further claimed the retailers told him the police demanded CCTV evidence, which they later produced but the officers never collected.
During his time in the Metropolitan Police, he organised the system of handling CCTV, just as the officers handled fingerprints and DNA.
“So we knew how much we’d collected. How many of those images have been identified and how are those people? Had they been arrested and dealt with?
“But this system has been allowed to fall apart. There is no proper organisation around it,” he fumed.
LONDON CRIME WAVE – READ THE LATEST:
Mr Neville lambasted the force over its organisation of evidence
|
GETTY
He added: “I asked them in the Freedom of Information request, how many of the people identified from CCTV have been brought to justice?”
His request revealed nine per cent of shoplifters are convicted.
“The retailers will simply point to the Met and tell them they have got to do better,” Mr Neville forecast.
“‘Our job, we are paid to to sell things, make money. You were paid to enforce the law and you’re failing and your side of the bargain’,” he added.
In the year leading up to June, retail crime jumped by 13 per cent, amounting to 529,994 recorded offences, the Office for National Statistics revealed.
However, the British Retail Consortium suggested the figure was closer to 20million, which would mean three per cent of shoplifting incidents had been reported.
Consequently, Sir Mark insisted that retailers “need to step up more” to tackle the crime wave burdening Britain.
“The retail sector, a couple of years ago, was right to be cross with policing across the country,” he said, speaking to The Telegraph.
“But in London, over the last year or so, we’ve really doubled down on it. We’re making a lot of progress, but I need to challenge back now to the retail sector.
“They now need to do better.”