Streamlined approach to help boost fight against retail crime in Salisbury
Businesses and Police will now work together from a single platform to share information
Steps are being taken to improve how retail crime is tackled in Salisbury, with a new app.
The platform, called Disc, is to be adopted by Police to allow them to access reported incidents and evidence from local businesses.
It's part of improved partnership working between the Force, Salisbury BID and high street shops.
Dan Collins, Ops Manager at the BID, told us it will help identify repeat offenders, but he insists arresting our way out of the problem isn't possible.
"By identifying our most prolific offenders, it means that, through our partnership working, we can actually find the best solution to actually deal with them," he said.
Mr Collins added that these offenders can often have complex issues and needs, such as drugs and alcohol, which lead to their offending.
He said: "We're very aware when it comes to business crime, you cannot just arrest your way out of the problem. You need to try and turn people into functioning members of society."
A boost for all involved
Neighbourhood's Inspector for Salisbury, Laura Elliott, said it will be a boost for her officers tackling the problem.
While she said it's enjoyable to see positive stats with low numbers, the Inspector admitted that doesn't mean policing is effective.
"If I don't know what's happening, I can't sent my team out," she said. "We're in a day and age of intel-led policing.
"People need to tell us and then we can solve the problem together."
Inspector Elliot is braced for report statistics to spike once the transition is made, but says the multi-agency approach will be a major step forward.
"It will streamline the CCTV, it will streamline statements, it will make evidence gathering more effective. So, that then becomes more appealing for businesses to report crimes because they're only going to one place," she said.
While businesses have already had access to the system, they've still needed to contact police through different avenues to pass on information or evidence.
Inspector Elliott believes streamlining that process will improve engagement: "Evidentially it's better for us, we're getting better engagement from shops and I think we'll get better results.
"We might see a spike in crime figures, that will be purely because the reporting has gone up, but that is a good thing. That means trust has been built."
Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip Wilkinson, says working together helps everyone.
The PCC said: "It is going to enable shopkeepers, retailers and the police to talk to one another without going through the long process of emailing a 101 and 999.
"We'll join everything up more effectively using this new app, because we cannot solve an issue unless the shopkeepers tell us what the problems are."