POLICE and businesses are uniting to tackle retail crime across Cleveland.

The Cleveland Retail Crime Consultation Group meeting was organised as an opportunity for retailers and partners to discuss issues they face and to try to find solutions.

National and regional loss prevention and security managers, shopping centre and retail park managers and local business crime co-ordinators have also been invited to attend.

Volume Crime Chief Inspector Chris Downes, said: “In Cleveland we have been working closely with our partners in retail in order to tackle the issue of retail crime and to try to reduce the number of incidents.

“Officers and police community support officers are as visible as possible in and around shopping areas in an effort to deter potential criminals. We visit retailers regularly to build up an intelligence picture and to get an idea of who the prolific criminals are, the nature of the incidents and how we can assist in preventing the crimes from happening. We have also created a ‘Prevent & Deter’ document which is available to advise retailers.

“The forum will help us to get a better picture of the issues that our retailers are facing and will help us to address those problems.”

Barry Coppinger, Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland, said: “Shoplifting is often dismissed as a victimless crime, which it isn’t. Retail crime affects trades and could cause massive financial strain on small local businesses.

“I will be listening to the feedback from the retailers and hope that the forum is another step in the right direction to positively tackling retail crime.”