Police in Peterborough hold day of action to tackle retail crime

Cambridgeshire Police has held a day of action to support businesses in Peterborough city centre and to crack down on retail crime.

More than ten officers- both uniformed and plain-clothed- spent Thursday (March 21) patrolling the main streets of the city centre, engaging with residents, businesses and looking out for signs of crime.

While out on patrol with the officers, the Peterborough Telegraph witnessed officers offer advice to businesses, answer concerns from members of the public and even leap into action after a female member of staff at a store was assaulted during a shoplifting attempt.

The day of action if just one part of the force’s ongoing Operation Interstellar.

As part of this, police have been working to identify an offenders list to circulate to shops, visiting shops to offer crime prevention advice and to act to catch criminals.

Shops are also further equipped to protect themselves by communication with each other and report incidents through a system known as Disc.

As well as the officers employed by Cambridgeshire Police, Peterborough Business Improvement District (BID) also employs its own officer with the aim of reducing shoplifting and other crimes in Peterborough city centre – to make it a more pleasant place to shop and work.

PC Jay Cullimore said: “The importance of the operation is to be both proactive and reactive.

“Proactive in terms of working with high risk shops, offering advice and flagging in suspected offenders as well as being reactive to identify someone quickly after an incident take place.

"The most important thing for us is that people report crimes to us so we can take action.

"Days like this are really important when we flood the streets with cops. We are very lucky to have nice shops and a busy shopping centre in Peterborough.

“We want to keep the momentum of this operation going to get more crimes reported, learn where the shops that are targeted most are- these tend to be shops poor lighting and a more dense layout- to solve these issues and leave a legacy on the city centre.”

Pep Cipriano, Business Improvement Manager for Peterborough Positive (Peterborough’s BID) said: “One of the big things this has done is improve communication between when a crime has taken place and what happens at the police station.

"Jay is the eyes and ears of the police in the city centre. He’s made some really good relationships with businesses. It’s nice for the team to know that there is someone to call on immediately if there is a problem.