John MacDonald: Have we lost the retail crime battle?

“Don’t sweat the small stuff.” 

That’s the message cops have been given about shoplifting.   

And the powers-that-be can say as much as they like about their memo to staff about only bothering with shoplifting worth more than $500 not being worded as well as it could have been, but the message is very clear. You steal stuff worth less than $500 and you’re going to get off scot-free.  

If I was a retailer, I’d be really brassed off. I’d be brassed off with the cops and I’d be brassed off with the Police Minister, who is no longer doing interviews about retail crime, apparently.  

This is the guy who made a career out of sending off media releases every time there was a ram raid. This is the guy who promised the crims would be scared of him and his coalition government, because the free ride for crims was about to end.  

This is the Mark Mitchell who said this two years ago, when he was in Opposition: 

“While retail crime incidents have more than doubled since 2018, fewer offenders are being held accountable for their actions. Despite an enormous spike in retail offending under Labour, the number of convictions for this type of offending have decreased.  

“Staggeringly, this drop in convictions coincides with skyrocketing incidents of retail crime. Offenders are simply not being held to account by a Labour government which has been nothing except soft on crime.”  

So if I was a retailer, I’d be angry. I’d also be very worried. In fact, even if I worked in retail —not necessarily owned a shop, but worked in a shop on the daily— I’d be worried.  

Because I’d know that even if I saw someone nicking stuff and I called them out on it, they’d just tell me to go to hell. “What’re you gonna do? Call the cops?”  

Sunny Kaushal, who used to run the Dairy & Business Owners Group and now chairs the Government’s advisory group on retail crime, says other countries have taken this approach and it’s gone very badly.  

Quite rightly, he says that it “emboldens” criminals. Makes them even more brazen, because they know nothing’s going to happen.  

Which is why —if I was someone who likes to go into shops and help myself to stuff— I’d be very happy. Because the police writing this stuff down and it getting out means retail criminals have a licence to do what they want.  

They can go into your local supermarket and walk out the door with $490 worth of groceries. You picture $490 worth of groceries in a trolley at Pak n Save and someone walking out the door without paying, knowing the police won’t be coming anytime soon. Pretty much flipping the bird at anyone who tries to stop them.  

Now I’m realistic and I know, just like you do, that the chance of the police turning up is less likely than it used to be.  

And yes, they’ve probably always had a cut-off point where they decide something’s too small fry to investigate.  

Which is fine, but, making it an explicit instruction or suggestion not to investigate unless the stuff nicked is worth more than $500, is a major cock-up by the police.  

And I don’t know if there’s any coming back from it.  

Because, even if the Police Minister showed some fortitude and told the police to ditch this approach to retail crime, we know that even then the likelihood of the police getting involved in this lower-level retail crime would be pretty low. Because they just don’t have the resources. 

Which tells me that, despite tough talking from politicians, the battle against retail crime is a losing battle. And if it’s not a losing battle, it’s a battle we’ve already lost.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Morning's podcast with John McDonald
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
That'd be sweat the small stuff. Don't sweat the small stuff.
That's the message cops have been given about shoplifting. And
you know, the powers that be they can say as
much as I like about their memo to staff telling
them money to bother with shoplifting worth more than five
hundred bucks. You know, they can bang on about the

(00:32):
wording of it, the wording could have been better. You know,
they can say all they want about the wording being
the problem, but the message is the problem, and the
message is very clear. You steal stuff worth less than
five hundred bucks and you're going to get off scot free.
If I was a retailer this morning, I would be

(00:52):
really brassed off. I'd be brassed off with the cops,
but I'd also be brassed off with the police minister,
who is no longer doing interviews about retail crime. Apparently,
this is the guy who made the career out of
sending off media releases every time there was a ram ray,
didn't he This is the guy who promised the crims

(01:13):
would be scared of him and his coalition government mates
because the free ride for criminals was about to end.
This is the Mark Mitchell who said this two years
ago when he was in opposition. Quote. This is Mark Mitchell. Quote.
While retail crime incidents have more than doubled since twenty eighteen,

(01:34):
fewer offenders are being held accountable for their actions. He said,
despite an enormous spike in retail offending under Labor, the
number of convictions for this type of offending have decreased,
Mark Mitchell said two years ago. Staggeringly, this drop in
convictions coincides with skyrocketing incidents of retail crime. Offenders are

(01:59):
simply not being held to account by a Labor government
which has been nothing except soft on crime. And he
winds up his statement where he wound up a statement
two years ago saying immedst and unpresced into crime way
of New Zealand, Labour's focus has been reducing the prison
population rather than keeping key we safe and making sure

(02:20):
that criminals face consequences for their actions. End of quote.
So if I was a retailer, I'd be very angry.
I'd also be very worried. In fact, even if even
if I worked in retail, not necessarily the owner of
a shop. But if I worked in a shop on
the daily, I'd be worried because I would know that

(02:41):
even if I saw someone nicking stuff and I called
them out on it, they just tell me to go
to hell. What are you going to do? Call the cops?
Because as Sunny Koshal, who used to run the Dairy
and Business Owners Group and who now chairs the government's
Advisory Group on Retail crime, as he was saying to
Mike this morning, other countries have taken this approach and
it has gone very badly and quite right, he says

(03:04):
that it emboldens criminals, makes them even more brazen because
they know that nothing's going to happen. It's that whole thing,
What are you going to do? Call the cops? Walk
out the door smiling with the stuff, Which is why
if I was someone who likes to go into shops
and help myself to stuff, I would be delighted. This
morning there was the police, you know, writing this stuff

(03:26):
down and getting out. It means that retail crims have
a license to do what they want. They can go
into your local supermarket and walk out the door with
four hundred and ninety dollars worth of groceries. You picture
four hundred ninety dollars worth of groceries in a trolley
at pack and Save still get a bit of stuff
for that amount of money, and you picture them walking

(03:47):
out the door without paying, knowing the police won't be
coming anytime soon, and pretty much flipping the bird at
anyone who tries to stop them. Now, look, I'm realistic
and I know just like you do, that the chance
of the police turning up is less likely than it
used to be for any sort of crime. And yes,
they've probably always had some sort of off point where
they decide something's too small prior to investigate, which is fine,

(04:11):
but making it an explicit instruction or a suggestion not
to investigate unless the stuff nick is worth more than
five hundred bucks, that is a there's no other way
to describe it, but a major cock up by the police.
And I don't know if there's any coming back from it,
because even if the police minister showed some fortitude and

(04:33):
told the police to ditch this approach, we know, don't
we that even then the likelihood of the police getting
involved in this lower level retail crime would be pretty
low because they just don't have the resources, which tells
me that despite tough talking from politicians, the battle against
retail crime is a losing battle. And it was not

(04:54):
a losing battle, it's a battle that we've already lost.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
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