Ann-Marie Johnson: Retail NZ Advocacy Manager on Police directed to not investigate shoplifting below $500

Retail NZ is calling for an urgent meeting with the police minister.

RNZ reports staff have been directed to not investigate shoplifting below $500 and online fraud below $1000. 

Police say they may not take look further into crime below the threshold and lacking evidence. 

Retail NZ Advocacy Manager Ann-Marie Johnson told Ryan Bridge they know officers aren't going to turn up at every small incident.

She says they just want to know Police are taking these crimes seriously and arresting where they can.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Retailing Z's calling for an urgent meeting with Mark Mitchell.
This after police were told to no longer investigate allegations
of shoplifting below five hundred bucks. The director was sent
out in March, it was leaked. Police say they will
continue to investigate reports if there are avenues of inquiry
to explore.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
And my team alone deal with one point twenty five million. Now,
that is ninety thousand senses every single month. Now, the
reality is we just can't get to that now.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
That was on drive last night. A Marie Johnson as
Retailing z manager of Advocacy, Advice and Commas. She's with
me now, An Marie, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
More Anna.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Have you got your meeting with Mitchell yet?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
We've certainly been in touch with his office in at
the moment where it's just trying to coordinate diaries.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Can you understand this because on the one hand they say,
even if there are lines of inquiry, we won't look
into this. If it's LEAs than five hundred bucks, then
you had them last night saying well if there's CCTV
and other evidence then maybe we will.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, lot, I think the police have clarified their position
and that's certainly helpful. You know, retailers know that police
aren't going to show up to this small, very minor
case of shop listing, but we certainly want to know
that they're taking these crimes seriously and that where they can,

(01:21):
they will be following up and resting. Often they're a
peat offenders, so we know who they are, and police
know who they are, so we want to particularly focus
on those people.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Retail crime's worth about two point six billion every year.
What's the average value of an item stolen? Do you
think would it be less than five hundred bucks?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Well, I don't know the average value, but it can be.
But you know a lot of things, a lot of
five hundred dollars items over time add up to a lot,
and so you know, it's kind of less the value
of the items and the more the impact that it
has on the retailers and their staff, and especially over time,

(02:05):
you know, coming to work every day not knowing what
you're going to be coming up against, and that's tough.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
And the worst part about all of this, of course,
is we're talking about it. It's in the news, and
if you are a criminal, you'll be going sweet, I
can it's so long as I don't leave any evidence,
Like we're a beanie and a hoodie. Then if it's
less than five hundred bucks, basically I'm off scot free.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Well, like I say, a lot of the time, we
know who they are, The police know who they are,
and from what police are saying now, they are going
to collect the information and use that to build up
a case. So we're certainly encouraging our members to keep
on reporting all crimes.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
And we need y do you think we need you know,
how we've got judges, but then we have jps. Do
you think we need an equivalent for the police for
low level crime?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (03:00):
You know, police are obviously busy. They've got murders and
things to solve. But if they had if they had
delegated powers to some you know, I don't know, some
older gentlemen who might be retired and looking for something
to do.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh, I think you're straying into very dangerous territory there, Ryan,
who you start talking about vigilante justice and that type
of thing, don't you.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Well, So, I don't know. I'm not saying they go
around shooting people, but maybe just maybe just investigating where
the police can't, because I mean, otherwise as you say,
two point six billion dollars, and I reckon most a
lot of thefts. And by the way, forty percent of
retailers don't even report the thefts. Most of those thefts
would be for less than five hundred dollars, so that

(03:44):
means that most retail crime probably wouldn't get either reported
or investigated.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Listen live to news talks. It'd be from five am weekdays,
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