Phil Thomson: Auror CEO on the increase in retail crime, events with weapons

A silver-lining in otherwise bleak retail crime numbers. 

Data gathered by retail crime reporting software Auror shows the number of events with weapons in 2024 was 10% higher than 2023.  

It shows threatening and violent behaviour similarly increased.   

But Auror Chief Executive Phil Thomson says New Zealand's still doing better than some other countries.  

He told Mike Hosking the unfortunate part is that this is happening across every retail store, and it’s the frontline retail workers being threatened. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Interesting picture is emerging around retail crime. Speaking Mark Mitchell,
overall reported incidents are plateauing, but there is a fourteen
percent rise and threatening or intimidating behavior, and eleven percent
jump and serious and violent behavior. It's more brazen and organized.
Apparently this data comes to us from a raw I
hope I'm saying that right, the retail crime reporting software. Anyway,
the co founder and bosses Phil Thompson said, we'll find out,

(00:21):
Phil am I saying that right.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good morning, Mike. It's Aura Aura.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
As in the ring. Sure, yeah, yeah, the Aura Ring.
Haven't you got Anura ring? Everyone's got Anura.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Ring with Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, Now that what I've taken from your stats is
that this is the hard core. So, in other words,
all the opportunists, the people who just take their starlet
and smash it into a window, they've gone now because
the government's cracked down, what's left of the hard core?
Is that fair or not?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, that's right. We're seeing you repeat affenders are still
causing the majority of crime and retail stores, and those
people are four times more likely to be violent or
aggressive in carrying out those offenses as well. So it's
concerning because this is our frontline retail workers who are
being abused and threatened with weapons day and day out.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
What's your breakdown in terms if you've got one in
terms of industry, geographic location, that you've got any patterns
there or not.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Unfortunately, it's right across every retail store. You know, this
is just what our retail workers have to deal with
every day. And now we're talking about our kids, families
and friends who are actually working in these stores. It's
not the faithless supermarket giants or retail conglomerates. It's actually
our frontline retail workers who are being threatened with weapons.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Are we in a sort of a stuck position now
because part of the answer was you know, you'd have
an alarm or you have a body cam or whatever
the case may be. Are these the sort of people
with their knives and stuff that don't really care about
that stuff?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, retails and placed to doing a great job at
really focusing on those repeat defenders and retail crime generally.
But you're right, it's people who are using this now
to tactic to get out of stores. And you know,
one of the most recent examples, you know, someone when
they stop said I'm just going to reach into my
bag and pull out a knife, you know, and you
don't want that when you're dealing with that as a
security god, a retail worker. But you know, this is

(02:13):
a trend we're seeing globally as well around violence.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
I'm also assuming the police are rounding them up. And
the last time we had this major discussion post COVID
is of course, you know, the police resources were an issue,
and you know, rounding them up and doing something with
them judicially was an issue. Is Is it a small
number of people getting smaller or not?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, look, there is the highlights I suppose is that
retailers are capturing this information and reporting it through to
the police and so there are is action being taken.
And to your point, it is, you know a small
number of people who are doing this, but unfortunately they're
doing this as their full time job, often going store
to store and like I said, using violence now as

(02:53):
a tactic.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Okay, good on your film. Nice to talk to you,
appreciate it. Phil Thompson, who's aura and co founder. I
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