Sunny Kaushal: Retail Crime Advisory Group Chair on the new Police directive for shoplifting

Retailers are seeking clarity on a Police directive on shoplifting. 

RNZ reports police staff have been told to not investigate allegations of theft below $500.  

Police may not take further action if the reports don't have enough evidence, such as CCTV. 

Chair of the Ministry of Justice's Retail Crime Advisory Group Sunny Kaushal told Mike Hosking retailers are concerned. 

He says similar policies have already failed in America and the UK, where gangs of shoplifters exploit them to make illegal gains without consequences.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So strange, possibly confusing messages coming from the police have
a retail crime. There's a directive to police staff that
tells them they will no longer be investigating shoplifting if
it's less than five hundred bucks. The retailers, upon hearing that,
want of word, of course with the Minister. Our Sunday
Kirschel is the chairperson of the Ministry of Justices Retail
Crime Group and is with a sunny.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Morning, very good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Do you know what's going on? Have you got clarity
on this or not?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
See this police infection was a bolt out of the
blue and retailers would be concerned by this, and I'm
looking to get clarity on this matter from the Police
indist and the Police Commissioner. You know, these policies have
already failed in America and the UK, where gangs of
shoplifters exploit similar policies to make illegal gains without consequences.

(00:47):
So I want the police to clarify their position. If
they have set limits as suggested in the news reports,
we will be advocating strongly that these are immediately removed
and a police adopted zero tool approach to retail crime.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
This sort of goes against if it's true, this goes
against what you're working towards, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
That's very true. You know, we thought we are making
a huge progress and these kind of instructions hinder the
work that we're doing. You know, getting on top of
the problems require the government adopter zero a tolerant response,
and the best deterrence for retail crime is having criminals
not they will be caught and face consequences for the crimes,

(01:30):
but giving them a free pass due to low thirshold
will involved in criminals and increase retail crime exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Well, I just wonder what has been articulated is what
they do anyway, and it just happens to have leaked out.
In other words, if you report something worth a couple
hundred bucks, you kind of know they're not going to
look at it, don't you, rightly or wrongly?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Mike. We need to learn lessons. You know. Even in
the UK they have gone in the totally opposite direction
with a bill in the House of Commons right now
that would repeal low value shifting. Shoplifting defined as two
hundred pounds or less, which is biscally five hundred. New
Zealand a House of Lord's committee last November described this

(02:14):
as a tribalizing theft, and the UK government responded in
February doing what we thought police did here to treat
theft as theft. To be fair to the Police Commissioner
Richard Chambers, this smacks of policy by consent and that
is not his approach.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
All right, Well, we'll stay on top of this and
see where we go. Sunny Kerschel, who's with the He's Chafferson,
the Ministry of Justice Retail Crime Group. I was told
this morning that we went to Mitchell and Mitchell quote
unquote is no longer doing interviews on the subject, which
I thought was ironic because I hadn't heard him interviewed
at all on the subject. But he will be presenting
himself tomorrow on this program. For more from the Mic

(02:53):
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