Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Government needs to get out of the retailers' way

I totally understand that retailers want an urgent meeting with the Police Minister.

This is over the revelation that police aren't bothering to investigate shoplifting below $500 bucks anymore.

They're clearly worried, because what's happened is there's been a revelation from a memo that was sent to police staff a couple of months ago, saying that from now on, across all districts, cops will no longer investigate theft and fraud below a certain value.

General theft - anything below $200, not investigating. Petrol drive-offs - anything below $150, not investigating. Shoplifting - anything below $500, not investigating. 

Fraud - as in paywave fraud, online fraud, scams, anything below $1000 and then all other fraud - anything below $500, cops aren't turning up.

And that is, by the way, regardless of whether you have lines of inquiry. So even if you know who nicked the stuff, even if you can tell them where the stuff is, they're not going to investigate.

Now, it's totally understandable for retailers to want an urgent meeting on this, because this has probably come as something of a shock.

But also, this is the reality, isn't it? There are not enough police to deal with all the crime in the country. We know that.

It's not really even a total surprise when you think about how many stories you've heard about people who go to the police, tell the police exactly where the bike is, where the police can go and find it because it's been nicked, and the police won't go and get it.

But, this is gonna be a problem, isn't it?

When the thieves start finding out about this stuff - cause they may be criminals, but they're not always stupid - they know what they can get away with scot-free.

And that is why so many of them just ended up brazenly pushing those loaded trolleys out of the supermarkets for a while there, cause they knew nothing was gonna happen to them. I suspect the same thing is gonna happen once they figure out what the thresholds are here.

And if this is the reality that we now live in, then I think the only solution to this is for the Government to get out of the way of retailers helping themselves. 

They need to let the supermarkets use that facial recognition technology they want to use, so they can stop people from coming in and committing the crime.

They need to pass the citizen's arrests law to allow the retailers and the security guards themselves to stop the criminals getting away with this stuff.

Because frankly, if the cops can't help - and clearly there aren't enough of them to help - then the retailers need the tools to be able to help themselves.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, look, I totally understand that retailers want an urgent
meeting with the police minister. This is over the revelation
that police aren't bothering to investigate shoplifting below five hundred
bucks anymore. They're clearly worried because what's happened is there's
been a revelation from a memo that was sent to
police staff a couple of months ago saying that from
now on across all districts, cops will no longer investigate

(00:21):
theft and fraud below a certain value. General theft anything
below two hundred bucks, are not investigating petrol drive offs,
anything below one hundred and fifty bucks, not investigating shoplifting
anything below five hundred bucks. Fraud as in payWave fraud,
online fraud scams anything below one thousand dollars, and then
all other fraud anything below five hundred bucks, cops aren't

(00:42):
turning up. And that is, by the way, regardless of
whether you have lines of inquiry, right, so, even if
you know who nicked the stuff, even if you can
tell them where the stuff, is not going to investigate. Now,
it's totally understandable for retailers to want an urgent meeting
on this because this has probably come as something of
a shock. So this is the reality, isn't it. There

(01:02):
are not enough police to deal with all the crime
in the country. We know that. It's not really even
a total surprise when you think about how many stories
you've heard about people who go to the police tell
the police exactly where the bike is, where the police
can go and find it because it's been nicked, and
the police won't go and get it. But this is
going to be a problem, isn't it when the thieves
start finding out about the stuff Because they may be criminals,

(01:24):
but they're not alway stupid. They know what they can
get away with scot free, and that is why so
many of them just ended up brazenly pushing those loaded
trolleys out of the supermarkets for a while there, because
they knew nothing was going to happen to them. I
suspect the same thing is going to happen once they
figure out what the thresholds are here. And if this
is the reality that we now live in, then I
think the only solution to this is for the government
to get out of the way of retailers helping themselves.

(01:46):
They need to let the supermarkets use that facial facial
recognition technology they want to use so they can stop
people from coming in and committing the crime. They need
to pass the citizens Arrest Law to allow the retailers
themselves in the security guards to stop the krim getting
away with this stuff, because frankly, if the cops can't help,
and clearly there aren't enough of them to help. If
the cops can't help, then the retailers need the tools

(02:09):
to be able to help themselves. For more from Hither
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