Police Scotland's Retail Crime Taskforce hold first full team meeting

Edinburgh Reporter

13 hours ago

Police Scotland's Retail Crime Taskforce held their first full team meeting at an event in Dalmarnock today.
The Taskforce was officially launched in April this year, following a £3 million funding allocation from the Scottish Government and since then Taskforce officers have been supporting local policing colleagues in various parts of the country to gather intelligence, conduct enforcement activity, and engage with retailers to enhance security and crime prevention measures in place.
Following the recent appointments of Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Knight and Inspector Emma Wright to the Taskforce, the team got together to set out a clear direction for various pieces of proactive work due to take place throughout 2025 and 2026.
Since its inception, the Retail Crime Taskforce has been involved in the establishment of an information-sharing protocol between Edinburgh city-centre retailers, Police Scotland, and the City of Edinburgh Council to more easily identify retail crime offenders and to make it more difficult for crimes such as shoplifting to occur.
Taskforce officers have also played crucial roles in the arrests of individuals linked to crimes occurring in the Capital, Glasgow, Greenock, Dundee and the North East.
Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Knight from the Retail Crime Taskforce, said: 'Our unit is very much still in its infancy, but it has already been directly involved in, or supported, vital enforcement or partnership engagement activity aimed at reducing the current rise in retail crime.
'Despite some early successes, we cannot and will not become complacent and our team meeting was an invaluable opportunity for the team to share ideas and discuss our strategic approach to tackling offences, such as shoplifting and the assault and intimidation of shop workers.
'The objective of the Taskforce could not be clearer. We must reduce retail crime and send a clear message to our communities, and those responsible for these offences, that such crimes will not be tolerated.
'Our work alongside divisional colleagues, key retail partners and other stakeholders is only just beginning, and we will be working tirelessly to bring retail crime offenders to justice, while at the same time assisting retailers identify ways in which they can improve current security and crime prevention approaches and make their premises an unattractive target for criminals.'
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