Small business owners hope police portal will stop ‘daily’ shoplifting and abuse

ABC NEWS (Australia)

ACT Policing has expanded its online reporting tool to include retail theft and lost property. A Canberra pharmacist says shoplifting happens daily and, while often reported, police never investigate. Pharmacist Chris Lawler hopes the portal will help stop repeat offenders.

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00:00Selling medicine may take up most of

00:04pharmacist Chris Lawler's workday but

00:07dealing with shoplifters and copping

00:09abuse is a daily problem he wishes he

00:12didn't have to deal with. It's something

00:14we see like all the time every day we're

00:16kind of experiencing people you know

00:19walk in and take stuff from ourselves

00:21staff spat at someone just come in and

00:23retaliate by urinating on some stock and

00:27it's costing the businesses three

00:28Canberra stores around $150,000 each

00:32year but although incidents are

00:34captured on the Civic Store's security

00:36cameras police often don't show up when

00:40crimes are reported. Theft seems to be

00:42increasing it's not not reducing so at

00:45the moment yeah whatever the system is

00:47it doesn't seem to be working. It's a

00:49system that until today has relied on

00:52people reporting thefts via phone or in

00:55person but police hope a new online tool

00:58will help them and the victims of crime.

01:01This is a really exciting step offering

01:04more accessible ways where the public can

01:07report to ACT policing it also offers

01:10police an avenue for intelligence

01:12gathering and you know and obviously to

01:15respond to these incidents. Online

01:17reporting certainly frees up our call

01:19takers for to take other calls so

01:23certainly more efficient there for us in

01:24terms of how we do that. Hopefully this you

01:27know if this new system in place might

01:29identify the individuals that are that

01:32are doing this and if they crack down on it a

01:34little bit harder then we won't see it

01:36happen as often. Although the portal makes

01:39reporting easier police say their

01:41response won't change which means it

01:44will still be up to stores to ban

01:46problem customers. They usually tell you

01:48to issue a ban notice that we can issue a

01:52ban notice and that way next time when

01:53when the customer comes in store or

01:57steals and they're able to action

01:59something. So for Chris Lawler CCTV

02:02remains his best friend.

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