Mansfield Business Improvement District (BID) is at the forefront of the fight against retail crime and disorder affecting businesses in Nottinghamshire.

Across the UK, companies recorded £1.6bn in stock losses last year, with 39 per cent of these losses down to shop theft and 36 per cent cyber crime. Nottinghamshire Police recorded exceptionally high numbers of shop theft offences, although businesses report less than 10 per cent of incidents to police.

Now the Partnership Against Business Crime in Nottinghamshire has launched a Retail Crime Project, led by Mansfield BID’s crime manager Dave Wilson.

It has been launched as a partnership approach between the Community Safety Partnerships across the county and businesses to jointly problem solve and prevent incidents occurring.

The aim is to create a central hub of information so that staff are well briefed and action identified that will help deter people from re-offending.

Funded by £10,000 from the Home Office, through Nottinghamshire Police, and £10,000 from the office of the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Paddy Tipping, the project also sees 12 Police Community Support Officers focusing on helping to prevent retail crime.

The central project hub will have direct links to the Police Commissioner’s strategic aims and objectives through Nottinghamshire Police, with Chief Superintendent Ak Khan reporting to the Safer Nottinghamshire Performance Group.

There is also a Tactical Group, chaired by David Wakelin from Gedling Community Safety Partnership and Vice Chair Simon Horton from Wilkinson’s retailers.

The hub will capture intelligence from businesses, local policing teams and regional and national groups to provide up-to-date and validated briefing information.

The hub will link directly to Nottinghamshire Police Intelligence and, in particular, Integrated Offender Management and Operation Dormice.

Dave Wilson commented: “The process is a simple problem-solving model, where we scan for information, analyse it, respond to it in an appropriate manner and then assess the outcome.

“Each of the town centres involved will have a dedicated PCSO who will still be managed by police, but whose activities will be identified by the hub.”

Dave added: “Best practice developed in Mansfield has been identified as delivering results, and that’s why we have been asked to manage this project.”

One of the first tasks for the project is to raise standards of Shop Watch schemes and business crime partnerships to achieve the high standards and provide a return on investment for retailers.

Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Paddy Tipping, said: “I’m delighted by the work in Mansfield. Retail crime is a problem across the country, not just in Nottinghamshire. There is a lot we can learn from Mansfield’s approach and that’s why I’m giving funding to this.”

Mansfield BID manager Sarah Nelson commented: “This is a high-profile project that directly benefits businesses in Mansfield town centre and further afield. It’s great to see Mansfield leading the way in retail crime prevention.”

For more about Mansfield BID, visit www.mansfieldbid.com