POLL OF THE DAY: Should shoplifters face jail as number of unsolved offences rises by 38%?
Shoplifting hits RECORD HIGH in 'lawless Britain': 'incapable police' threaten 'societal breakdown'
GB News
MPs have warned shop staff are facing a "Christmas crime wave" with an average of more than 650 shoplifting offences a day went unsolved in the past year.
According to analysis from the House of Commons Library, in the year to March 2024, 245,500 investigations were closed without a suspect being identified, an average of 672 a day.
This signified a 38 per cent increase from the total number of shoplifting offences that went unsolved in the same period five years ago.
Meanwhile, 56.4 per cent of shoplifting cases were closed because no suspect was identified, and only around one in six cases resulted in someone being charged or summonsed in the past year.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokeswoman and Hazel Grove MP Lisa Smart said: "Shop staff are having to deal with a Christmas crime wave as shoplifters act with impunity, with so many crimes being effectively legalised by the previous Conservative government’s shocking neglect.
"The new Government needs to get a grip on this shoplifting epidemic, and hard-working shop staff on the frontline need to be reassured that they will not continue to be abandoned.
"That must start with ministers making sure that officers will actually have the time and resources to focus on their local neighbourhoods and keep shop workers safe.
"Until that happens our communities won’t see the proper neighbourhood policing that they deserve."
Lisa Smart MP with Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey
PA
A total of 469,788 shoplifting offences were logged by forces in the year to June 2024, up 29 per cent on the 365,173 recorded in the previous 12 months, and the highest annual figure since current records began in the year to March 2003.
Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said: "In the last year of the Tory government, shoplifting soared to a 20-year high, up 30 per cent in just 12 months.
"By the end of their tenure, more than half of the public said they never saw a bobby on the beat, double the proportion than in 2010. That was the Conservatives’ disastrous legacy on law and order and our communities have paid the price.
"That’s why this Labour Government is committed to putting neighbourhood police back on the beat and creating new powers for the police to crack down on the scourge of antisocial behaviour, shoplifting and street crime in our towns and cities."
GB News members are having their say on the new shoplifting figures
Getty
GB News members can have their say on the poll above.
We'll be sharing the results of the poll later today.
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