Inside the Boots nerve centre that’s waging a £1bn war against shoplifters

Suddenly, a store clerk raises the alarm about a potential shoplifter. Within seconds, an operator watching live from behind a series of screens in a control center a hundred kilometers away issues a stern warning via a loudspeaker.

“This is Boots CCTV,” he booms in a strong Northern accent. This store is monitored and recorded. Any evidence of theft will be given to the police.”

The previously unsuspecting suspect looks up at the camera, takes the items out of a bag, calmly puts them back on the shelf and walks outside.

Welcome to the nerve center of Boots’ efforts to combat a shoplifting epidemic that is costing retailers almost £1 billion a year. The Mail on Sunday was given rare access to an inconspicuous site in Beeston, near Nottingham, which forms a small but increasingly important part of the High Street retailer’s huge headquarters.

My guide for the day, head of loss prevention Iona Blake, pulls out facts and figures about Boots’ commitment to preventing theft and protecting staff from the enormous amount of verbal and physical abuse.

Nearly all of Boots’ 2,100 stores have CCTV, with 1,200 of the largest and busiest connected to the 24-hour surveillance centre. Each of these stores is also equipped with panic buttons that communicate directly with the nerve center.

“We get 650 alarms a day,” Blake said.

Other retailers use CCTV, but none rely on panic buttons as much as Boots. “I like to think we have the best CCTV system,” Blake adds.

Staff in 380 of the high-risk outlets also wear body cameras as security guards patrol the store premises. All these measures give frontline workers the reassurance that they are not alone when it comes to tackling the scourge of shoplifting.

Boots is not alone in trying to tackle a growing crime wave that retailers say increasingly involves organized gangs stealing to order.

“Retail crime is getting worse, with thieves becoming bolder and more aggressive,” said Graham Wynn, deputy director of business regulation at the British Retail Consortium.

“Not only do we need the police to make retail crime a greater priority, we also need a standalone offense for assaulting or abusing a retail worker and sending a clear message that this behavior will not be tolerated,” he added.

The BRC, which represents retailers, estimates the scale of shoplifting at £953 million, despite more than £700 million in crime prevention spending by retailers in the year to April.

Increased security measures have so far failed to slow the wave of retail crime. But many in the industry, including Blake, argue that without them there would be even more cases of shoplifting and employee abuse in the workplace.

The Co-operative has seen crime, shoplifting and anti-social behavior rates across its 2,400 stores rise by 43 per cent on last year, with almost 300,000 incidents reported so far in 2023 – an average of almost 1,000 per day.

Police fail to attend almost four in five incidents, the Co-op has found, despite promises from armed forces and ministers to treat shoplifting more seriously.

Like other retailers, both Boots and the Co-op are backing The Mail on Sunday’s campaign for tougher penalties for offenders. One of the problems in tackling crimes is the fact that the police forces themselves are fragmented. There are 43 in England and Wales, while thieves know no borders. Blake says ‘cross-border’ coordination with police forces is improving through their National Business Crime Center and points to some successful prosecutions.

Earlier this month, James Gilroy was jailed for three years after stealing £28,000 worth of perfume during a two-week blitz of Boots stores in and around Leeds. After a chase with a police car, he was eventually arrested.

Boots’ CCTV surveillance team in Beeston pieced together evidence to show it was the same perpetrator and worked with West Yorkshire Police to build the case, including providing details of his getaway vehicle.

Judge Ray Singh described Gilroy’s behavior as “wild” and “wanton” and told him: “The general public is sick of individuals like you who think they can take things that simply don’t belong to you.”

In addition to increased surveillance at Boots, incidents of verbal and physical abuse have fallen by almost a quarter in stores where body cameras are worn, Blake notes.

There are further encouraging signs that the measures Boots has taken are having a positive effect.’

And it’s not just about protecting employees.

Blake adds: ‘I don’t want customers to think that our stores are not a safe place to shop.’