Supporting Northants Police to Tackle Retail Crime

DeterTech Supports Northamptonshire’s Efforts to Tackle Retail Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour

DeterTech’s rapidly deployable indruder detection technology is playing a key role in a coordinated effort to reduce retail crime and anti-social behaviour in Northampton town centre, as part of a partnership initiative led by Northamptonshire Police and the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

Dame Diana Johnson, Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire, visited Northampton on the 14th July to see how the police and its partners are working together to make the countrys town centres safer.

The visit also highlighted the ‘Cops Adopt a Shop’ scheme, developed in partnership with Northampton Town Centre Business Improvement District (BID) and the Northamptonshire Business Crime Partnership. DeterTech’s surveillance technology supports this work by providing high-visibility deterrence and a reliable source of footage to assist with investigations.

One of the businesses benefiting from the technology is Vintage Guru on St Giles Street, where one of DeterTech’s PIDCompacts was deployed as part of a successful pilot. Owner Julie Teckman commented:

“We believe having the pods in the shop for the pilot period has reduced opportunist crime as people started to become more aware of their existence.

“We felt they were really effective; many customers were really interested in them, and they encouraged a lot of attention and conversation about shoplifting and its impact.

“Previously, as part of attempts to deter theft, I’ve had to employ more people to have more presence in the shop. I think other businesses would benefit from looking into the pods to act as a visual deterrent to crime.”

Following the success of the trial, further funding was secured by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner to extend the deployment of DeterTech’s solutions to other local businesses identified as higher risk.

Chief Constable Ivan Balhatchet said:

“Neighbourhood policing is at the heart of everything we do. I know how important it is for our Neighbourhood Teams to be visible in the community while they are working hard to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.

“Visibility has an enormous impact on how safe and confident people feel in our main towns but creating a safe environment isn’t something police can do alone. It was a pleasure to be able to show Dame Diana the strong partnerships we have built in Northampton and the impact of that work.”

These deployments form part of Northamptonshire’s participation in the Home Office’s Safer Streets Summer initiative – a national programme designed to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour during the summer period. DeterTech is proud to support the delivery of this initiative through intelligent, effective and easy-to-deploy security solutions that help create safer environments for businesses and the public.