A new industry resource aimed at helping retailers prevent and reduce crime has been launched following a collaborative initiative at the Thames Valley Police Retail Crime Conference.
Hosted by the National Business Crime Centre (NBCC), the 25 Techniques of Retail Crime Prevention adapts the widely used 25 Techniques of Situational Crime Prevention into a practical, retail-specific framework designed for use by retailers, police and local partners across the UK.
The framework was developed live during the conference, where delegates took part in a facilitated workshop session. Each table of attendees was assigned one of the 25 situational prevention techniques and tasked with populating a blank grid with real-world retail interventions. Responses were submitted digitally via Microsoft Forms and then compiled automatically into a single document.
The NBCC said the session brought together a broad range of expertise, including police officers, police staff, partner agencies and third-sector organisations, ensuring the final output reflects operational realities and frontline experience.
Five core principles
The completed framework groups the interventions under five key crime prevention principles:
- Increase the effort by making it harder for offenders to offend
- Increase the risks to offenders of getting caught
- Reduce the rewards of crime
- Reduce provocations that can lead to offending
- Remove excuses for criminal behaviour
Across the techniques, the document includes practical examples such as target hardening, improving surveillance, reducing anonymity, strengthening guardianship, managing offender behaviour and supporting compliance.
The NBCC highlighted that many of the actions are low-cost, scalable and accessible for retailers of all sizes, whether acting alone or in partnership with neighbourhood policing teams and local business crime reduction partnerships.
Professor Gloria Laycock of University College London, an internationally renowned expert in crime prevention who attended the conference, welcomed the initiative and said the structured approach helps ensure retailers and partners do not “miss any opportunities” to prevent retail crime.
“This session at the Thames Valley Police Retail Crime Conference led to a plethora of options for hard pressed retailers resulting in the ‘25 steps’ table specifically for retail crime prevention,” she said, adding that copies have already been shared with academics in Australia and the US.
‘Living’ resource
The NBCC said the 25 Techniques of Retail Crime Prevention is designed to be a living, shareable resource, supporting local problem-solving and helping shape crime prevention strategies and partnership discussions.
By hosting the framework on its website, the NBCC urged organisations to share it more widely, saying that evidence-based prevention measures, delivered collaboratively, can help better protect businesses, staff and communities from retail crime.