Convenience retailers across the West Midlands continue to face growing retail crime challenges after new figures revealed a sharp rise in shoplifting offences over the past year.
Latest data presented to the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner’s Accountability and Governance Board showed that recorded shoplifting offences increased by 30.2 per cent in the year to March 2025, reaching 31,620 incidents compared with 24,295 in the previous 12 months.
The rise mirrors a wider increase in business crime across the region. Overall offences against businesses climbed by 2.6 per cent to 55,271 cases during the period.
Police officials identified the continuing growth in shoplifting, both nationally and regionally, as a key factor behind the increase in business crime.
For convenience store operators already dealing with rising employment, energy and operating costs, the latest figures underline the ongoing pressure retail crime places on businesses, particularly smaller independent retailers.
However, the report also highlighted signs of progress in tackling offenders.
During the year to March, police recorded 9,511 positive outcomes for shoplifting offences, representing a positive outcome rate of 30 per cent. This was 15.6 percentage points higher than the previous year.
According to the report, the improvement reflects targeted police activity aimed at bringing more offenders to justice.
BBC quoted Temporary assistant chief constable Andy Parsons as saying, "I think it's fair to say for a significant number of years the approach to shop-related crime was not on a similar par to other areas of crime investigated by West Midlands Police.
"We've taken significant steps to address that. That now features in terms of the number of arrests we're making for shop-related crime.
"We've definitely got more of a focus from a force perspective. We know there was a huge amount of under-reporting when it came to shop-related crime previously."