Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Carolyn Young: Retail NZ Chief Executive says retailers are celebrating a Police crackdown crime

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Carolyn Young: Retail NZ Chief Executive says retailers are celebrating a Police crackdown crime · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So police arrests for retail crime are through the roof.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: There were over 21,000 arrests for retail crime in the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: year to June. That is three times as many as
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the previous four years. Carolyn Young is the CEO of
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Retail New Zealand. Good morning to you, Carolyn.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Well, hello, Andrew.
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  Speaker 1: You'll be very happy that these figures are big.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it's taken a concerted effort from everyone, and
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  Speaker 2: the National Retail Crime Unit that was set up in
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  Speaker 2: 2022 has really understood the landscape that they're working in.
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  Speaker 2: They work on the data side of things. So in comparison,
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  Speaker 2: the work that unit's been doing alongside the fact that
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  Speaker 2: we now have a retail crime unit in every police
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  Speaker 2: district across the country, Retailers are reporting more crime and
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: we're able to capture more offenders. That accounts for a
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  Speaker 2: number of these issues. And in retail crime, what we
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: see is 10% of offenders do 60% of the crime.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Recidivist offending is so high with retail crime that if
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: you capture some of those recidivist offenders, they get charged
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: with a significant number of offences and that really makes
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: a difference to, you know, that they're not back out
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  Speaker 2: in the street offending more. Yeah.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Well, it's the same with ram raiding, when ram raiding
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  Speaker 1: is all the thing, which, by the way, in these
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  Speaker 1: figures shows is completely fallen off. But when we actually
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  Speaker 1: looked at it, there was only, you know, there's only
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  Speaker 1: 100-odd kids who kept on doing it over and over
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  Speaker 1: and over and over again.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, exactly. And so, you know, one of the
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  Speaker 2: retailers have also done is they've put in place lots
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  Speaker 2: of different tools and strategies to ensure that they limit
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  Speaker 2: the ability for people to get away with offenses. And
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  Speaker 2: if you think about ram raids, there's a whole lot
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  Speaker 2: of structural things that had to be put in place
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  Speaker 2: in a number of locations for people's businesses. to protect
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  Speaker 2: them and make it more difficult for someone to ram
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  Speaker 2: raid their store.
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  Speaker 1: So are you prepared to give a high five to
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  Speaker 1: the government who brought in these retail crime initiatives?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, the New Zealand Police are doing really well
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  Speaker 2: and obviously it's been driven both by the Police Commissioner
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  Speaker 2: and the Minister of Police, so it's been a really
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  Speaker 2: good outcome for retailers over the last few years.
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  Speaker 1: Now, you were a critic of the citizens' arrest, so
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  Speaker 1: does this data prove or work against your issues with
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  Speaker 1: the new law?
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  Speaker 2: It has nothing to do with citizens' arrest, to be
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  Speaker 2: honest with you, because What we do know is that
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  Speaker 2: in the first 43 days of the legislation there have
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: been 90 arrests, but the majority of them are not
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: in the retail setting. We do know that citizens' arrest
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  Speaker 2: is not a preventative crime tool. It is something that
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: anybody can do anywhere and there's a lot happening in
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  Speaker 2: the domestic situation, not in a retail setting. And to
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  Speaker 2: our concerns, we do know that there was a situation
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: with A young retail worker in a dairy who was
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: 19 chased three offenders down the street, did a citizen's
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  Speaker 2: arrest of a 13-year-old person and assaulted them when they
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: were dragging them back to the store. So now he's
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: in front of the court on charges of assault. So
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  Speaker 2: that's the concern that you have, is that people understanding
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  Speaker 2: what they need to do. Gotcha.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Retail New Zealand CEO Carolyn Young. Don't apologise
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: for a thing. You were great. For more from Early
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talk ZB
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: from 5 a.m. weekdays or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.