Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ann-Marie Johnson: Retail NZ Advocacy Manager on Police directed to not investigate shoplifting below $500

Transcript

Ann-Marie Johnson: Retail NZ Advocacy Manager on Police directed to not investigate shoplifting below $500 · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Retailing Z's calling for an urgent meeting with Mark Mitchell.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: This after police were told to no longer investigate allegations
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: of shoplifting below five hundred bucks. The director was sent
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: out in March, it was leaked. Police say they will
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: continue to investigate reports if there are avenues of inquiry
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to explore.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: And my team alone deal with one point twenty five million. Now,
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: that is ninety thousand senses every single month. Now, the
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: reality is we just can't get to that now.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: That was on drive last night. A Marie Johnson as
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Retailing z manager of Advocacy, Advice and Commas. She's with
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: me now, An Marie, good morning.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: More Anna.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Have you got your meeting with Mitchell yet?
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: We've certainly been in touch with his office in at
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: the moment where it's just trying to coordinate diaries.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Can you understand this because on the one hand they say,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: even if there are lines of inquiry, we won't look
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: into this. If it's LEAs than five hundred bucks, then
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: you had them last night saying well if there's CCTV
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: and other evidence then maybe we will.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, lot, I think the police have clarified their position
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: and that's certainly helpful. You know, retailers know that police
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: aren't going to show up to this small, very minor
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: case of shop listing, but we certainly want to know
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: that they're taking these crimes seriously and that where they can,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: they will be following up and resting. Often they're a
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: peat offenders, so we know who they are, and police
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: know who they are, so we want to particularly focus
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: on those people.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Retail crime's worth about two point six billion every year.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: What's the average value of an item stolen? Do you
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: think would it be less than five hundred bucks?
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't know the average value, but it can be.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: But you know a lot of things, a lot of
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: five hundred dollars items over time add up to a lot,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: and so you know, it's kind of less the value
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: of the items and the more the impact that it
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: has on the retailers and their staff, and especially over time,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: you know, coming to work every day not knowing what
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: you're going to be coming up against, and that's tough.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: And the worst part about all of this, of course,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: is we're talking about it. It's in the news, and
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: if you are a criminal, you'll be going sweet, I
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: can it's so long as I don't leave any evidence,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Like we're a beanie and a hoodie. Then if it's
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: less than five hundred bucks, basically I'm off scot free.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Well, like I say, a lot of the time, we
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: know who they are, The police know who they are,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: and from what police are saying now, they are going
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: to collect the information and use that to build up
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: a case. So we're certainly encouraging our members to keep
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: on reporting all crimes.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: And we need y do you think we need you know,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: how we've got judges, but then we have jps. Do
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: you think we need an equivalent for the police for
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: low level crime?
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: You know, police are obviously busy. They've got murders and
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: things to solve. But if they had if they had
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: delegated powers to some you know, I don't know, some
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: older gentlemen who might be retired and looking for something
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: to do.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, I think you're straying into very dangerous territory there, Ryan,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: who you start talking about vigilante justice and that type
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: of thing, don't you.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Well, So, I don't know. I'm not saying they go
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: around shooting people, but maybe just maybe just investigating where
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the police can't, because I mean, otherwise as you say,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: two point six billion dollars, and I reckon most a
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: lot of thefts. And by the way, forty percent of
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: retailers don't even report the thefts. Most of those thefts
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: would be for less than five hundred dollars, so that
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: means that most retail crime probably wouldn't get either reported
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: or investigated.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 3:52
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• 3:56
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