‘Alarming’ increase in thefts from shops in Clare

A RISE in theft from shops is putting small business owners under severe pressure, Clare’s Joint Policing Committee (JPC) has heard. 

An increase of 69% in reported incidents was revealed by Chief Superintendent Seán Colleran, who said the spike seems to coincide with the reopening of the economy. The figures relate to the period of November to January when compared to the same period in 2020/21. “The one thing about theft form shops is that there’s quite a high detection rate,” the Chief said.

“Whereas the figure itself can be alarming, certainly we have strong investigative processes for that.”

Nonetheless, the numbers were described by Councillor Pat Daly as “alarming”. “There are shops who can’t afford CCTV and they are being robbed every day of the week,” he said.

“I would appeal to our Oireachtas members to see if grant support can be provided because every shop should have CCTV. In this day and age, there should be some sort of grant available for shops and small businesses.”

The Chairperson of the JPC shared his own experience of the issue. Councillor John Crowe described the matter as “very dear to my own heart”.

“That is a massive jump in thefts from shops,” he noted. “Having been in business for years and years, I can understand the pressure for businesses. They’re trying to run a business and they’re there from six in the morning to ten at night. It’s very, very disappointing. They’re doing their very best for communities as well.

“As regards CCTV, I think it is most important. If there could be something there to try and help businesses to put in the CCTV, because I know from experience it certainly helped me when I was in business. It is vital to see that.”

The Chief Superintendent agreed that CCTV is “a huge deterrent”. “Post Covid, everyone started wearing masks,” he said.

“We know ourselves that suited one area of society greatly because they were able to wear masks too. That being said, the increase is on quite a low figure and the detection rates are quite high. We have our Crime Prevention Officer and our crime investigators as well.

“CCTV is of huge benefit to us. As much as some people think a mask prevents us from identifying someone, the people that we want to identify, even when they’re wearing masks, are easy to identify. We’re very robust in our practices too when it comes to investigating.”

Chief Superintendent Colleran repeated his advice for victims of crime to contact the force. “We are conscious of theft from shops and the impact it has on shopkeepers,” he said.

“It doesn’t happen here, but in other counties, certain shops take a less proactive response in reporting. We would encourage complaints about any thefts. The detection rate is quite high.

There are number of key people that we have prosecuted that would be described as high volume offenders.”

Reported incidents of theft from shops jumped from 52 to 88 in the period of last November to January, when compared to the same timeframe in 2020/21.