‘We need to take the power back’: How Leeds businesses are fighting city centre crime
Meet the team behind a new crime fighting network aiming to keep the city centre streets of Leeds safe
When the radio crackles into life on the streets of Leeds it can mean anything - from a shoplifter being spotted on Briggate to a retailer calling for help with a prolific offender at their door.
And now across the city centre a curated network of more than 350 radios connect businesses with each other, the police and other organisations as part of a growing network designed to put the fight against crime directly into the hands of people experiencing it.
This new crime fighting network is part of Leeds Business Crime Reduction Partnership, which is led by Leeds BID, aims to send a strong message to criminals in the city: you are not welcome.
Tristram Margison, LeedsBCRP manager, helps to co-ordinate the partnership with retailers and businesses and they are already starting to see some success stories.
He said: “We had one retailer who was scared of the radio and after some training they went from never using it to being on a radio with police.
“They were soon guiding people to where they need to be so that an offender could be picked up on their doorstep.
“This person was someone targeting the business and it felt like they had some power themselves to tackle as well.”
He warned that reporting of crime is low but this is another tool to help make sure businesses are aware of bail conditions and reports of anti-social behaviour and crime on their doorstep to increase vigilance.
He added: “Reporting of crime is low and its a whole variety of reasons. Staffing is a struggle at the moment and businesses operate with just the right number of staff to open in a day.
“It comes down to time based constraints and know that there's a feeling of what the point and what will get done.
“We can step into highlight what's being done across organisations - the city wants people to report crime. We want to get them as high as we can to reflect what is happening across the city.
“We're heading in the right direction and getting a lot of data coming through.”
And he warned the biggest issue facing Leeds is brazen shoplifting - where offenders have no concern for anyone who can see them with repeat offending being a real worry.
He warned: “It’s a merry go round - we need something that helps us tackle prolific offenders.
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“Around 50 to 60 people in the city centre and if we could help them to get away from the lifestyle they have at the moment that could transform the city.
“At the moment its a rolling conveyor belt - they go to prison, come back out of prison and immediately they are offending again. We know as soon as they come out they will be back offending again. We need a solution for all the prolific offenders who are not afraid of the justice system.
“We want as much reporting as possible so the police can get the resources they need to police the city. “
Karen Butler, director of place, engagement and safety, said that because Leeds is a compact city problems such as crime are felt much more keenly.
She said: “Perception of safety is an individual thing. We feel that's different because of our life experience.
“It's the things that we see and feel outside - it can be people sitting begging, visibility by seeing shop theft and then seeing more uniforms as a presence which can be reassuring. The partnership gives us the opportunity to do this.
“No one organisation can solve this and what we can do together is very powerful - it puts us in a much stronger place as a city to get those basics right. Ours is one of the largest across the country. “
But she warned that there are bigger issues such as societal problems and the squeezed justice system that needs to be tackled to support the work of the partnership.
She added: “Our justice system is overwhelmed and we see magistrates being instructed not to give prison sentences even to those prolific offenders who we think around probably responsible for 80 per cent of business crime and that's a challenge.
“The new policing act creates a question mark in terms of removing that prison sentencing for anyone who would get a sentence less than 12 months.
“We're seeing prolific offenders reoffending immediately and we're seeing the same crime committed by the same people and at the moment there's no address to that locally or nationally.
“ We have the same individuals committing the same crimes day in and day out. There's no respite for businesses and members of the public,. That would be an area for me. What do we do about that? At the moment there isn't an answer.”
But they hope the Partnership can raise the profile of the work that is being carried out behind closed doors in Leeds to support safety in the city centre.