Australia’s Crime Wave By James Reed
Our US correspondents have been reporting on the US crime wave, which is transforming US cities into war zones. Whites and Asians have been under personal attack. But, in cities like Baltimore, there is open warfare between rival drug gangs. Innocent people have to not be there to avoid collecting a stray bullet or 50. And the latest phenomenon is for flash mobs to target department stores and coming as a mob, simply raid the place, gutting it. It is not food that they are seeking as the Left portrays them, but designer goods of the most expensive type. This has been devasting to businesses, many of whom are moving out of those problematic cities. But, soon it will be all major cities with this problem, as the economic crisis deepens.
The US is an important study since it shows where all this can go. It is happening now in New Zealand and Australia too, with shop lifting costing businesses around $ 10 a year. This is going down the American lines, of organised gangs, primarily, stealing to order, and flogging off stolen good on social media. According to one business manager, the stealing is no longer the odd person putting some small item in their clothing: “These days they’re filling up a trolley and pushing it back out the front door, and they don’t care who sees them.”
This is evidence that Australia could well being going down the same road as the US described today at the blog in an article by Chris Knight “The Face of Social Collapse.”
“A man strolls out of a New Zealand supermarket carrying bags stuffed with nine stolen legs of lamb. Another pushes out a shopping cart stacked with NZ$1,500 (S$1,220) of pilfered corned beef and mayonnaise. Yet another smashes a security guard in the face with a bottle of milk before making off with a basket of goods.
None attempt to disguise their theft.
The men, featured in security footage released in August by Foodstuffs North Island, which is part of the nation’s largest grocery chain, are emblematic of the escalating retail crime wave sweeping through the country and neighbouring Australia.
The theft is brazen, organised, increasingly violent and is costing the two nations an estimated A$10 billion (S$8.76 billion) a year combined, according to retail groups.
Experts say the incidents underscore the hardship many people are facing, as costs rise for everyday items.
With consumers squeezed, organised criminals are finding a ready market of buyers for stolen food and other household items, said Mr Phil Thomson, chief executive officer and co-founder of retail crime intelligence platform Auror, which operates in New Zealand, Australia, North America and Britain.
“The majority of the theft that occurs is (by) people who do this as their full-time job,” he said. “About 10 per cent of people are causing about 60 per cent of the crime. And it’s all profit motivated. They’re stealing to order, and they’re stealing it to sell on.”
New Zealand and Australia are not alone in dealing with a rise in retail crime – in the United States, “flash robs” involving gangs of thieves have targeted luxury malls in California, while in Britain, organised criminal gangs are stealing high-value items, lifting theft there to a record high.
The data for the Southern Hemisphere neighbours, though, are stark. Shoplifting and retail theft in New Zealand increased 45 per cent in 2022 compared with 2021, according to figures released by the police in September, which includes theft reported directly to them and through Auror.
Theft from retail stores was up 47.5 per cent year on year in June in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, according to government data released earlier in September.
With costs of stolen goods mounting, many businesses in Australia and New Zealand are overhauling their security, particularly in areas like self-service checkouts that make it easier to smuggle unpaid items out of stores.
Technology solutions are proving popular, like rooftop sensors, automatic gates at self-checkouts and even trials of facial recognition software.
Other measures include installing sturdy posts to stop ram raids, in which a heavy vehicle is driven into a storefront.
While the changes are not as dramatic as the armed guards stationed at stores in the US or dummy products in Britain, they are a substantial shift for retailers in countries where laptops can often be left unattended on cafe tables without fear of theft.
“This is not stuff that we should be doing in a cost of living crisis,” said Mr Chris Quin, chief executive officer of Foodstuffs North Island, which saw crime at the chain’s 320 stores rise 59 per cent in the three months up to July compared to the same period last year. “We should be putting it all into, ‘How do we get food prices lower?’.”
The shoplifting surge also reflects a growing sense of desperation in many people.
Roughly 30 per cent of Australians are finding it difficult to get by on their incomes, according to an August survey by the Australian National University, which also found that people were spending less on groceries and essentials and delaying major purchases.
Over the last 10 to 12 months, there has been a shift away from stealing electronics toward perishables like meat, according to Professor Michael Townsley from the Griffith Criminology Institute at Griffith University, and retail crime consultant at National Retail Australia.
Some of the region’s major brands have revealed the cost of the crime wave. Jeweller Michael Hill International said earnings were hurt by its NZ$5 million outlay on security, including guards, fog cannons and armoured glass.
In Australia, major grocer Coles Group said its total stock loss rose 20 per cent, and that it is deploying more security personnel and trialling body cameras for staff.
Losses are especially acute for goods with slim margins. For every one drill that is stolen, about 10 need to be sold to make back the money, according to Mr Scott Nelson, director of two Mitre 10 hardware stores in New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay.
New Zealand’s retail crime wave, particularly ram raids, is now a top issue ahead of next month’s general election, and has contributed to the governing Labour Party’s weak opinion poll results.
The main opposition National Party partly blames “soft” penalties for shoplifting, and has promised military-style boot camps to stop what it calls a “tsunami of retail offending”.
Currently, most first-time shoplifters get a warning, but persistent offenders can get up to seven years in jail.
The retail body Australian Retailers Association earlier in 2023 renewed calls for state and territory governments to enact harsher penalties for people who assault retail workers.
While many retailers are grappling with the financial fallout of rising crime, the impact on staff may emerge as a longer-term problem for retailers.
“Many are effectively saying they aren’t confident that they can provide a safe environment,” said Ms Carolyn Young, head of trade organisation Retail NZ.
Almost every conversation she has had in her two-month tenure has been about theft. And retailers across both countries say the current wave marks a historic shift in the business environment.
“Ten years ago, people who were stealing were hiding products in their jackets or down their pants,” said Auror’s Mr Thomson, estimating that organised criminals could target up to 10 stores a day. “These days they’re filling up a trolley and pushing it back out the front door, and they don’t care who sees them.”
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