Retail Crime

In mid July 2011 the Association hosted a meeting of our Retail Crime Prevention Group (RCPG) in Auckland.

The RCPG was formed in 2008 to provide a forum to allow the Retail Loss Prevention Managers of the leading supermarkets, general merchandise chains and department stores to discuss common problems and to develop strategies to mitigate retail crime in New Zealand.

Meetings are held quarterly, with a representative from the New Zealand Police in attendance. This allows two way discussions with the Police on issues that are considered by the Crime Prevention Partnership Forum, which was established between the Police and ten business groups in 2009.

Presentations included:

1. Crime Stoppers was established to assist the Police and other law enforcement agencies solve crime and catch criminals through anonymous calls or online advice. It was reported that the campaign was proving very successful in New Zealand and that there is some retail financial support for the initiative. For further details see www.crimestoppers-nz.org.
2. The Reserve Bank spoke on currency reform. The Bank is currently upgrading the security features of New Zealand’s bank notes. Details were given of a recent consumer/retail survey indicating the respondents were generally satisfied with the current note denominations. Further information was sought of those companies that offer machines to count notes. Counterfeit problems arising from the present bank notes will be discussed at the next meeting of the RCPG. Further information is available at www.rbnz.govt.nz.
3. The New Zealand Drug Detection Agency spoke on how to detect drugs in the workplace and strategies that can be adopted by firms to deal with this problem. Further information is available at www.nzdda.co.nz. A copy of the presentation to the RCPG is also available on request.
4. The New Zealand Police spoke on their current fraud project. Information will shortly be sought from the major retailers on the extent of fraud within their organisations and the extent to which the wider fraud issue is also a problem to their companies. A copy of the Police presentation to the RCPG is available on request.

Other issues discussed at the meeting included the current Police initiative around the 2011 Rugby World Cup re CCTV cameras and the programme for the Australia Source Tagging Association Conference to be held in Melbourne in late July.

The next meeting of the RCPG will be held in Auckland and is scheduled for November 2011.

Further information on the NZRA RCPG activity is available from bhellberg@retail.org.nz.