Last week at Nine Crows, an independent vintage clothes shop in Temple Bar, Dublin, a staff member picked up the phone and dialled Pearse Street Garda station to report the theft of a pair of jeans from the shop moments earlier.
While they were on the phone, another shoplifter made their way to the exit with stolen items from a shop display in hand. “In a matter of minutes – two separate incidents, two different people, two different thefts ... that’s how often it’s happening now,” says regional manager Faye Power.
This year, according to Power, the rise in thefts at the Temple Bar shop – as well as at other locations across the city – has been “quick and fast”.
Nine Crows is an independent business with limited resources for investing in security measures, and these crimes place a serious burden on the shop.
“It’s just increasingly difficult. Like, what do you do? There’s rising costs across everything. A security guard isn’t obtainable for us,” says Power. “It’s not just us. [There are] six to eight shops in this area who are reporting daily, sometimes multiple times daily.”
An increase in thefts is a nationwide problem. Figures released by the Central Statistics Office last month show that theft crime is at its highest level in five years.
Analysis of theft and related offences, which were up by 8 per cent – or by 5,354 incidents in the 12 months to the second quarter of this year – showed nearly half or 49 per cent of such incidents involved theft from a shop.
For Jim Kenny, who has run a Centra shop in Blackrock village in south Co Dublin for 27 years, theft became a serious issue following the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Post Covid, the amount of theft was unbelievable,” says Kenny. “We have maybe three or four instances [of shoplifting] every day.”
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Tara Buckley, director general of the Retail Grocery Dairy and Allied Trades Association (RGDATA), says dealing with theft is a “daily occurrence” for the vast majority of the association’s members.
A proportion of such offences at supermarkets is perpetrated by organised retail crime groups, she says. These groups seek high-value items such as alcohol, cigarettes and even costly cuts of meat. Other offenders include “serial” shoplifters, she says, and young people “who feel like they’re untouchable”.
Kenny feels a lack of Garda resources allocated to support businesses in combating theft leaves shops – as well as owners and staff members – vulnerable. He lists various instances of shoplifting where assailants were threatening towards him or other workers.
“We’re not being protected ... We’re vulnerable. We’re actually having to protect ourselves. It creates an awful sense of anxiety.”
People shoplift for various reasons. There’s a lot of desperation ... and sometimes that can be a very unsafe situation for someone to be in
— Tara Buckley of the Retail Grocery Dairy and Allied Trades Association
Power says a dearth of policing resources makes businesses in Dublin city centre feel like they are not a priority. “It’s obvious at this point. Dublin people, Dublin businesses, aren’t a priority right now. We’re just not. And I think that the evidence will show you that ... How many times did we ring [about a theft] and we get a guard visit seven days later? What does that tell you?”
Power stresses that although responding gardaí are often sympathetic and helpful in any way they can be, she believes those in decision-making roles within the force – and in Government – are failing to provide adequate support to businesses affected by rising theft.
She says during big policing operations this summer – for high-profile football matches such as the Europa League final, and concerts such as Taylor Swift – instances of crime at the shop fell.
“Because it’s just a known fact that when they’re [gardaí] walking around, we just don’t get that level of crime,” she says. “We don’t want staff to have to deal with this, but we’re being forced to deal with this because we’re not getting supports from the guards ... Really Government level, I suppose, is where it’s coming from.”
Without support, Dublin will be left without the independent businesses that offer an alternative to fast-fashion giants, she says.
Insp Damian Boland of the Garda National Crime Prevention Unit says retailers have expressed frustration to gardaí at tardy response times to theft reports, as well as a lack of feedback following a report being made.
Insp Boland – who is in regular contact with retailers and their representative bodies through biannual forums and other conferences – says part of the reason for increased theft figures is the Garda’s active encouragement of retailers to report every theft.
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Operation Tairge, he says, was launched last December as a direct response to the rise in retail theft. The operation aims to reduce retail crime, with a specific focus on organised retail crime groups (ORC) and recidivist offenders.
Retail theft will never go away, he says, but he hopes that if more people are held responsible for crimes by gardaí, the rate of thefts will stagnate and fall.
“From our point of view, we’re pushing for reports [of thefts] to go in ... if we go after the top offenders, and if we go after the ORCs, and make it less attractive for that kind of criminality,” he says. Since launching last December, several people have been before the courts on theft charges following Operation Tairge activity.
According to Garda literature on Operation Tairge, retail theft “also has an impact on staff retention, recruitment and personal safety while at work”.
Buckley says the level of aggression that sometimes goes with such instances is having a “huge impact” on owners, staff and their families. “A lot of staff find that it’s just too threatening and upsetting,” she says. “It’s hard to retain staff.”
Staff safety is a key consideration for Nine Crows, Power adds. “I want people to feel comfortable working here in the city, and not having to be dealing with these situations. It can be very intimidating for people to be confronted with a situation like that. People shoplift for various reasons. There’s a lot of desperation ... and sometimes that can be a very unsafe situation for someone to be in.”
Power believes the rise in theft might point to a wider societal issue. At their shop, people who commit theft come from “every walk of life”, she says. “It is just across all demographics of people.”
“I don’t think many people go out every day for the craic, just to rob something – there is obviously a bigger issue here,” she says. “Are people struggling? Are costs just too high? Are people feeling under pressure? ... There could be various reasons why [people are] stealing at this point.”
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