CONTEXT-SPECIFIC MEASURES OF CCTV EFFECTIVENESS IN THE RETAIL SECTOR

This study reports a research project that explored the effectiveness of closed circuit television (CCTV) as a primary crime prevention measure directed against staff and customer theft in the retail clothing sector. It demonstrates the usefulness of a strong before-andafter research design, as well as the benefits of using different measures for different purposes, including loss measured as a percentage of sales, loss by number of units stolen and loss by value. The study also examines whether the costs of CCTV installations are offset by the benefits of reduced loss. It is concluded that robust measures that are "fit for a purpose" allow informed choices to be made about appropriate investment in crime prevention CCTV technology. RETAIL CRIME THREATS The retail sector is one of the largest and most dynamic parts of the United Kingdom's economy (O'Brien and Harris, 1991; Cahill, 1994; Guy, 1994). By the mid-1990s the industry had a turnover of £187 billion, or 14% of the nation's gross domestic product, and it employed 2.4 million persons, or 10% of the British workforce, in some 328,000 retail outlets (Burrows and Speed, 1994; U.K. House of Commons, 1994; Beck and Willis, 1995; Wells and Dryer, 1997). Crime Prevention Studies, volume 10, pp. 251-269 252 — Adrian Beck and Andrew Willis Growing concern about crime threats to retailing led to the establishment of the Retail Crime Initiative by the British Retail Consortium (BRC). From 1994 there has been an annual report on retail crime and its costs. The survey for the financial year 1995-96 was based on 48,000 U.K. retail outlets with a combined turnover of over one-half of all retail sales (Wells and Dryer, 1997). The study revealed 5.3 million criminal incidents in the course of a year — the equivalent of 18 offences per outlet. The total annual costs of retail crime were estimated to be £1.9 billion — £1.4 billion sustained as a result of known or suspected criminal incidents, and a further £450 million of expenditure on security hardware and security services. Against annual sales of £187 billion, this was equivalent to 1.13% of total retail turnover. Crime costs amounted to an average loss of £85 from each household in the country. Customer theft and staff dishonesty dominated retail crime figures. Retailers witnessed, or could quite clearly establish, 5 million instances of customer theft, with 1.6 million offenders apprehended and just over 1 million referred to the police. The gross loss due to customer theft was estimated to be £653 million — £211 million lost due to witnessed incidents and £442 million lost to unwitnessed crimes. The findings are similar to those of a 1993 U.K. Home Office study that identified 5.8 million instances of customer theft, with witnessed incidents accounting for losses of £200 million (MirrleesBlack and Ross, 1995). The BRC survey also found over 31,000 recorded incidents of staff theft or fraud, involving nearly 20,000 staff of whom 40% were referred to the police. The value of staff theft recorded by stores was £386 million, £39 million derived from witnessed incidents (detected cases) and £347 million attributed to unwitnessed staff thefts (suspected cases). Findings for the fashion retail sector reflected the broader picture. The BRC survey identified 30,000 outlets with an annual turnover of £19 billion that suffered criminal losses of £128 million, with a further £74 million spent on crime prevention measures. Against annual sales of £19.3 billion, this was equivalent to 1.05% of total clothing retail turnover. Over three-quarters of all losses were attributed to just two offence categories — customer theft at £53 million (41%) and staff theft at £47 million (37%). Earlier retail crime surveys pointed to near-identical findings (Bamfield, 1994; Burrows and Speed, 1994; Forum of Private Business, 1995; Mirrlees-Black and Ross, 1995; Speed et al., 1995), and related studies have also highlighted the extent and costs of retail crime (Ekblom, 1986; U.K. Home Office, 1986; Context-Specific Measures of CCTV Effectiveness — 253 Ekblom and Simon, 1988; Touche Ross, 1989, 1992; Hibberd and Shapland, 1993; Beck and Willis, 1995). The data are unequivocal — the criminal threat to the retailer in general, and the fashion retailer in particular, is substantial whether this is measured by the number of incidents or the direct costs of stock loss. There are also consequential costs caused by disruption to trade and taking remedial action, including instituting security measures. All of these costs have to be borne, either by retailers in the form of lowered profits, by the customers in the form of increased prices, or by both. Finally, most of this victimisation remains well outside the purview of the formal authorities; of the 5 million instances of retailer-identified thefts a year only 280,000 offences, or 6% of the total, are recorded as police crime statistics (U.K. Home Office, 1996a; Wells and Dryer, 1997). There is a crime detection deficit, and even when offenders are known, they are not necessarily passed on to the police. These shortfalls suggest that crime prevention initiatives need to be directed at the point where crimes are committed (individual stores) and focused on the problems of customer theft and staff dishonesty. It is at this point that CCTV commends itself as a suitable mechanism.