Community Funding Award - Grimsby Retailers in Partnership

Operation Shopkind is a national campaign to bring the retail sector together in partnership with the police and council to positively address the growing problem of violence and abuse against shop workers. This latest initiative has been made possible after Grimsby Retailers in Partnership (GRIP CIC) were successful in an application for £30,000 funding from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Community Safety Fund.

The scheme was first launched in Birmingham in February this year and has expanded across other shopping centres throughout the country including an event at Grimsby’s Freshney Place in April. This new funding investment will extend the scheme to support twenty retailers in Freeman Street with 2-way radios and the DISC application which allows retailers to share information about offenders with the aim of bringing down crime and anti-social-behaviour.    

Operation ShopKind urges the public to be mindful of shop workers' essential role in serving town centre visitors, emphasising that shop workers should be treated with respect and kindness to counter the negativity and threats that are putting them in fear of crime.

Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner Jonathan Evison commented: “Every day across the country 400 shop workers are abused or are subjected to violent incidents. This is totally unacceptable and we must do more to protect retailers and ensure that staff can come to work free from fear. I am pleased that this investment from my Community Safety Fund will enable retailers to share information and send a strong message of solidarity to anyone who targets a business for criminal gain or behaves unacceptably towards staff.”    

Supt. Paul French, Humberside Police Neighbourhood Policing & Partnerships said: “Humberside Police officers will always provide support to retailers and have recently been rolling out our workplace charter. We will be demonstrating the importance of tackling retail crime with the intention of protecting and safeguarding these key workers supporting our communities.

“Shopworkers provide a key service at the heart of their communities and should be able to go to work without the fear of abuse or violence.”

Ayolt Kloosterboer, Chair, Grimsby Retailers in Partnership (GRIP) and McDonald’s Franchisee said: “There are a range of effective countermeasures available to retail and other businesses to help deter threats to staff, whether from individuals as part of criminal gangs or in random, isolated incidents. Only by working collaboratively and as a community will we be able to fully support our teams on the front line.”

Click here for more details on the Community Safety Fund

Photos courtesy of Richard Addison - Grimsby Telegraph

Further information:

Contact for Retailers: Shopworker Safety (nbcc.police.uk)

Contact for Businesses: How to report a Business Crime (nbcc.police.uk)

Contact for the Public:Crimestoppers