Brisbane CBD and Fortitude Valley retailers will band together next week, in the Australia-first, National Retail Association (NRA) SafeCity Network trial.
The event has been designed to share experiences of retail crime, on the back of a spate of scammer incidents in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
NRA policy manager David Stout said that local businesses were fed up being perceived as easy prey to known offenders and organised crime.
“Brisbane retailers lose an estimated $618 million a year to retail theft and there are strong indicators that the bulk of this is at the hands of organised individuals and syndicates.
“With the support of Brisbane City Council and Crime Stoppers, we’ve launched the NRA SafeCity Network which offers new channels for retailers to not only report crime but to share this information with each other."
Crime Stoppers CEO Trevor O’Hara will join with the NRA in leading the first in a series of Retail Crime Workshops for Brisbane retailers.
The Workshops will outline how participating businesses can utilise new reporting channels and new technology to share information on scammers and thieves with each other, so each can take better precautions to protect their own businesses.
“No single operator has the capacity to tackle retail crime alone, however with the NRA SafeCity Network, retailers can access a bank of new information on crimes that may have gone unreported otherwise, to better connect the dots, tackle problem perpetrators, and share that information with each other and local law enforcement,” O’Hara said.
“Retailers are now able to utilise advancing technology to better equip themselves and help each other do the same.
“We are calling on all retailers – large and small, from fashion to food, and everyone in between – who has at least one store in Brisbane City or The Valley, to take part.
The NRA is encouraging all retailers in the precincts to participate. The trial is free for retailers.
The first Retail Crime Workshops will take place in Brisbane on March 20 and Fortitude Valley on March 27.