Archive Council News

19.12.06

Crimelink contributes to reduction of Town Centre Crime

The Wrexham Crimelink Partnership heard at its Annual General Meeting this month how effective the initiative has been in contributing to the reduction of crime in the town centre over the last year.

Wrexham Crimelink, which is an operational partnership of retailers, the local authority and police, runs a radiolink system across the town designed to inform fellow outlets of potential incidents, known shoplifters, and theft. The radiolink is increasingly seen as a deterrent to shoplifters as outlets share information over the radio which reduces the criminals’ chance of success.

The newly elected Chair of Wrexham Crimelink, Vaughan Jones of Tesco, said: "Crimelink works in partnership with the town centre police and CCTV to help make Wrexham a safer place for people to visit. The business members are the eyes and ears of the community, alerting partners to incidents and helping to prevent crime."

The annual report at the meeting highlighted some of the successes of the year, including the arrest of four people and the recovery of a substantial amount of forged currency in the town centre. Another episode saw the arrest of two people and the recovery of £4,000 worth of heroin. The British Retail Consortium recently published figures regarding the £1.51 billion lost to retailers annually, mostly due to customer theft often driven by alcohol and drug related problems.

Town Centre liaison officer with North Wales Police Chris Beesley said: “The Wrexham Crimelink is one of just 12 such initiatives in Wales and was instrumental in Wrexham becoming the first Welsh town to win the Safer Business Award for creating a welcoming and secure place to shop.”

Wrexham Crimelink has nearly one hundred and fifty members and covers the town centre shops as well as the retail parks. The initiative also supports the work of the Community Safety Partnership by enabling an exchange of information with the police and CCTV operators to alert them to incidents or to the presence of known offenders. This has led to over 1,000 arrests in Wrexham since April 2006. If you are a retail business interested in joining the Crimelink initiative please contact Isobel Watson on 01978 292457.