An innovative scheme to combat retail crime is celebrating a milestone with fifty special police officers now out patrolling London's thriving shopping districts.

Pioneered by the Met in partnership with major retail chains, ShopWatch involves retail staff being trained by the Met as special constables.

Once fully trained they have full police powers and patrol key shopping areas of London alongside experienced Met officers.

The programme relies on retail companies giving their staff paid leave to train as special constables and for their regular patrols. So far more than twenty-five household name retailers have leant their support to the project, enabling fifty ShopWatch specials to go out on the beat in London. A further 100, who are currently going through the selection process, will be joining them shortly.

Now it is hoped that more retailers will sign up so that the scheme can be expanded to cover more shopping areas across London.

This week, the Mayor Ken Livingstone joined the Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, Assistant Commissioner Tim Godwin, key retail executives and ShopWatch special constables at a dinner at New Scotland Yard to discuss expanding the scheme and other areas of retail security. The event on Monday night was organised by ShopWatch in association with the British Retail Consortium.

ShopWatch was launched three years ago in Camden Town and is now running in ten large retail areas of London, with plans for it to be expanded into other boroughs. The areas currently benefiting from the scheme are:
 Camden Town,Oxford Street and Regent Street (West End), Covent Garden, Brent Cross Shopping Centre,  Wood Green, Wandsworth, Kingston,  Uxbridge, Bexleyheath, Croydon..

       
  Assistant Commissioner Tim Godwin, the head of Territorial Policing, said:

"The Metropolitan Police Service is committed to ShopWatch, which has seen real results in tackling in-store and on-street crime in retail areas. The public benefits from a safer shopping environment, while participating retailers have reported significant reductions in stock loss as a result of the scheme."

Key findings from an evaluation of ShopWatch in 2006 found:

          93% of responding store managers said they felt that ShopWatch is a successful initiative.

          50% of responding managers stated that theft had decreased since the introduction of a Special                 Constable
.
          78% of Special Constables said they felt they had helped create a safer shopping environment.

           74% said they had been involved in reducing crime whilst working in their store or off duty.