Police have historically committed their service and time to taking reports of volume crime in the format of shoplifting. In Portsmouth there was a perceived lack of trust from the businesses in the community towards the police. This was apparently due to several influencing factors which included a general feeling that police were not taking their complaints seriously. There was also apathy by police in dealing with crimes reported. The quality of the investigations varied and there was an extremely low detection rate for offenders. It was evident through scanning crime records and in-store reports, that there was significant underreporting of crimes. National Crime Recording Standards (NCRS) were not being met and in turn the National Intelligence Model (NIM) was not supported. From the partner data it was evident that staff understanding of what incidents to report to police and when to report these issues was unclear. Reports that were made were of insufficient evidential value. Operation Kensington was designed to improve crime reporting methods in convenience stores in Copnor, Portsmouth. The plan was to introduce more effective and efficient investigation and detection, whilst reducing the time commitment of individual police officers into shopliftings. Therefore allowing officers to focus on more pressing needs. Through consultation, Police, Southern Co-operatives, Storewatch and Crime Prevention Advisors, developed a successful way of reporting and detecting crime. The improved system allowed police officers to patrol more effectively, maximising their ability to record in-store crime. Crime was tackled using SARA and the PAT triangle. Processes introduced through Operation Kensington enabled NCRS and NlM to be met. The system has been in place for over a year and has spread to other businesses through Portsmouth. The effect of improved communications has improved the service the police provide their partners and victims in the business community. In the pilot area the partners have seen an increase in reported crime of 182%. This provides a very clear picture of the crimes and concerns faced by convenience stores and we were able to introduce an effective crime screening policy. 27% of reported crime was eliminated at source reducing the requirement for police to attend the scene of a crime. As an overall outcome we saw an increase in detected crime of 270% in the pilot area, retuning confidence and support in the service the police provided to the business communities.

Operation Kensington was established after police officers in Portsmouth identified a significant drain on Police resources. Officers were repeatedly attending convenience stores in Portsmouth to take reports of incidents, the most common being shoplifting. They were frustrated by spending significant time at these locations attempting to complete initial investigations and getting little or no results from their work.

In order to produce a controlled case study the geographical area of Copnor was examined as a beat area within Portsmouth ensuring clear boundaries. Within this area we could identify that 57% of calls recorded and attended on police Records Management System (RMS) between 01/01/2005 and 07/12/2005 (the date we carried out the initial research) were to shops and theft related incidents.
This was a regular trend in Portsmouth. When calls were examined it was clear that officers were having trouble completing investigations as shift patterns did not tally with shop staff working patterns or resources were unavailable due to rest days, sickness, courses or leave. On average it appeared that officers were making two or three visits to obtain the relevant evidence and due to competing police needs, officers were taking up to three weeks to complete the initial investigation. The investigations that were completed had varying degrees of competency and evidence and it was of concern that only 17% of these crimes had been detected. When officers were spoken to, to identify their concerns, they complained they were not getting the help they required as store staff appeared complacent and sometimes incompetent. Officers claimed evidence that was being gathered by the stores was poor, CCTV was useless and staff did not know what to look out for. As a result of these concerns raised by officers and the poor level of investigations, it was decided to identify the volume of issues for the police and the problems surrounding crime in businesses. Due to the recent introduction of a new crime recording system it was only possible to search in detail back to April 2005 to ascertain how much of a problem the police had with shoplifting in Portsmouth. Anything prior to this had been archived and was not available for in-depth research.