UK Partners Against Crime welcomes continued action to tackle organised criminal activity operating through businesses on Britain’s high streets and believes the private security and business crime reduction community has an important role to play.

Security Minister Dan Jarvis has highlighted the Government’s ongoing action against high street businesses linked to organised crime, with raids, arrests and the seizure of criminal cash and assets forming part of a wider effort to disrupt the networks behind them.

The Government announced a £30 million crackdown earlier this year targeting high street businesses being used for activities including money laundering, tax evasion, illegal working and the sale of illicit goods. This included £20 million for an enhanced law enforcement response and the creation of a new multi-agency coordination function within the National Crime Agency.

The Government says the National Crime Agency estimates at least £12 billion in criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, with around £1 billion laundered through high street businesses. Previous enforcement activity under Operation Machinize has brought together police, the NCA, HMRC, Immigration Enforcement, Trading Standards and other agencies.

These operations demonstrate what coordinated enforcement can achieve. But enforcement is only one part of the picture.

The intelligence on our high streets

Every day, thousands of security professionals, retailers, businesses and Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BCRPs) operate at the heart of our towns and cities.

They understand their local environments. They see patterns of behaviour, repeat incidents and emerging issues. They may notice activity that, viewed individually, appears insignificant but which can become important when combined with information held elsewhere.

That makes effective intelligence sharing critical. Indeed, the Government's own announcement recognises the importance of coordination and intelligence sharing between retailers, law enforcement and local partners in tackling high street criminality.

At UK Partners Against Crime, we believe there is an opportunity to strengthen those connections further. Security teams and businesses should never be expected to investigate suspected organised crime themselves. Nor should assumptions be made about a business or individual simply because something appears unusual.

But where people have genuine information or concerns about suspected criminal activity, they should know how and where to share them.

Turning information into intelligence

A security officer might repeatedly observe suspicious activity at a particular location. A retailer may recognise a pattern affecting several neighbouring businesses. A BCRP could see similar reports appearing across its membership.

Individually, those pieces of information may provide only part of the picture.

Shared appropriately, they can potentially help law enforcement and partner agencies build a much clearer intelligence picture. Members of UK Partners Against Crime are able to do that though a secure and widely used crime management platform which is making a real difference.

Collaboration across the high street

The response to organised high street crime cannot sit with one organisation or sector.

Police and national law enforcement have their role. Local authorities and Trading Standards have theirs. Retailers, BCRPs and professional security providers also have valuable perspectives and information.

The opportunity is to connect those parts of the system more effectively. UK Partner Against Crime wants to encourage greater dialogue between the professional security sector, BCRPs, businesses and law enforcement about how relevant information can be identified and shared responsibly.

Organisations representing and working directly with frontline security professionals, alongside bodies such as the National Association of Business Crime Partnerships (NABCP), can contribute important practical experience to that conversation.

There is also an opportunity for employers to ensure their security teams understand existing reporting routes and know what to do when they encounter information that could be relevant to wider criminal activity.

A call to the security and business community

UK Partners Against Crime encourages those working across Britain's high streets to consider the part they can play.

If you work in security, retail, hospitality, a BCRP or another high street business and have genuine information about suspected criminal activity, do not assume somebody else will report it.

Record and share information through your organisation's appropriate reporting procedures and, where relevant, with your local police. If you want to provide information anonymously, Crimestoppers offers a confidential route for doing so.

Just as importantly, we want the industry to talk about what could work better.

Are frontline security professionals being given the right guidance to recognise and report relevant information? Are businesses, BCRPs, security providers and police sharing information as effectively as they could? And where are the gaps?

UK Partners Against Crime wants to work with partners across the sector to explore those questions and help strengthen the connections between those protecting our high streets every day and the agencies tackling the organised criminal networks operating within them.

Enforcement can close a criminal operation down. Good intelligence can help uncover the network behind it.