Town Centre Shoplifting Stats For ‘Festive Period’

North Wales Police ‘Operation Santa’ scheme has been described as ‘really successful’ at the first Town Centre Forum meeting of the year.

Operation Santa was launched over the Festive Period to ‘deter’ shoplifting in the town centre. As part of the operation, there was an increased presence of policing in the town, with both uniformed and ‘plain clothed’ officers.

Back in November we met with Inspector Mark Williams who told us that there is generally a ‘steady increase on shoplifting in the run up to Christmas’ and that the shoplifting trend line was down on last year’s festive period.

Inspector Williams added: : “There will be an increase in officers around the town this year. We are putting a huge visibility in the main supermarkets and shops.”

At the Town Centre Forum this morning, one officer from North Wales Police said that over the festive period there were 44 shoplifting incidents in the town centre.

This is a reduction of 21% year on year. It was added that on average there are 75 incidents each month of the year.

In recent months North Wales Police have been encouraging shopkeepers to turn away known shoplifters, rather than allow them into the store.

The officer present at the meeting described the results as ‘really successful’, adding that throughout January there will be a continued presence in the town centre to help deter shoplifting.