Devon and Cornwall Police said there has been a nearly 10% increase in shoplifting charges since it became the first UK force to implement a direct-to-police reporting platform amid soaring levels of retail theft.
The police force has also saved 47 hours on every shoplifting report since it quietly became the first in the UK to roll out the anti-shoplifting software called Auror more than a year ago.
Auror allows retailers to send reports directly to the police and upload detailed suspect descriptions and video evidence to their online platform.
The move comes as several major high-street retailers, like Greggs and Primark, partnered up with the crime intelligence platform in 2025 in response to a booming underground “steal-to-order” economy, which costs the UK £2.2 billion a year.
Devon and Cornwall Business Crime & Crime Prevention Sergeant Chris Chaloner says the software has streamlined justice and has led to a near 10% increase in shoplifting charges.
He said: “All crime is underreported, but it is particularly low with retail crime, and unless we know about it, we can’t do anything about it.
“We were aware there were gaps in what we knew about prolific shoplifters and saw the Auror crime intelligence platform as an opportunity to piece things together.
“We decided to become the first UK police force to roll out the technology because we were so confident it would work.”
Sgt Chaloner says retailers are already using the crime intelligence platform to record internal losses to theft, and the opening up of the direct-to-police reporting feature has further streamlined justice.
Devon and Cornwall Police have saved 47 hours recording each report since the Auror rollout compared with traditional channels, which often require a week for evidence of the incident to be collected.
The platform has also increased public trust, as 96% of shoplifting victims seek further police action after reporting through Auror, compared with 83.4% through their Single Online Home.
“Auror has put us in a great position to do what most of us joined the police to do – reduce crime in the community,” Sgt Chaloner said.
Paul Fagg joined Auror as its director of law enforcement partnerships in 2024, after fifteen years as a Metropolitan Police officer, and two years with the National Business Crime Centre.
He said: “One of the biggest challenges at the National Business Crime Centre was connecting prolific shoplifters, who are four times more likely to be violent, to seemingly isolated theft incidents.
“The British Retail Consortium estimated there were 20 million retail crimes last year, and the police only received approximately 500,000 reports.
“How can police forces be expected to see the totality of crime and identify prolific offenders and connect organised crime groups when they have 5% of the picture?
“It’s not a police or retail problem in isolation, it’s about bringing the two together, and there wasn’t any conduit or mechanism to do that in a safe way before – that’s where Auror came in.
“By connecting the dots and showing that a repeat offender is actually responsible for 10, 20, or 30 incidents, the police are getting serious prison sentences for organised retail crime groups.”
Fagg shared that one of their partnered retailers recently reported losses of £260,000 over 75 events to a single prolific shoplifter, who has since been jailed.
Leading trade association British Retail Consortium (BRC) has expressed support for the implementation of direct-to-police reporting by UK law enforcement.
It said recent investment by retailers in new anti-shoplifting technology is an important step, but that the issue cannot be tackled by retailers alone.
A spokesperson for BRC said: “We welcome moves by police to crack down on shoplifting and it is positive to see certain police forces adopting new technology to do this.
“Improving the effectiveness of crime reporting is an important step forward and will help ensure incidents are followed up on properly, enabling law enforcement to take effective action to prosecute offenders.”
Nottinghamshire Police and Northumbria Police have also rolled out the platform following the success observed in Devon and Cornwall.
Northumbria Police told the Londoners it would share its findings after a longer period of implementation.
Retail theft can also be reported to Devon and Cornwall Police at devon-cornwall.police.uk
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