Businesses use CCTV to crackdown on shoplifters - Safer Soho Business Partnership members share footage to cut crime

Published: 29 October 2010
by TOM FOOT

BUSINESSES in Soho are monitoring each other’s CCTV to crack down on shoplifters.

Cafés, pubs and shops who have signed up to the new Safer Soho Business Partnership can access a website that allows them to see inside neighbouring premises that have joined the scheme.

The web detectives can contact each other on a special digital radio system if they spot “persistent offenders”.

The council has released mugshots of notorious shoplifters and petty thieves  on its site – accessible to any member of staff with a password.

The online scheme will help rid Soho of its “sleazy image” and “drive down drug use”, according to Westminster Council.

Superintendent Adam Loxley from the Met Police said: “The radio link and business partnership will provide more tools for the local community to continue working with us to target crime and disorder which can occasionally detract from the charm and character for which Soho is famous.”