Business Crime
British Chamber of Commerce research published in April 2004 found that crime costs each UK business more than £8,000 per year.
Crime against businesses affects not only the employer and employees who depend on the business for their livelihood, but also the consumer in terms of the increased costs that are inevitably passed on as a result of crime. In addition, crime against business can have damaging consequences for local communities and disadvantaged areas in particular, by acting as a barrier to business growth. Information on business crime in the city is available here.
Work in Brighton & Hove to tackle business crime involves a range of partners across the city:
- The police work in partnership with the Brighton & Hove Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP). Members of the BCRP are able to share information on and monitor known offenders
- The BCRP operate a 'yellow card scheme' in response to anti-social behaviour in the vicinity of business premises who are part of the NightSafe scheme and if necessary exclude these individuals from all BCRP premises on a "barred from one barred from all" principle. Two yellow cards lead to an exclusion notice.
- The BCRP provides photographs of known and excluded offenders and this information used in conjunction with a radio network.
- The police carry out intelligence-led operations to bring offenders to justice
- Police Crime Prevention Officers available to help businesses improve their security
A few examples of other partnership initiatives being run are available in the following table:
Business Crime Reduction Initiatives
| Identified Problem | Initiative | Details |
| The need to be able to send out crime warnings and appeals for information to a wide range of businesses | Use of Brighton & Hove business directory | Directory holds 2,500 local businesses operating in the city Use to send crime warning and appeals for information to specific businesses, eg. antique dealers, builders merchants |
| Local businesses not knowing how secure their business premises | Business security quiz combined with police security visit to businesses | Developed and placed on Sussex Police website http://www.sussex.police.uk/ Advertised to thousands of local businesses Offer of free security survey by crime prevention officers |
| Local businesses not displaying any crime prevention signage | Free Business signage offer | Campaign offering a variety of security of signage ran to local business. Over 250 businesses took up offer. ‘CCTV in operation’, ‘No money left overnight’ ‘Staff only beyond this point’ etc |
Brighton & Hove Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) works with businesses, Sussex Police, Brighton & Hove City Council, the Partnership Community Safety Team and other city centre agencies and organisations to reduce crime against businesses. For more information, visit the BCRP website.
What should you do if your business is affected by crime?
Businesses can fall victim to a wide variety of crimes including fraud, robbery, criminal damage, shoplifting and theft by employees. Sussex Police have specialist officers that can help you. Contact Sussex Police on 0845 60 70 999. In an emergency always dial 999. Contrary to popular perception, crime against business is not a victimless crime
It affects not only the employer and employees who depend on the business for their livelihood, but also the consumer in terms of the increased costs that are inevitably passed on as a result of crime.
Crime against business can also have damaging consequences for local communities, and disadvantaged areas in particular, by acting as a barrier to business growth.
Reducing the risk of crimes against your business will help to support its long-term success. Security and crime prevention should be integral to any business plan, not just a reaction after the event.
