Tagged shoplifters to trigger alarm when they go near stores they have previously targeted
Prolific shoplifters are being fitted with tags that sound an alarm when they go near shops they have targeted previously.
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Police can use GPS to track shoplifters to make sure they don’t go near areas from which they have been banned.
Banned areas can consist of individual shops, streets or even entire towns.
Police and shop owners will receive alerts if tagged shoplifters enter the banned areas.
The technology is a new tactic to clamp down on repeat offenders with the most prolific 10 per cent of shoplifters believed to be behind of 70 per cent of shop thefts.
Sussex police is running a pilot scheme of the technology. Currently two shoplifters have been fitted with it, according to the Telegraph.
Victoria Hale, 50, has been ordered to wear one of the tags for 12 months and is banned from going within 30 metres of a Co-op in Eastbourne.
Barry Farthing, 41, has an exclusion zone covering a Co-op in Hastings. He will wear the tag when released from prison in January.
Katy Bourne, the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner and the national policing lead on retail crime, said: “This could be a game changer. We know it’s a handful of individuals who cause the most harm. If we can change their behaviour, we can stop it.
“A success would be a reduction in reoffending for the individual, a drop in the number of thefts being reported and a change in their behaviour if they attend rehabilitation programmes.”
Shoplifting hit a record high in the year to March 2025 with the crime estimated to have cost the public purse £5bn through repeat shoplifting, theft and violence, according to a study released last month.