Tackling shoplifters is hampered by inadequate police cooperation

At least twenty thousand shoplifters did not have to pay compensation to the stores where they struck last year. This is because the police have hardly passed on any data on arrested shoplifters to retailers since the beginning of 2024. Supermarkets and other retail companies cannot therefore hold the thieves liable and demand 181 euros in damages.

This is what the DAAD Foundation (an independent organization that monitors this form of civil liability) and the two main organizations that collect compensation for shops say. NRC.

The problem cannot be solved in one-two-three

Apart from the criminal approach by the police and the judiciary, it is possible for retailers to prosecute thieves under civil law for committing an unlawful act. The perpetrator of such an act is legally obliged to compensate the damage. This civil law approach became more popular over the past decade. The most recent annual report of the DAAD Foundation shows that more than 31,000 shoplifters were held liable under civil law in 2023, an increase of almost half in two years. But that number is expected to be significantly lower by 2024.

Director Niels van Os of SODA, which claims to collect fines for shoplifting as an authorized representative for around 80 percent of all stores (including Albert Heijn and Jumbo), states that this organization has not received the data of at least twenty thousand shoplifters since February. of the police.

Problems

Rogier Bakker, director of Nuisance Registration Netherlands, which collects fines for Vomar, among others, also says that he has only received a fraction of the requested data since February. “Due to organizational problems with the police, entrepreneurs are now seriously limited in recovering damages from shoplifting,” notes DAAD Foundation director Lex Westerman.

The police may provide information about the perpetrator to those affected by a criminal offence. Shoplifters were given these automatically for years. When this turned out to be contrary to the privacy rules, a new working method was introduced. The data of shoplifters was first checked manually and based on the four-eye principle by police officers before being forwarded. The privacy desk of the Central Netherlands unit was responsible for all provisions.

The current problems arose in February, when the Central Netherlands unit decided to no longer provide national data. Since then, retail companies and their representatives, such as SODA, have had to contact all ten separate police units. “They all have their own policy regarding benefits in kind. In practice, this means that hardly any data from shoplifters is shared,” says DAAD director Westerman.

There are two forms of civil liability. In one variant, liability is settled in the store, without reporting, without police intervention. The condition is that the shoplifter identifies himself and usually immediately pays 181 euros. In the other variant, the police do appear on the scene, for example because it concerns a repeat offender or a thief who does not want to identify himself. With this variant, data provision stops.

Persecution

The police and the judiciary have been concerned for some time about the amount of time that shoplifting costs them. They actually want to spend less time on the labor-intensive arrest and prosecution of shoplifters, because this is at the expense of tackling more serious crimes.

For example, the ‘reprimand policy’ was introduced in 2022. Since then, an adult shoplifter who is arrested for the first time only receives a warning – provided the loot is modest. He will not be prosecuted and will not have a criminal record.

The police and the judiciary want to spend less time on the labor-intensive arrests and prosecutions of shoplifters

The police and the judiciary are currently discussing a new prosecution policy, under which ‘minor’ crimes, such as shoplifting, will in principle no longer be prosecuted. Current police chief Janny Knol gained experience with such an approach in her previous position as head of the East Netherlands unit. Public Prosecution Service CEO Rinus Otte opposed such an approach NRC last year “a very appealing one”. The civil approach to shoplifting then becomes more important, because the criminal approach is lacking.

Supervisor Westerman finds it difficult to place the state of affairs at the police in this light. He points out that the House of Representatives passed two motions at the end of last year to relax the rules surrounding shoplifting. For example, a motion by MPs Michon-Derkzen (VVD), Kisteman (VVD) and Boswijk (CDA) praises the effectiveness of civil settlement of shoplifting. The motion also calls on the cabinet to come up with an action plan to improve public-private partnerships in shoplifting.

181 euros

In response to questions from NRC the police acknowledge that “a significant number” of requests regarding shoplifters’ data are outstanding. However, this problem cannot be solved “one-two-three”, partly due to capacity problems, work processes and privacy legislation also need to be adjusted. According to the police, work is being done to introduce a uniform national process for data provision, but this “still needs time”.

A calculation shows that stores affiliated with SODA have so far missed out on almost 4 million euros in compensation. However, according to director Van Os, the damage cannot only be expressed in monetary terms. The civil liability and 181 euros that shoplifters have to pay prevent the majority from making the same mistake again. Van Os bases the fact that recidivism is reduced in this way on internal data about civil liability that is established without the intervention of the police. “In the 14,000 cases we have settled in this way over the past two years, we see two repeat offenders.”

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