With shoplifting offences in East London up 39.2% year-on-year, urgent action is needed.
The Met Police have established an information-sharing agreement with 16 Business Crime Reduction Partnerships and Business Improvement Districts across London. The new agreement allows officers and the partners to share information, including intelligence, and images or footage of prolific offenders.
Within the first month of the new agreement, a total of 92 wanted offenders have been identified through this scheme. Data from the Met Police shows that in Southeast London, 42 suspects have been identified, including 10 for shoplifting and 8 for robbery.
Andrew Featherstone, who leads the Met’s response to business crime notes ‘retail crime is not a victimless crime, their actions impact businesses, staff and communities’. (Met Police) He stresses the importance of collaboration, further adding ‘by working together, we are making London safer for everyone’.
Since the beginning of 2025, the Met Police have solved 92% more shoplifting cases, increasing their collaboration with local businesses in order to protect communities, and retail workers. But how can this scheme benefit the East London Borough, which has an ever-increasing crime rate?
East London crime rates have increased by 4.6% since September, rising to a total of 14289 cases in October in comparison to 13648 cases in September this year. (Met Police) Specifically focusing on shoplifting crimes across East London, research shows that shoplifting accounts for 7.6% of all reported crimes, with a 39.2% year-over-year increase between October 2024 and September 2025.
Figure 1: East London Shoplifting Crime Rate (source: PlumPlot, 2025)
Crime rate per 1000 workday people compared to the national crime rate by year
The graph above illustrates how shoplifting trends in East London compare with the national picture. While East London consistently recorded lower rates than the national average between 2014 and 2021, from 2022 the pattern shifts. East London’s shoplifting rate increases at a faster pace than the national trend. By 2024, the borough records its highest shoplifting level in 10 years, signalling an escalation in shoplifting offences.
With retail crime continuing to rise across East London, the partnership between the Met Police and businesses is under growing pressure to prove it can stop a trend that has been steadily increasing year-on-year. The data calls for more visible policing and consistent action against repeat offenders as the police take extra measures to tackle crime.
