Shop staff in the Lothians to wear body cameras amid fight against shoplifters

Shop staff in West Lothian will be the first in the region to trial body cameras provided by police in the fight against shoplifting across the wider area, it has been revealed.

Police Scotland confirmed it had secured funding for the project which will be rolled out across the Lothians after a successful campaign against retail crime at Straiton retail park over Christmas.

Reporting to Midlothian Police and Fire Rescue Board, officers said that a task force funded by Scottish Government grants had recovered over £3,600 of shoplifted items while patrolling the retail park during December with 30 people charged – 12 of whom were repeat offenders.

And they confirmed plans to provide small shops across the Lothians with body video cameras are progressing with funding already in place.

A police spokesperson told the meeting: “Funding has been agreed and it is going through the procurement process.

“The first place to to use them is likely to be West Lothian but they will be used across J Division where incidents have been reported.”

In September last year police said they were looking into offering the video cameras to small shops where they could not afford to install CCTV systems.

The move came after it was revealed shoplifting thefts had gone up by more than 90% in Midlothian and it was revealed officers had been allocated £50,000 from national funding from the Scottish Government to tackle retail crime in the county.

At the meeting of the Police Fire and Rescue Board, officers revealed that the initial funding had been used to increase patrols in areas hit by the crime wave.

Additional funds allowed the force to set up a task force to be based at Straiton Retail Park over th Christmas period leading to the recovery of goods and arrests.

Police told the meeting that some people identified faced being handed antisocial behaviour orders which would include banning offenders who do not live in the county from crossing into it in the future.

They said the body cams for shops would be provided by police and moved from area to area in a way similar to mobile CCTV cameras are used to tackle offences in places worst affected.