Shoplifters are “getting away with it”, the politician overseeing North Yorkshire Police has claimed, saying responding to such offences had fallen off the force’s list of priorities and that insurance companies were being expected to make amends.

Deputy mayor (police, fire and crime) Jo Coles was responding to concerns raised about retail crime by the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel after a recent government inspection concluded the number of crimes the force solved following investigations was low.

Panel member Councillor Michael Pavlovic said the area had seen the “effective decriminalisation of retail theft” and the impact of having no police in some areas resulted in the “holing out of communities”.

He said supermarkets in the Hull Road ward in York could not get investigatory officers to respond when they had hundreds of pounds of stock stolen.

Ms Coles said retail crime had become a huge issue across the region with organised crime gangs targeting shops where they knew there was little police presence, stealing goods to order or to fund drug or alcohol habits.

(Image: York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority)

She said: “It kind of fell off the agenda over the last couple of years and the impact of austerity, combined with the cost of living crisis and then a lack of response on certain call-outs, certain types of crime and the expectation that people will report things to their insurance company and that kind of covers it means people are getting away with it when they shouldn’t be getting away with it.”

Mayor David Skaith added that as he launched a fund to boost high streets in Thirsk last week every single Business Improvement District attending had raised the issue of retail crime and the fear of violence that went with it.

He said he wanted to use the fund to support communities to feel safer while working with the police to solve what had become “a huge issue across the region”, including in more rural areas.

Mr Skaith said: “It’s that smaller, petty theft, but what it leads to could be a bigger picture. We want our communities, our high streets and our shopkeepers in particular, and people working in those businesses to feel safe and secure.”

The meeting heard concerns while the force’s control room had live CCTV feeds from York, there had been no investment so far in a similar system for North Yorkshire’s largest towns, and there remained too few Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), which affected police responses.

Ms Coles said the starting point was building public confidence in policing and it was important to get the right mix of police officers, PCSOs, specials and public safety officers.

Deputy chief constable Scott Bisset said the force was reviewing “the balance between intelligence and visibility and engagement and enforcement”, adding that “some problems need straightforward enforcement”.

He said while some forces had completely removed their PCSOs, North Yorkshire had very high numbers of PCSOs compared to similarly rural counties and extra technology was needed in the force control room.