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Police officers will be joining the crowds on Black Friday as they do their own shopping for shoplifters.
Officers from the Cambridge Neighbourhood Policing Team will be hitting the high street as well as the Grand Arcade and Grafton Centre in a bid to prevent any would-be thieves from striking in the run up to Christmas.
Working alongside retailers and Cambridge Business Against Crime, they’ll be carrying out high-visibility and plain-clothes patrols to target shoplifters.
Last year there were 42 thefts reported between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, an increase of 147 per cent on 2020 as Christmas shoppers returned to the high street post Covid. The Neighbourhood Team have also been working closely with retailers encouraging them to report all thefts.
Sergeant Kevin Misik said: “We hope the high-visibility police presence will deter thieves while the plain-clothes officers will catch anyone trying their luck.
“We’ll be taking a zero-tolerance approach with anyone who is caught. Shoplifting often goes hand-in-hand with other issues so we’ll also be looking at the reasons why people are shoplifting, and with our partners see what we can do to address the issue.”