Retail Crime: Effective partnerships lead to strong community safety outcomes

me wide-ranging policy and law reform aside, such as closure order legislation for knife-crime and illicit tobacco, the development of some new and strong industry partnerships has been a step-change and has helped to solidify a long-term approach. Retail crime has been one of our longstanding advocacy priorities, as endorsed by the industry leaders on our Board and security committee, particularly given the harm that can be caused to workers, customers, and the broader community. One needs no reminding that our industry’s centres and retail environments are important community hubs and the most visited locations across Australia. Hence, ensuring that shopping centres are safe, and that people feel safe, is an enduring issue of critical importance. Against this backdrop, I wanted to provide an update on the industry partnerships that have been developed, as an important model for our engagement and success going forward. All of these have relied on the leadership and engagement of SCCA members. Operations Pulse and Percentile: Police and industry operations partnerships While policy and law reform are critical, it is operational outcomes that ultimately can deliver safer environments and enhance the community’s feeling of safety. In this regard, Victoria Police’s “Operation Pulse” stands out as a leading example of what can be achieved through targeted, intelligence-led policing in partnership with industry. Launched in December 2025, Operation Pulse is a trial with dedicated teams of police officers and Protective Services Officers (PSOs) across major metropolitan shopping centres. The deployment of PSOs is critically important here, as they have traditionally been deployed only to government buildings and train stations. The SCCA were involved in having relevant legislation amended a few years ago, to enable PSOs to be deployed to shopping centres. Initially flagged to run for a few months, the early success of Operation Pulse resulted in the Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allan, extending the operation until 31 December 2026. Operation Pulse has a clear objective: deter criminal activity, respond rapidly to incidents, and provide a visible security presence to reassure the community. The results have been positive In just four months, Operation Pulse has led to more than 1000 arrests and over 2000 charges across participating shopping centres. Almost half of these charges relate to retail theft, alongside more than 350 drug and weapon seizures. Data from the SCCA shows a 73 per cent reduction in retail theft and a 50 per cent reduction in violent events across participating centres over the initial trial period. These are not marginal improvements, they are transformative outcomes. A key lesson from Operation Pulse is the importance of police visibility. Retail environments are dynamic, high-traffic spaces. The presence of uniformed officers, whether police or PSOs, plays a critical role in both deterrence and reassurance. Potential offenders are far less likely to engage in criminal behaviour. Feedback from retailers and customers has been overwhelmingly positive. SCCA data indicates that more than 80 per cent of customers and retailers feel safer with a visible police presence. This aligns with what the SCCA has consistently advocated: High-visibility policing is one of the most effective tools available in addressing retail crime. In NSW, a similarly co-ordinated and intelligence-led approach is being rolled out through the NSW Police Retail Crime Strategy and its operational arm, Operation Percentile. Developed in close consultation with industry, including the SCCA, the strategy reflects a strong partnership model, with ongoing engagement among police, retailers and peak bodies to share intelligence, identify emerging risks and co-ordinate responses. Since its initial deployment in 2024, Operation Percentile has delivered tangible results, with more than 1080 offenders charged for over 1395 offences and close to $1 million in stolen goods recovered. More recent targeted operations across Sydney have continued to build on this momentum, with dozens of arrests in short, high-impact enforcement blitzes, alongside weapon seizures, fines and move-on orders, demonstrating the effectiveness of sustained, place-based policing. The strategy is underpinned by ongoing collaboration, including regular forums between police and industry, dedicated police contacts for retail precincts, and tools to prevent repeat offenders from returning to shopping centres, ensuring that the partnership between NSW Police and the industry continues to deliver practical, on-the-ground outcomes. Operations Pulse and Percentile serve as a model that we intend to seek to widen across our industry and across other jurisdictions. Crime Stoppers Australia: Strengthening community engagement and information A critical element of addressing retail crime is strengthening the flow of information between the community and law enforcement, and this is where the SCCA’s partnership with Crime Stoppers Australia has played an important role. Recognising that many incidents of retail crime, particularly those linked to repeat offending and organised activity, rely on timely intelligence, the SCCA has worked closely with Crime Stoppers to encourage greater community reporting and awareness. Our joint initiative was established as part of a targeted national campaign to encourage greater community reporting of retail crime and anti-social behaviour. Delivered between September 8 and October 10 2025 and January 1-30 2026, covering busy national school holiday and trading periods, the campaign was rolled out across a network of more than 225-plus shopping centres nationwide, leveraging high-visibility placements including digital screens, billboards, carpark signage, and centre directories. The campaign was designed to make reporting simple, safe and anonymous, directing customers, retailers and centre staff to Crime Stoppers channels to provide information on theft, retail crime, abuse and other concerning behaviour. The initiative formed part of a broader effort to shift community attitudes by reinforcing that retail crime is not a victimless issue and that the public has a direct role to play in supporting safer environments. By embedding clear, consistent messaging within high-foot traffic retail destinations, the campaign ensured strong reach and frequency, positioning Crime Stoppers as a trusted and accessible pathway for information sharing at the point where incidents are most likely to occur or be witnessed. During the campaign period in January 2026, this collaboration coincided with a measurable uplift in engagement. Crime Stoppers recorded an increase in community contacts compared with December 2025, alongside a rise in actionable information reports, equating to more than 1000 additional reports nationally in a single month. The proportion of contacts converting into actionable intelligence also improved, indicating that the increase was not simply a function of higher volume, but reflected more meaningful and usable information being provided to authorities. These results reinforce the value of sustained public awareness efforts and the role the community can play in disrupting retail crime when given the right channels and encouragement to act. Kindness Is campaign, Westfield Chermside Be Kind in Retail: an unmatched industry collaboration Complementing this work has been the SCCA’s “Be Kind in Retail” (BKIR) campaign, an industry-led initiative designed to address the rising incidence of abuse and aggression directed at retail workers, while also reinforcing community expectations around respectful behaviour. What began in 2024 as a united stand against the alarming rise in abuse, violence and weapon-related incidents in retail environments has evolved into the industry’s largest retail and community public safety campaign in the country. What sets this campaign apart is the scale of collaboration behind it. Led by the SCCA in collaboration with a powerful coalition of industry associations and retailers, including the National Retail Association (NRA – now the Australian Retail Council), Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS), Australian Security Industry Association Limited (ASIAL), the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, and the Building Service Contractors Association of Australia (BSCAA), the campaign continues to grow in scale, visibility and influence. Be Kind in Retail has brought together major retail, entertainment and financial services partners, including Woolworths Group, HOYTS and The Commonwealth Bank, alongside shopping-centre owners and operators across the country. Over two years, collectively the SCCA and our partners have contributed more than $16 million in in-kind advertising value, enabling the campaign to achieve national reach across shopping centres, cinemas, digital platforms and banking channels. The campaign’s messaging has been deliberately simple but powerful, reminding customers that behind every retail interaction is a person who deserves to feel safe and respected at work. We are encouraged by early indicators across a number of centres showing a year-on-year reduction in threatening and aggressive incidents during the campaign period. While the BKIR campaign is just one piece of the puzzle in addressing unacceptable behaviour in retail environments, these results demonstrate the tangible impact of a co-ordinated, industry-wide approach to driving behavioural change in retail environments. Looking ahead: sustaining momentum This progress would not have been possible without the ongoing commitment of SCCA members, whose leadership, investment and day-to-day efforts underpin initiatives such as Operation Pulse, Operation Percentile, our partnership with Crime Stoppers Australia and the Be Kind in Retail campaign. Their close working relationships with police and openness to sharing intelligence and participating in co-ordinated operations, alongside their in-kind contributions to national campaigns, have been critical to strengthening collaboration and delivering safer retail environments across the country. The progress made demonstrates that meaningful, lasting improvements in retail safety are not driven by any single initiative, but by sustained partnerships across industry, government, law enforcement and the community. The success of initiatives such as Operation Pulse, Operation Percentile, the partnership with Crime Stoppers Australia, and the Be Kind in Retail campaign reinforces a clear lesson: Sustained advocacy and effective partnerships lead to strong community safety outcomes. Looking ahead, maintaining this momentum will be critical. Retail crime continues to evolve, becoming more organised and, at times, more aggressive. Partnerships with Police, and organisations like Crime Stoppers will remain essential in strengthening community engagement and encouraging the flow of actionable intelligence. At the same time, industry-led campaigns such as Be Kind in Retail highlight the importance of shaping social norms and reinforcing expectations around respectful behaviour in retail environments. The SCCA will continue to play a central role in convening these partnerships, advocating for practical policy settings and supporting on-the-ground initiatives that protect workers, customers and businesses. The evidence is clear: When industry and government partner together, outcomes improve. This article by Luke Sikora, Head of Stakeholder Engagement is published in the latest issue of SCN magazine – CBD Guns edition.