Shoplifting in Inverness shot up by 34% in 2017 compared with the previous year according to Chief Inspector Colin Gough.
The Area Commander told the Inverness Area Committee’s policing performance summary there were a total of 457 cases.
He said: “What concerned me yet again was the increase in shoplifting, up by 116 compared to last year.
“When you look at these figures it has risen against the three and five-year baseline figures, it is not a spike – it is rising.”
The Chief Inspector noted that the increase in shoplifting has been offset to a degree by the high detection rate of close to 80%.
He said: “We as a service know our priority offenders so if you can impact on location, on perpetrator, on victim then you will see a decline.”
Central to that will be the combined efforts of BID, businesses and security guards linked directly with the police through the walkie-talkie “shop-link” system.
“There are good relations between the retail groups, I think that was long overdue. And with shop-link we are on it before an incident has been reported.”
He added: “There is more trust in reporting with the task team and shop link so the city centre police team can get to work.”
One good point was that so effective is the new shop-link system that often “we are on it before anything has officially been reported.”
Chief Inspector Gough said: “A lot of good work is going on. In terms of what we know clothing outlets are the number one target, three of four down are major supermarkets.”
The report also noted the number of incidents from drinking alcohol on the street to hate crime to vandalism was well below the five year baseline.
