On patrol with the officers battling a city's serial shoplifters

Norfolk's police and crime commissioner says the force is one of the best in the country at catching shoplifters. The BBC went out on patrol with police officers tackling retail crime in Norwich.

As PC Ben Blewitt, retail beat manager for Norwich, walks through the city centre, shopkeepers come out to thank him and share the latest intelligence on serial shoplifters.

They use an app to log information and communicate with officers in real time, reporting live incidents and sharing CCTV evidence.

"Without the retailers, we would really struggle," says Blewitt.

Soon he spots a familiar face on Gentleman's Walk. It's 35-year-old John Price, who is on bail and wanted for further shoplifting offences.

Blewitt immediately arrests him – for the sixth time this year.

"You're so busy, we can't keep up with you," he tells him.

A police van arrives and takes Price to Bethel Street Police Station to be processed.

Price, of no fixed address, has already served two jail sentences this year for shoplifting and is barred by court order from entering nearly 20 stores.

For his 37 shoplifting offences this year, Price has pleaded guilty every time.

When he appears at court for his latest thefts, he is sentenced to a further six months in prison – his third jail term of 2026.

Blewitt says Price is far from the only prolific offender he deals with. In fact, he says most of his work involves the same small group.

"There's probably at any one time between 25 and 30 offenders similar to John who are going through this cycle," he says.

"We will target anyone who steals from our city. And if it's the most prolific offenders, I can assure you that we will be actively pursuing them until we get them."

Recorded shoplifting offences in Norfolk fell by 8.5% in the 12 months to the end of June.

Colin Sutton, Norfolk's Reform UK Police and Crime Commissioner, says this is an issue that police cannot arrest their way out of.

He says Norfolk Police is one of the best-performing forces in the country at catching shoplifters, but that officers are being "let down" by a criminal justice system "on its knees".

"We solve it by unjamming the criminal justice system. We solve it by sentences being more realistic," he says.

Sutton wants to see longer prison sentences for repeat shoplifting offenders.

A government spokesperson said shop theft was down 4% on last year, charges up by 19% and that it was "giving police the powers" to crack down on perpetrators.

"For too long, retail crime has been dismissed as low-level offending," the spokesperson said.

"It harms shopworkers, damages businesses and hollows out communities."

The charity Revolving Doors, which works with offenders, wants to see a complete transformation in how shoplifting is dealt with.

It says it too sees a small group of repeat offenders committing the majority of low-level crime, like shoplifting.

Its chief executive Pavan Dhaliwal says such crimes are mainly driven by "unmet health and social needs" and that sending these people to prison does not help.

"The prison sentence does nothing to address what the underlying behaviours are and what's causing them to commit those particular crimes," she says.

Often the people committing these offences are "victims of crime first", she says, and need rehabilitation services and housing rather than being locked up for a short time.

"The cost implications of the current system are extraordinarily high and they are far more costly than actually diverting people," she says.

"Taking that... prevention-first approach and ensuring people get the help that they need, it means that then you don't get the repeat offences and I think that's the real prize here."

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