The South Australia Police (SAPOL) has been awarded as the Best Retailer and Policing Collaboration in Australia for its ‘Operation Measure’ program, which targeted retail shop theft.
Presented at the 2023 Australian Fraud Awards, Operation Measure was in force from March 2022 and, over that time, resulted in the arrest of more than 500 people.
According to SAPOL, as a partnership model Operation Measure saw SAPOL working closely with Crime Stoppers, multiple retailers, loss prevention managers, and security and operations managers to apprehend persons responsible for repeat retail thefts and violence against retail workers.
Accepting the honour, SAPOL said the Australian Fraud Awards were held in high regard among the retail and security industry and recognised exceptional performance on a national level.
SA Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services Joe Szacaks congratulated the police saying that to see SAPOL recognised nationwide was a testament to the tireless work officers and staff undertake every day to be the best they can be.
“Retail theft is a totally intolerable offence, and anyone considering shoplifting will be caught,” Mr Szacaks said.
“I’m incredibly proud of SAPOL’s efforts with the Operation Measure campaign and know they are deserving winners of this national award,” he said.
Coordinator of Operation Measure, Inspector Julian Coram, said the partnership between agencies underpinned the success of Operation Measure.
“Operation Measure was a true collaboration, the communication between police and retailers has meant that we have been able to identify the persons responsible for the thefts and quickly identify offending patterns,” Inspector Coram said.
“Many of the investigations were complex, seeing offenders arrested for a series of offences across multiple sites,” she said.
“Working together has meant that we have been able to achieve positive outcomes and hold offenders to account,” Inspector Coram said.
Fraud winners: SAPOL members and others at the 2023 Australian Fraud Awards (L-R): Yen Dinh, Sianne Hussey, Katarina Demasi (Drakes Supermarkets), Alana Tozer, Senior Constable Michael Greenwood, Senior Constable Andrew Bishop-Spalding, Andrew Kouimanis, Austin Craddock (Coles Supermarkets) and Paul Grosvenor (Big W).
