How the tiny number of shoplifting convictions in Scotland shows the SNP just does not care
Only a fraction of shoplifting offences end up in a conviction
Last July, a shop worker in the Co-op in Balloch in my constituency noticed a woman acting suspiciously and asked her to leave. The woman in question responded: “You're getting slashed. I will remember your face. You're getting done. Even if I see you out with your son.”
In the end, thanks to the shop’s CCTV, the woman was arrested, but too often shop workers face this kind of abuse without seeing any consequences.
Shoplifting in Scotland has increased by a staggering 129 per cent since 2021, and by 15 per cent over the last year alone, according to analysis by Scottish Labour. In the year to September, there were 48,564 crimes of shoplifting, up on the 21,175 recorded in the year ending September 2021.
Despite the surge in shoplifting across the country, just 2,854 people were convicted of the crime in 2023/24. The reasons for shoplifting are complex, and range from teenage bravado and poverty to the desperate scavenging of drug addicts with chaotic lives.
But it’s also the fact that under the SNP government, police officer numbers have been reduced by 1,080, at the most recent count, when compared to when Police Scotland was formed in 2013, with cuts disproportionately falling on local divisions.
The knock-on effect of this is that crimes which may not make the headlines but are devastating for victims go unpunished. Thieves can steal bikes and phones without getting caught, while shop workers and bus drivers must go to work knowing they could be abused for doing their job.
Worse still, when criminals are caught, the SNP’s neglect of the courts system means justice can be slow and often hollow. Some victims have patiently waited to see their perpetrators jailed – only for the SNP to release them after serving just a third of their sentence due to overcrowded prisons.
The Broken Windows Theory, developed by social scientists in the 1980s and applied to 1990s New York, noted that if one window in a building is broken and not repaired, the rest will soon be broken too, because it’s a sign that no one cares.
In other words, a government that fails to police ‘petty’ crime such as shoplifting and abuse of retail workers sends a wider signal to criminals that it doesn’t care.
Scottish Labour has pledged to restore local policing, ensuring every council area has a named officer tasked with building relationships in the community and gathering intelligence on crime within local areas.
We will also restore the specific role of crime prevention officers, who will work directly with schools, retailers, and community groups, to advise on how to avoid or reduce incidents in high crime areas.
And we will introduce a Mental Health Emergency Response Service, staffed by specially trained paramedics to free up police time and ensure that those whose behaviour is driven by a mental health crisis get the help they need.
The vast majority of Scots are law-abiding and just want to feel safe when they go to work or walk down the street. They value newsagents, supermarkets and other local shops that add vibrancy to our high streets.
It’s time the Scottish Government did too.
Jackie Baillie is MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and her party’s spokesperson for health