Esperance businesses have a private WhatsApp group chat to alert others of crime within their stores.
Esperance businesses have banded together to try and minimise shoplifting at stores in town.
SportsPower and Retravision bought a mobile phone for the Esperance police station and created a closed WhatsApp group chat with more than 50 businesses on board to alert others when a problem arises.
“The idea is if we have an incident we can upload footage from our security cameras,” SportsPower owner Greg Bower said.
“The police see who has caused the incident straight away and it notifies everyone that’s on [the chat] instantaneously that we’ve had an issue.”
Mr Bower was the brains behind the idea and said they had seen “good results” in the month since it was created.
“It’s probably opened the eyes of quite a few businesses in town to the people that are actually committing crime – from filling under prams to inside bags,” he said.
Esperance IGA manager Nitendra Raj is part of the WhatsApp chat and said it had solved a lot of the supermarket’s shoplifting issues.
“[We have sent footage] maybe four or five times and the police came on time and sorted out the problem and I haven’t seen those people come back to the store,” Mr Raj said.
“It used to take a long time to process but now it’s very easy because when you see it, you report it and the police come in time and sort it out.”
Esperance Senior sergeant Chris Taylor said it was more for retailers to share information with each other.
“Retailers still need to report it to the police so it’s not to charge people from it, it’s just nice of them that they’ve included us so it can give us some intelligence if needed,” he said.
“We’ve gone through winter so the police’s busiest period is coming up over the holiday season with more people in town and we generally see an increase in crime so it’s yet to be tested really.”
