Parkland RCMP conduct operation to combat retail shoplifting

SPRUCE GROVE -- Parkland RCMP conducted a police operation last month aimed at combating shoplifting at retail stores in Spruce Grove.

The operation, dubbed "RCMP Shoplifting Blitz", sought to target chronic, repeat offenders, disrupt ongoing theft and organized retail crime, recover stolen goods, execute outstanding warrants, and protect frontline retail workers and local businesses. During the campaign, police arrested a total of 23 individuals.

"We connect with four or five businesses that have loss prevention officers, they'll staff them up in their stores, and we'll have a number of police officers available as well, and we go wherever the problems are," said Insp. Kevin McGillivray. "At the beginning of the year when we started doing this, I got the stats for theft under $5,000, and we had almost doubled compared to the previous year. It was because of these shoplifting blitzes."

One of the prolific offenders charged during the retail blitz was found to be in possession of a stolen vehicle and was also charged with failure to comply with their probation orders, driving while prohibited, and flight from police. Another individual, who was already wanted on outstanding warrants, was charged with theft over $5,000, flight from police, and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle. 

"A lot of the CPOs were more comfortable. They got to know some of our members more. Whereas some of the businesses were just writing things off before, now that we're making arrests and crown prosecutors are prosecuting for it, they're calling a lot more in," said Insp. McGillivray.

The operation from September marked the fourth installment of their retail shoplifting blitz so far this year.