Facemasks blamed for 20% rise in shoplifting crimes in Fife

New Police Scotland performance figures for the first three quarters of 2021/22 revealed a worrying spike in shoplifting offences in Fife year-on-year, with over 20% more recorded between April and November 2021 compared with the previous year.

But while Fife division’s detection rate of such crimes has been historically very strong, Chief Superintendent Derek McEwan, the region’s Divisional Commander, confirmed this area of performance has worryingly dipped during the pandemic - and perhaps for an obvious reason.

Just 64.4% of the shoplifting recorded was detected over the nine-month period in 2021, compared with 82.7% over the same period in 2020.

Chief Supt McEwan said: “This can be directly attributed to the face coverings being worn by shoplifters and the traditional methods of detecting this type of crime.

“With less of these crimes being detected. more offenders are in the community who feel emboldened by what they perceive as success.

“We recognise that shoplifting is a crime often committed by those vulnerable due to addiction.

“Many of the detections for these crime types are corroborated by open and private space CCTV footage.

“That CCTV evidence still exists, however, the majority of the perpetrators are wearing face masks as per national guidelines, this inevitably impacts on an officer’s ability to reliably identify offenders.”