But the work of Humberside Police — a force that covers a population of more than 940,000 people across Hull, East Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire — has meant 31.1 per cent of shop thefts across the region result in a charge. A further 12 per cent lead to cautions, penalty notices or other sanctions.

The force’s charging rate for shoplifting is more than four times that of the bottom-ranked Metropolitan Police.

Overall, crime decreased in Humberside by 3.7 per cent in the last quarter, which is twice the rate at which crime has fallen nationally, at 1.6 per cent. It is also the seventh consecutive reporting period where crime figures have dropped in Humberside.

Chief Constable of Humberside Police, Chris Todd, told GB News shoplifting is treated just as seriously as any other crime reported.

“We’re able to answer 999 calls in three seconds, 101 calls in seven seconds and everybody that needs us, we get there as quickly as we possibly can, and that sets us up for success to start with.” he told the People’s Channel.

“So, whether it’s shoplifting or violent crime, we pick up, we get there as quick as we can. And then we try and do the best possible job when we’re there.

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“Across the organisation, our neighbourhood teams know the local area, they know the local people, they know the local criminals as well, and shoplifting often is a localised crime.

“It’s driven by other factors like drugs and substance abuse, though, so organised crime and tackling that is part of the picture as well.

“We need to support all of the economy across Humberside – there are little shops that are literally trying to make ends meet day in and day out, and just any theft has a real impact on them, and then there are major retail outlets that are massive employers as well, and they need to sustain that as well.

“So we take shoplifting seriously, whoever it is and whatever the value of the goods are, we know that it’s important to those individuals and it has an impact across the community.”

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The Government has pledged to address the rise in retail crime through stronger measures to tackle shoplifting and anti-social behaviour, including removing the £200 threshold of ‘”low-level” theft. Labour also announced in the King’s Speech they would introduce a standalone offence for assaulting a retail worker.

Last month, ministers revealed their White Paper for policing reform. Key to the proposed changes are plans to reduce the number of police forces in England and Wales. The plans also include the establishment of a National Police Service (NPS) to fight the most complex and serious crimes.

Mr Todd welcomes much of what Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced, but told Britain’s News Channel “equitable” funding is crucial for forces across the UK.

“Funding has always been a challenge, and that’s one of the things that’s in the White Paper is a commitment to review police funding… it’s different across the country, and I don’t think that’s right,” he said.

“The public don’t pick which police force comes and responds to their calls, they have the police force, which is their local police force, so we should all be funded adequately and equitably.

“So I welcome things like the review of police funding, I welcome the commitment to using more technology, data and AI so that we can be as effective and efficient as we possibly can.

“But I want to make sure that we preserve the good work that’s done locally and the commitment to local communities, as you see here in Humberside.”

In Cleethorpes, Humberside Police worked closely with the One Stop convenience store to catch prolific shoplifters over the last six to eight months.

The neighbourhood policing team has been vital in working with the store because they are proactive in the area and know their communities, meaning they can quickly identify and catch offenders after viewing CCTV in the store.

Danielle Goldsmith, Humberside Police Constable, said: “Shoplifting at One Stop (in Cleethorpes) has been quite a high over the last year, and they had a number of shop thefts. We’re regularly supporting the store, constantly engaging with them, checking CCTV of shoplifters we’re getting so we can proactively identify them.”

Andrew Barber, Humberside Police Community Support Officer, said when he first started working with the shop, they were seeing over 70 thefts per month and that this figure dropped to 11 in January.

The force’s successful crackdown on shoplifting is linked to investigating every crime.

Pete Musgrave, Neighbourhood Police Inspector for Grimsby East, said: “We will deal with all retail crime, whatever the number is.”

“There are different ways we can deal with it, but you’ll always get that response here to that theft allegation. Across the country, you’ll see drugs are clearly an issue in terms of why people decide to steal from shops. It’s not just a policing issue.

“We’re talking about a multiple range of partners that are required, and it’s not an overnight fix. Clearly, people are deeply embedded in a in a drug taking culture, and we need to try and break that cycle.”

Retail crime is at its highest level on record, data from the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) Annual Crime Survey shows.

The BRC says the total cost of retail crime, including crime prevention, now sits at £4.2billion. Retailers are investing £1.8billion on measures such as CCTV, more security personnel, anti-theft devices and body-worn cameras, up from £1.2billion the previous year.