More stores want to blacklist thieving customers

More and more shopkeepers are applying to create blacklists for thieving customers. Since the start of the year, Platform Veilig Ondernemen has received requests from 20 shopping areas, including several hundred businesses, to implement a collective ban on a customer caught stealing twice in a year, De Telegraaf reports.

In the past five years, around 40 shopping centers, streets, and city centers - covering over a thousand businesses - have imposed blacklists for thieving customers. Since the start of January, the platform received another 20 applications - an increase of 50 percent in just 1.5 months. If a thief is caught stealing for a second time, they will be banned from entering any stores in the affiliated area.

A blacklist is an effective tool, Martijn Wildeboer of Platform Veilig Ondernemen told the Telegraaf. “Nothing happens after one theft, but if someone steps over the line twice within a year at one of the registered stores, he can be banned. If the person ignores this, it is trespassing and punishable,” Wildeboer said. His platform, which aims to protect entrepreneurs against crime, also noticed an increased demand for prevention training for staff.

Implementing a blacklist for thieves is quite complicated because the involved stores must obtain permission from the Dutch Data Protection Authority. According to Wildeboer, the fact that so many entrepreneurs are willing to go through that effort shows just how desperate they are. Last year, the police received 45,000 reports of shoplifting and other thefts from stores, 5,000 more than the year before.

“The cause of the increase in the number of reports is difficult to pinpoint,” police spokesperson Dylan Romeo told the newspaper. “They may have to do with willingness to report, inflation, or something else.” Wildeboer thinks it is the higher cost of living - a belief supported by recent surveys by EenVandaag and RTL Nieuws.

According to Wildeboer, retailers are becoming despondent about the increasing number of thefts and the increasingly hostile attitude of thieves after getting caught. “I find that very serious,” he said. “Entrepreneurs increasingly have difficulty finding staff because people don’t want to be insulted. Employees quit for this reason.”