Julian Coram is the Inspector at South Australia Police, State Intelligence Brach. Julian joined Gwent Police in the UK in 2005 and transferred to South Australia in 2009. Julian has served in various postings including traffic, general duties and security response. After being promoted to Inspector he was tasked with formulating a response to a rise in retail crime and violence towards retail workers. Operation measure was formulated in 2022 and has used both Police and 3rd party intelligence to drive decision making and operations.
Presentation
Operation Measure, South Australia Police response to organised retail crime and violence towards retail workers
Mr Julian Coram1
1South Australia Police, Adelaide, Australia
Operation Measure was formulated to target recidivist and high value retail theft offenders. Persons of interest are nominated as a result of intelligence analysis based on their recent offending or propensity to use violence towards retail workers
A coordinated response to this issue was formulated, tactics included targeting repeat offenders and engaging retailers in crime prevention methods. The operation has a prevention first focus and seeks to build collaborative partnerships between police and retail operators to reduce shop theft offending and apprehend serious and repeat offenders responsible for shop theft. Engagement takes place at strategic levels with Police engaging at forums held by stakeholders.
Over two years 1287 arrests were made and over 8000 charges were laid in relation to persons of interest, with the majority of arrests made for multiple charges. Control measures such as barring orders and bail conditions are used to deter offending.
By addressing the offending as a cross border crime series this ensured that offenders were accountable for a number of offences when charged and facing court. By joining up the response this ensured that positive results were achieved.
In August 2022 shop workers were added to a list of occupations for aggravated offences against the persons.
Operation Measure won the Best Retailer and Policing Collaboration Award at the Australian Fraud Awards two years running in 2023 and 2024.
Operation Measure tactics have included two Crime Stoppers campaigns to identify previously unknown repeat theft offenders and joint operations conducted with retailers.