Auror – direct to police reporting and retail crime intelligence platform

National reports indicate that only 3% to 5% of retail crime is reported. This creates a vast intelligence gap within the community and restricts police’s ability to identify high-risk, high-harm offenders. It also limits the ability to understand the level of cross-border offending and organised retail crime (ORC).

The platform aims to enable a better understanding of the issues being faced in the retail industry by providing law enforcement with an aggregated view of actionable intelligence occurring in their area.

It creates an opportunity for a more streamlined reporting process (direct to police reporting) that produces court-standard evidence at the first point of contact, helping to improve positive outcomes and charge rates for retail crime.

• Increase in intelligence reporting regarding retail crime.
• Increase in charge rates for shop theft.
• Increase in positive outcome rates for shop theft.

Auror provides retail crime intelligence software, which is used by retailers and in over 3,000 law enforcement agencies across Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, and the UK.

Devon and Cornwall Police partnered with Auror and launched the platform in October 2024 to drive improvements in the management of retail crime. 

Retail crime in the UK is no longer a low-level nuisance. It has become a crime area of increasing violence, with 1,300 reports of violence and abuse per day, while shoplifting has soared with losses totalling £1.8 billion (British Retail Consortium Crime Survey, 2024). Law enforcement and retailers often operate independently, with inconsistent and delayed information-sharing. This creates an intelligence gap which is exploited by repeat offenders and organised crime groups (OCGs).

Retailers have been unable to view or connect the offending that occurs at their sites nationally. Auror addresses this by providing police with actionable intelligence that can be used to identify high-harm offenders, respond strategically and efficiently to protect workers, and enhance public safety.

Auror offers the ability for retailers to “direct to police report”, a process that enables the retailer to report directly from Auror to the police, with thresholds that drive quality and efficiency savings.

The stages of implementation are as follows.

• Completion of data protection impact assessment (DPIA) and information security to ensure sufficient governance and compliance.
• Completion of single sign on (SSO) to ensure the force are in control of who has access to the platform and ensures sufficient governance should staff move roles or leave the force. This provides a level of security, with staff only able to access Auror when connected to the force network. Technical work is required by the Auror technology enablement team and the force IT department to set up SSO.

• Launch of the intelligence platform. This enables police to see the intelligence reported by retailers, helping to drive engagement between police and retailers and support the response to the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) Retail Crime Action Plan (RCAP) and the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. Virtual training sessions are delivered by Auror, and police have access to bitesize training videos stored on the force intranet in addition to internal briefings.

• Launch of direct to police reporting. This functionality was launched in the Auror platform to enable retailers to report crime directly from Auror. The reports are sent to a designated email account. For Devon and Cornwall Police, this is the force control room inbox.
   

The force can monitor the benefits of Auror through the internal data tool Qlik Sense. This has enabled the force to regularly monitor the outcomes for crimes reported through Auror and compare them to shop thefts reported by retailers not using the platform. In addition, the time taken for reports to be recorded can be monitored by comparing Auror reporting times directly with single online home (SOH) or 101 reports through the force control room.

Data captured over a nine-month period (October 2024 to July 2025) suggests:

• crimes reported through ‘direct to police reporting’ on Auror have an 8.9% higher charge rate compared to those reported through SOH
• the rate of outcome 14 (where the victim does not support further action) is 3.6% for Auror reported crime in comparison to 16.6% for crime reported through SOH and 101 reports; it has been suggested this is linked to the increase in quality of reporting and collation of evidence at an earlier stage through Auror
• the time taken for police to record Auror reports is an average of 6 hours, in comparison to an average of 53 hours for SOH reports
• anecdotal feedback has suggested an improvement in trust and confidence in Devon and Cornwall Police for retailers using Auror, the force plans to formally evaluate this in due course 

A change to policing working practices will always bring challenges. 

The platform itself will require additional work in engagement and drive to maximise its use across the force. However, to date, where it is being used is being done so positively.

• Culture - for years, retail crime has been seen as a lesser crime or victimless crime because it is against a business. However, having access to a greater level of intelligence allows policing to see and understand the true impact this has on the wider community, and the level of violence or threatening behaviour that often comes with shop theft cases.
• National decision model (NDM) - embedding Auror into the NDM when reviewing and investigating a crime. This can be a challenge, as some officers prefer to use internal system crime statistics when assessing whether a report is in the public interest to investigate. However, utilising Auror reporting ensures a richer intelligence picture is feeding into decision making.
• Investigation standards are not as high as the force would like them to be, therefore additional work is required to improve investigative quality.