Sergeant Christian Denning, who heads the Essex police business crime team, said: “We know that, nationally, the number of shop thefts is increasing, and Essex is not immune from this. “We take shoplifting seriously because we know how it affects store staff, customers and the businesses themselves. Between 14 September 2023 and 13 September 2025, Essex police response officers and neighbourhood policing officers made 2,829 arrests for shop theft. “This information allows us to identify emerging retail crime trends and to adapt our crime prevention advice to tackle them. In July a 39-year-old Colchester man was banned from entering any Boots store in England and Wales for 10 years.