 Good morning everyone and thanks for being here today. My name is Staff Sergeant Mario Masterpiri. I'm a Staff Sergeant with the operations division in Vancouver. I oversee the daily operations for barcode projects and here to discuss with you guys today. First off, I'm going to give you some background information about project barcode and how we got to where we're at today. We started project barcode after we realized shoplifting incidents increased more than 30% in 2022 compared to previous years with more than 20 violent shoplifting incidents being reported each month. These incidents include where weapons or physical force were used during the commission of a shoplifting offense. We recognize that healthy businesses are economic drivers that draw people to our city. When merchants struggle with their employees feeling threatened because of crime, it means we need to act. Despite the work we've done, business owners still have safety concerns for their staff and for their customers. We've seen the impact that rampant theft and violent shoplifting has had in other cities across North America. We, where some of the retailers have decided to close their stores and close their doors for good. We are determined to not let that happen here in Vancouver. In response to this VPD initiative project barcode in February 2023, followed by the second phase of barcode in April of 2023. Today I'm here to talk about our third phase of project barcode. Phase three of barcode was a 16-day operation that ran between September 11th to September 26th. VPD officers were closely with management staff and security at stores to identify and arrest chronic and violent shoplifters. Some of the highlights of the 16-day operation include 250 individuals being arrested. Of the 258 individuals arrested, 25 were identified as repeat offenders. 26 weapons were seized, 112 report to crown councils were submitted, 57,000 in stolen merchandise was recovered and returned to store shelves. 26 retailers in total participated in the project. As a result of this project, violent shoplifting decreased citywide by 22% during the duration of the project. Mid-sized businesses like Lending Drugs, along with grocery stores, dollar stores and clothing retailers were amongst the widest hit. One retailer location alone generated 47 arrests in just 16 days. Retail theft and violent shoplifting is not unique just to Vancouver and during the latest phase of project barcode, VPD collaborated with agencies across Metro Vancouver to target thieves who moved from city to city to commit their crimes. This included police from Transit, Port Moody, Delta and RCMP from Burnaby, Langley, Richmond and Cuckoocombe. As a result of the collaboration, collectively there was 340 individuals that were arrested. 77,000 in stolen merchandise was recovered and returned to the stores. 11 repeat offenders who had arrested in Vancouver were also arrested in other jurisdictions during this project. Everyone deserves to feel safe and to be safe in Vancouver and that includes thousands of small business owners and their employees. While we're pleased with the results, there's still work that needs to be done. We will continue to proactively target chronic shoplifters and violent thieves until everybody feels safe again. We remain committed to working with our partners on new and innovative ways to reduce crime and improve public safety in Vancouver and throughout Metro Vancouver. Phase 4 of project barcode is already in the planning stages and stay tuned for more information about that. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Tony Hunt, General Manager of Loss Prevention for London Drugs. I'm happy to stand here today as a member of the retail community and thank the Vancouver Police Department for their leadership in this recent operation to address aggressive and prolific shop theft. We appreciate the ongoing efforts of the VPD and their partners, other members of the police community to help retail businesses in protecting employees and customers in what feels like a tsunami of crime that's upon us. In general, most retailers have seen at least a 20% increase in retail theft over the last couple of years and some dramatically more. An industry with significant rising costs and narrow margins, this can be devastating financially, especially for smaller businesses. Crime and safety issues are threatening the survivability of retail businesses and the economic health of our communities is at stake. So we know that shop theft is often left unreported. Statistics Canada has reported that from the crimes reported to police shop theft increased 30% last year in Canada. So the impact of this rising tide of theft, it's been dramatic and it costs us all. But top of mind for us in retail is this is an issue that's affecting people. Our primary concern as employers is the abuse of frontline employees with aggressive and violent behaviors with increasing frequency and intensity. Often the offenders who terrorize employees or customers are well known repeat offenders. This isn't a Vancouver problem. We're hearing across the province, across the country, employees and customers are afraid and this is simply not okay. People should not have to face violence and abuse. They should not have to be afraid at work anytime within their community or as they travel to and from work. Now businesses are not sitting idly by. Employers are spending millions of dollars a year on training for employees to stay safe on security measures. But not all businesses can afford to take these steps. No one entity can stand alone and achieve community safety. We rely on our police, our courts and our social support systems to make it safe to work within our communities. People should not have to face violence and abuse at work. It's simply not okay. We in the retail community appreciate the work of the Vancouver police and other police partners to focus attention and resources on prolific retail theft and the abuse and violence which is so concerning to us and to our employees. The operation here was a resounding success as it was with previous and it illustrates the value of cooperation when citizens, businesses and police work together and take a stand against violence and crime. We're very grateful for the leadership shown by all police agencies involved in these special crime reduction projects. Our employees in retail simply need and value this support. Thank you. Are there any questions for staff sergeant master period Tony. What are some of the challenges that you may face because you know, shoplifting is it's very reactionary, I guess, in a way of policing like what are some of the things you're doing to sort of manage that and going forward. But rather than reactionary being a little more proactive and certain things that you need to address that. I guess I could kind of speak and Tony have something that you might add. But again, these these projects are one ways we've connected with our business community here in their concerns. Obviously, it's a driving force for these kind of type of projects. Any time we meet with them, we have suggestions in terms of hardening target of stored locations, you know, security devices, for example. So there's that interaction that now gets open between business and the police themselves. Are you able to talk to you. Like these items are being stolen. Is it going into a bigger testing operation thing or is it more individuals. What were you seeing the items? Obviously, it's specific on what the item is itself, but I think there's many levels to when it comes to shoplifting, because a lot of the shoplifting, as we all are aware there. It's being conducted because of mental health reasons, poverty reasons, drug addiction, and there is that organized crime aspect where a lot of this, a lot of the items being stolen end up on certain market places or even shipped across the country. So we're seeing that trend and we can't speculate on where exactly they end up from there. But given the amount of levels of the offenders, there's different avenues where the product does end up. And is this project that you're working on you mentioned, you know, close to 300. Are you then going after like higher levels in that part of it or is it certainly the three level person. No, we always look at every level. Obviously, we just don't end up with one arrest and that's it. We close the file. So we always look at progressing these files again with more of the project barcodes plan for the future. We're always looking at ways to improve it and also to elevate it to the next level. Is there any challenges with say revolving door of somebody doing a crime like that and then they're out the door basically before you finish the paperwork. I can't comment on obviously the releasing of a lot of these offenders. All I can say is that we, there's many layers of and levels of government that need to step up here. We do our best with projects like barcode to fulfill what the police can do. And I think we've been very successful as arresting and recommending charges. At times we recommend people be remanded in custody. Once the report Crown Council submitted, it's really out of our hands. What are some other deterrents that businesses are looking at and perhaps Happy to answer your question. So the question is, what are we looking at as deterrence in business? How can we do more or how have we been doing more to address this growing crime trend? Businesses are investing exponentially more in security and training of staff. It's most important that we keep our people safe. Training in management of aggressive behavior or deescalation customer service when faced with difficult customers has been key increased security spend. We are spending hundreds of percent more and millions of dollars as an individual retailer and our retail community is spending in a similar fashion. There's a lot of investment that's going on. We're working very hard on organized retail crime. This is an issue that we consider very important and illicit markets and resale of stolen goods fuels this violence that we see in our communities. We believe that organized retail crime often creates a situation where marginalized people, addicted people, people who are mentally ill are put in situations where they're encouraged to go and commit crimes. And this puts the public at risk going after these networks is important and a priority for retailers. Any other questions? Any questions about anything else going on in the city? No? Okay, thank you for coming.