I know we are still going through a period of austerity, but it strikes me that whatever your political belief, top of the list of sectors that deserve better funding must be the police.

When times are tough it is not unlikely that crimes involving property theft might rise. We know that for various reasons incidents of burglary are down and the likelihood of their not being reported are less given the need to do so to claim insurance. But theft from shops it appears is rising significantly. The police service is undermanned and therefore the hours spent investigating shoplifters who are long gone are not top of any police force’s list. Indeed Essex police have disbanded their dedicated shoplifting unit.

Advice is being given by some police forces to shopkeepers advising them to challenge shoplifters themselves rather than call the police every time. I listened to a police inspector on the radio advising a small shop keeper to politely approach someone whom he had seen stealing his goods and in a non-threatening way ask them, say, if they needed a basket.

The shopkeeper had already acquired scars on his face when confronting a previous thief who had thrown acid at him. Another store owner (a former policeman, incidentally) said that he had instructed his staff not to risk injury and to do nothing on the basis that a significant proportion of habitual shoplifting is to fund drag habits by people whose concern for others, as well as themselves, is minimal.

Some crimes are not even furtive, but deliberate and challenging and one cannot blame employers for not wanting their staff knifed or scarred for life to protect a couple of pairs of trousers or packs of bacon. The loss of shop workers this way is also a further drain on the benefits system.

Yes, there is a certain amount that shop owners can do to protect their goods but not everything can be behind the counter, or the counters will be up by the front door and the felonious would probably leap over to get what they wanted.

Maybe the big chain store owners could stop writing off billions in ‘wastage’ – a cost which is passed on to the customer inevitably – and fund an increase in police numbers nationally to enable those who are trained in dealing with criminals to do their job more effectively rather than endanger members of the public who are not trained.