Project Pegasus will be funded by supermarkets and retailers.

£600,000 worth of funding from supermarkets and retailers will go towards a specialist analysis team for serious organised acquisitive crime.

The team will sit within Opal – the national intelligence unit for serious organised acquisitive crime – and will be funded by ten supermarkets and retailers including John Lewis, Co-op, Tesco and Next.

The Project will further enable retailers to provide intelligence and evidence about organised crime to Opal. 

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Shoplifting strikes at the heart of the British high street, and the Policing Minister has asked forces to take a zero tolerance approach to this crime.

 “By enabling retailers to share better information on shoplifting with police forces and build up a national strategic picture, Project Pegasus will help crack down on criminal gangs across the country.”

Last month, John Lewis and Waitrose announced a scheme whereby they would offer free hot drinks to officers and PCSOs to increase police presence in their stores. 

ONS figures show that police recorded shoplifting offences increased by 24% between the years ending March 2022 and March 2023. Overall theft offences in the year ending March 2023 remained below pre-pandemic levels.