BARC Braintree Against Retail & Business Crime

BARC Braintree Against Retail & Business Crime, is a partnership initiative aimed at reducing crime and anti-social behaviour. A member of Action Against Business Crime (the national body) the partnership is based on a proven approach adopted in other towns, cities and shopping centres. The partnership has been awarded a Safer Business Award to acknowledge its’ attainments. The partnership achieves:

• reductions in criminal activity and crime losses
• protection of staff from acts of physical violence and verbal abuse

and so helps to create a safer place to live, shop, work and visit.

Members of the scheme work together with Essex Police to share high quality information, including photographs, to identify persistent offenders. This information sharing enables offenders to be excluded from all members’ premises within the partnership.

All members have formally agreed a constitution with codes of practice, operating guidelines, police sharing of photographs, exclusion notice scheme and data integrity agreement, which enable us to target our combined resources against prolific criminals and those who behave in an “anti-social” way.

The cost of joining the scheme is £50 per year for a small business and £100 per year for a larger business (defined as having over/equivalent to 8 full time workers) plus the cost of a hired radio, an integral part of the scheme, which costs under £300 each year.

BARC has a Co-ordinator, Rachel MacLeod, who can be contacted through George Yard Shopping Centre 01376 550373. There is a volunteer Board of Directors. The Chair is Brenda Baker, who would be pleased to speak to you on 01376 550373 or via email .