SHOP owners in Tavistock are set to join forces to keep a watchful eye over their properties with the launch of a new community watch initiative.

Shop Watch, a scheme being spearheaded by James McDowall from Kountry Kit, has been set up to make retailers more aware of incidents of shop lifting in the town.

The scheme, funded by Tavistock BID (Business Improvement District), will see a shoplifting incident reported to one of six shops on a list of who to contact, where the description of the incident and the offender is put onto a web page.

All the shops on the Shop Watch list will then receive a message to the number they have supplied — a text message for mobile numbers and an automated message for those that supplied landline numbers.

A similar scheme used to exist in the town, but the struggle to upkeep the list of shops involved, as shops closed down or new shops arrived, meant the scheme fell by the wayside.

James, who is also a BID director, said: 'The previous scheme was done by word of mouth and it almost turned into Chinese whispers. The message would get to half of the town, then if someone didn't pass the message on, the chain would stop.

'Now we have an internet-based portal (web page) that sends the message out. If anyone misses the call or wants more information about the incident, they can log onto the web page. It gets rid of the Chinese whispers and means you are not relying on others to pass the information on.'

James said there was no delay with the new system and that within five minutes of the crime happening, the incident was reported and the message was sent out to the other shops in the town.

The message was also sent to the local police community support officers, who could then visit the shop where the incident took place.

'The whole idea is to put shoplifters off coming to Tavistock,' said James. 'Plymouth has a superb system in place but it was too expensive for us, so we have the next best option. From talking to shop owners to see if they want to be involved, it was evident that there has been an increase in shoplifting and that it is more of a problem now.

'If we can deter shop-lifters, it will be a success and that will make our town safer. It is nice to get the town working together as one.'

BID manager Lisa Piper said the initiative was a great idea: 'We've never had a massive amount of high crime but over the last few years there has been an increase in sporadic shoplifting. James came to BID and said this scheme was something we needed — anything that increases the vitality of the town and increases money for businesses by saving stock is an asset to the town.

'We think it is a great initiative and it was a no brainer for BID to be involved.'

The local Neighbourhood Policing Team will be working with local business owners to offer support to the Shop Watch initiative.

Tavistock Neigh-bourhood Beat Manager PC Cathy Veale said: 'It is a positive opportunity for businesses to work together as a team to protect themselves and their property from criminal activities such as theft.

'It will also be invaluable in ensuring information such as suspicious activities and descriptions are passed promptly to others, including the police, which will assist in the locating of suspects and prevention of further crime.'

A test of the Shop Watch message was due to take place yesterday (Wednesday) as the Times went to press.

Any shop owners in the town who are not involved in the scheme but would like to be, or would like any more information, can contact James McDowall via email at [email protected]">[email protected]