With a simple push of a key, the crime reporting platform Auror allows retailers to report crime and alert fellow retailers to potential criminals nearby, and police investigation teams to simplify the identification and apprehension of thieves causing grief throughout the country.

Auror chief executive Phil Thomson says the platform allows retailers to easily connect with each other in a fight-back against annual losses of an estimated $1.3 billion, and it works to keep their teams safe from violent and threatening in-store behaviour.

At the core of the technology is the removal of anonymity of criminals, thereby raising the risk of them being caught.

The digital technology also simplifies the time-consuming, labour-intensive task of reporting high-volume crime, providing New Zealanders insight into the true extent of retail crime. A vast number of previously unreported crimes are now included in the total retail crime picture, which police say matters when dealing with recidivist thieves.

For police, Auror’s platform modernises the process of gathering evidence: it is the digital pipeline between victims and police. Phil says Police is leading with this tech, especially on the frontline.

“They formed the blueprint of how this can be rolled out across the world, with Auror now used extensively in the United States, the UK and Australia.”

International data shows similar patterns on who is causing the most damage.

For example, Walmart’s US data shows 10% of offenders cause up to 91% of the company’s retail losses; in New Zealand, the data reveals 75% of retail crime is caused by 10% of offenders, and 20% of those incidents are accompanied by violence and harassment of retail workers.

Auror does not operate cameras. Rather, the process involves its retail customers recording what happens in their own stores, car parks and forecourts and through the platform, electing whether to share their footage with police as and when police need it.

“We provide Police with the technology to digitise what they would have previously done manually,” Phil says.

”With appropriate permissions, Police can retrieve a five-minute clip of footage, which can save them hours, if not days of investigation time physically visiting premises of interest and trawling through hours of footage.”

So, what about privacy concerns?

Phil says the company has privacy baked into its platform. For example, police only receive the five-minute clip they need from the CCTV footage, not the whole hour of
footage.

“Gone are the days of USB sticks or CDs passing through multiple hands between retailer and Police.”

He says the evidence is conveyed via a closed network system with restricted access. The system also redacts faces not involved in a criminal event to protect bystander anonymity.

“It reduces human bias in decisionmaking… [and] it is up to the retailer if they are willing to share the information with police.

“We’ve heard from a number of police at PNHQ, and they say, ‘If I’d had this when I was a beat cop, my life would have been so much easier’.”

Investigative tool nails it

It gives us insight… it gives us valuable information at our fingertips which before would have taken days and multiple steps to get… we constantly have great results.”

That’s Richard (Rick) Bourne, officer in charge of Southern District Investigation Support Unit, who has been the district lead with Auror since its inception.

Rick’s enthusiasm for the invaluable investigative tool is plain to see. He’s sold on Auror.

“A good example was a few days ago, there was a really good hit relating to a bank phone call scam. The call recipient was duped, allowing her bank accounts to be controlled by the scammer and, without her knowledge, high-value items were ordered for delivery direct from her account while she was still on the two-hour phone call with the fraudsters,” Rick says.

“We were made aware, and several days later, we were able to gather the registration of the vehicle arriving at the depot to collect the ordered goods. Checking the vehicle number through the Auror platform and the linked [automatic number plate recognition] cameras allowed us to obtain the footage and view it through the system at our Dunedin desk within one minute.

“We gathered footage from a service station in Counties Manukau via the automatic retrieval system, and that showed the two suspects shortly before they went to collect goods valued at just over $10,000. We were able to identify the two suspects and link one of their phone numbers to the fraud. One of the suspects had previously been convicted for money laundering.”

Rick says police use the platform for investigating multiple types of offending, not just retail crime.

“We capture the before, the during and the after images of people involved in crime, sometimes before they probably even think about committing the crime!”

Another incident he says Auror was invaluable in solving involved a robbery at a petrol station.

“We ran the vehicle number plate through the [automatic video retrieval] platform, which provided us with footage the day before the robbery and it revealed the perpetrators had visited to scope out the place. They wore similar clothing and footwear, were not masked (as they were the next day) and bought a small amount of fuel. We found that prior footage instantly through the platform and had this at our fingertips within seconds,” Rick says.

“It’s not just about what’s happening at the time. It’s extremely useful in building a picture of before, during and after a crime. We capture movements and associations.”

Given Auror is used across a variety of offences, Police has encouraged retailers to get cameras in their car parks to link vehicles to crime.

“We get regular hits matching suspects with registered driver licence photos. It is so simple.”

Rick says the system is running constantly in police stations and it is a great way to communicate with stores and other businesses, and a great way to nail fraudsters.

“For example, we can send a request to a business using their contact details on the Auror platform and alert them to the use of a stolen bank card at their premises...

“Once the business understands this may be a loss to them, on the information we provide (part bank card number and amount), they can search their systems for use of the card, report the fraud through the platform, and upload a statement of facts and footage, which often includes the suspect and their associated vehicle.

“We use it all the time.”

Of course, Rick points out, Police need staff to deal with the offenders and make use of the data, but he says this is one of the fantastic new pieces of software available to them.

“The Auror retail intelligence platform goes far beyond shoplifting: it continues to evolve and is extremely useful in the investigation of far more serious offending, including organised crime.”