Police logged 96 shoplifting offences in central Harrogate in August, nearly three times last August. From 1 October shops can report crime through an app.
Shops in Harrogate town centre can now report crime to North Yorkshire Police through a phone app. The pilot started on 1 October, and it arrives as recorded shoplifting in the town centre reaches its highest monthly figure in at least a year.
Police recorded 96 shoplifting offences within a mile of central Harrogate in August 2026. That is the latest month published on police.uk. A year earlier, in August 2025, the figure was 35.
What is changing for shops
Harrogate BID announced the pilot on 2 October, after hosting a retail crime event for town centre businesses. The BID already runs its Pubwatch and Shopwatch schemes through the ShopSafe app. The pilot adds a direct route from the app to the police.
The BID says:
- 65 active users across the town centre have joined ShopSafe since 29 June, sharing information with the North Yorkshire Police neighbourhood team.
- The reporting pilot with ShopSafe and North Yorkshire Police was due to start on 1 October. The BID says North Yorkshire Police is the first force to offer this reporting route through ShopSafe.
- A Business Crime Reduction Partnership for the town centre will launch in April 2027. The BID will work towards accreditation from the National Association of Business Crime Partnerships.
Speakers at the event included a North Yorkshire Police chief inspector and the force’s retail crime sergeant. The National Business Crime Centre and the national association of partnerships also took part.
Paul Evans, the BID’s business crime officer, said: “Strong relationships and timely information sharing are vital to helping businesses protect their staff, customers and premises.”
What the figures show
For most of the past year, shoplifting in central Harrogate ran at about 20 to 40 recorded offences a month. Between September 2025 and June 2026 the monthly average was 32. Then it climbed: 54 in July and 96 in August.
Shoplifting was the most common crime in the area in August. It made up 96 of the 339 crimes police recorded within a mile of the town centre that month, a little over a quarter.
Police.uk places each crime at the nearest mapped point rather than the exact address. In August, the busiest points were:
- “On or near Supermarket”: 30 offences
- Cambridge Place: 13
- “On or near Shopping Area”: 11
- Cambridge Road: 10
- Dawson Terrace: 9
Of the 96 August offences, 45 were still under investigation when the data was published. In 38 the investigation was complete with no suspect identified, and 10 were awaiting a court outcome.
These are recorded offences. They count what shops reported and police logged, so they cannot say on their own whether more is being stolen or more is being reported. The BID’s app network began on 29 June, and the rise began in July. September’s figures will be the first to include any reports made in the weeks before the pilot started.
One caution on older months: police.uk’s North Yorkshire data for May and July 2025 holds almost no shoplifting records for this area, which looks like a gap in the published data. That is why we compare August with August rather than whole years.
What it means for you
- If you run a town centre business, ShopSafe membership is through Harrogate BID. The BID’s business crime officer runs Shopwatch and Pubwatch through the app.
- If a theft is happening now or someone is in danger, call 999. Otherwise report to North Yorkshire Police on 101 or online. The app is an extra route for member businesses, not a replacement.
- The next police.uk release, covering September, is due near the end of October. We will report whether August’s figure was a peak.
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