By William Turtle-Clark

A new banning scheme called "ShopWatch" has been launched in Hereford City Centre by the Hereford BID, aiming to tackle shoplifting and anti-social behaviour with a 'banned from one, banned from all' system.

Speaking to HHR's William Turtle-Clark, the Project Leader at Hereford BID, Ryan Dorn, said that shoplifting was becoming an "increasing concern" amongst the businesses represented by the organisation, as it was occurring more and more across the UK. 

He went on to say that "within Hereford we're actually quite good at preventing" retail crime already but added that the project was "a great retroactive scheme to prevent crime from occurring, even if it might not be at an all-time high". 

When asked about the 'banned from one, banned from all' measures, Mr Dorn noted that over 70 businesses were signed up as of the scheme's launch last week, but the total is "ever-growing". 

He went on to describe how "the businesses are really happy that they've got another weapon in their arsenal" to assist in their combatting of low-level theft and anti-social behaviour, describing the scheme as "a preventative measure" before criminals even enter a business. 

When asked how the system would work in practice, Mr Dorn explained that an incident report would be submitted by a business, which then would go through to administration. He added "a first offence would go to a warning letter, if another offence is committed by that person in any of the other businesses within a year of that warning letter being issued, they would get a year-long ban". 

"There is no monetary value on the ban, it doesn't matter about the scale of the theft or the anti-social behaviour" with the only time a year-ban changing being in the event of a serious crime, which would be dealt with "on a case-by-case basis". 

When asked what actions members of  the public should take if they encounter shoplifting or anti-social behaviour occurring, Mr Dorn suggested that a report should be submitted to the police first, with it being up to the businesses to submit an incident report. 

He ended by stating that "we just want the public to know that we are actively creating a civil partnership to help combat these issues that are rife in city centres right now".

Published 14/10/2026