NBCC Retail Crime Fusion Cell

Description

Government launched the Tackling Retail Together Strategy in July 2025. The creation of a Retail Crime Fusion Cell is the first pillar in the strategy and fundamental to the success for the other pillars. The RCFC is the central intelligence hub of the Tackling Retail Crime Together strategy, ensuring a unified, data driven national response. It integrates police and industry data to create the UK’s most comprehensive picture of retail crime, accessible through a shared, self service intelligence portal. The RCFC is a technical solution to bring together intelligence and information from retailers and retail partners in order to more precisely and efficiently allocate policing resources. The NBCC will own the RCFC which will be hosted by Opal on behalf of national policing. The function will be to facilitate the sharing of data and creating operational packs for police forces which provides real time insight on crime trends, offender behaviour, high harm locations and organised crime links, enabling targeted operational and strategic action. The private sector will fund the platform and a police staff post. The police contribution is facilitating the collaboration platform – albeit we won’t actually ‘own’ the platform or be the Data Controller. Policing will fill the funded post with a data analyst/ scientist to produce assessments of the problem. Operating under strict security controls, the RCFC enhances collaboration across policing and retail—strengthening efforts to disrupt organised crime groups and manage prolific offenders. It does not replace existing systems; it unifies and amplifies them, acting as the intelligence layer that connects the entire retail crime ecosystem.