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The multiple is working in partnership with the UK's other retailers and the Home Office to tackle 'retail crime' at 10 Downing Street on 23 October. The initiative is known as "Operation Pegasus", chaired by Crime and Policing Minister Chris Philp MP and led by Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne. Boots with other retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury's, John Lewis, and Waitrose plans to fund a "team of specialist police officers and intelligence analysts".7 Bourne, the national lead for business and retail crime claimed that the action plan will be a "game-changer" for policing as it is "the first national partnership of its kind". She told The Times: "It'll be a game-changer for policing because for the first time ever, policing will get a complete picture across the country of where these gangs are hitting different areas and they'll have that data and intelligence to be able to put that out to local police forces to go after those gangs."

Police chiefs are reporting significant progress in their battle against shoplifting epidemic, thanks to the newly established centralised police unit - Operation Opal. Launched earlier this year, Operation Opal is the national intelligence unit focused on serious organised acquisitive crime. The team collects evidence from CCTV footage, crime reports and other sources from all 43 police forces in England and Wales. Police chiefs believe that unit is starting to "turn the tide" against prolific shoplifters who are used by organised crime groups to steal goods en masse, The Times reported. The Operation Opal team has already identified 152 prolific people involved in organised retail crime within the first three months of the operation. Among those identified was Alexandru-Iulian Dima, a 25-year-old Romanian man who arrived in the UK last year.