The National Retail Investigation Support Unit (NRISU) is an internal Police unit, set up in November 2021 to target recidivist retail offenders across the motu, who are offending in multiple locations but who may not be identified at a local level as causing such significant harm.
The NRISU focuses on patterns of high harm repeat offending across the country, with a particular focus on those who use violence and intimidation of staff whilst stealing from shops.
The unit partners with the retail sector and crime prevention organisations at a national level and works with Police staff at a district level to assist them to specifically target offenders causing the greatest harm to the retail sector, its staff, and customers.
The NRISU identifies the individuals, undertakes investigation, gathers evidence, and then works with local Police District staff to ensure those people are held accountable for their offences.
Police is working directly with the retail sector on the issues they are facing, including supporting Retail NZ with prevention training advice, and trialling prevention approaches with smaller retailers with a view to rolling these out nationally.