Connie Cook makes and sells candles for a living in downtown Topeka. But some customers make a living off shoplifting, and like Connie, many small business owners want to put a stop to it. Connie says, "We communicate and we're going to prosecute. We're not going to take this type of crime anymore."
In an effort to fight back, she and about 60 other local business owners swapped phone numbers and formed a communication chain. Connie says, "When something happens, we have that mass text go out with a description and the incident so that everyone is aware immediately that they need to be on the look out for something."
Lisa Boyd owns The Merchant downtown and believes the system prevents further shoplifting. In fact, it recently worked for her. She says, "All the merchants downtown knew who the woman was, what she was wearing, what she looked like and found out that she was in several businesses doing the same thing."
The owners also post pictures of the shoplifters on a Facebook page. Connie says many times someone recognizes them immediately. The owners hope the system shows criminals their behavior won't be tolerated. Lisa says, "We really do have a safe downtown and even though we do have incidents of shoplifting, I think that we stick together, we offer great customer service and we're looking forward to a great year of people supporting us downtown."
Connie says the owners started the Facebook group about a year ago and believes it works. She suggests other owners around town try something similar.
Downtown business owners say Police surveillance has picked up lately and they hope that will also help with the problem.
