Retailers Against Crime

What Retailers Against Crime does

Retailers Against Crime (RAC) is a UK Community Interest Company (CIC) founded in 1997 and headquartered in Stirling, operating as a membership-based crime intelligence partnership for the retail sector. It serves over 1,500 retail businesses — including national retailers, independents, shopping centres, retail parks, and Business Improvement Districts — across Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the North West of England. Its core technology is the SentrySIS platform, a secure database and mobile application that combines offender identification, incident reporting, CCTV footage access for training, an ID Sought gallery for unknown suspects, and daily intelligence alerts. RAC supplements the platform with human-led offender profiling, area meetings, monthly statistics, and annual conferences in Glasgow, Belfast, Blackpool, and Blackburn.

RAC operates as a neutral intermediary between retailers and four UK police forces (Police Scotland, PSNI, Cumbria Constabulary, and Greater Manchester Police), enabling cross-border intelligence sharing and joint operations against organised retail crime groups. Its commercial model is a low-cost annual subscription paid per premise, with revenue captured entirely through membership fees. The organisation is supported by a curated ecosystem of security partners — TSS as headline sponsor, plus Mitie, Lodge Security, ASEL, Pinnacle Response, Apex Radio, and others — and is GDPR-compliant, National Standards Accredited, and registered with the ICO (Z4807655). Notable named customers include Asda (since inception), Tesco, Iceland, and Next. With 7 employees and no external funding, RAC is a lean, mission-driven social enterprise rather than a venture-backed technology company.

Name

Retailers Against Crime

Legal name

Retailers Against Crime CIC

Website

https://retailersagainstcrime.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Retailers Against Crime is a UK not-for-profit CIC, founded in 1997, that runs a membership-based crime intelligence partnership for over 1,500 retail businesses across Scotland, Northern Ireland, and North West England, using the SentrySIS platform and four police force partnerships to share offender intelligence and prevent retail crime.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Retail Crime Intelligence Services

akta.pro primary industry

Organized Retail Crime (ORC) Investigations & Case Building (BPAKAJAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Retail Exception Reporting & POS Fraud Analytics (ORC detection) (BPAKAJAG), Loss Prevention & Retail Security Services (IMAIAEAG), Privacy, Consent & Data Protection Management (BPAEAPAF)

Keywords

• Retail crime intelligence
• Loss prevention services
• Crime intelligence sharing
• Offender profiling
• Retail security network

Headquarters

HQ city

Stirling

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Subscriptions: RAC generates revenue through annual membership subscriptions from retail businesses. The pricing is described as 'low cost subscription' with annual cost per premise, providing ROI through crime detection and prevention.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Retailers Against Crime (RAC) is a Community Interest Company that provides a crime intelligence sharing service for retail businesses across the UK. Through its SentrySIS digital platform and a network of 1,500+ retail members, RAC distributes daily crime alerts, maintains an offender identification gallery, and operates a liaison function with partner police forces. Members also access offender profiling, training, area meetings, monthly statistics, and an annual conference.

Product overview

Retailers Against Crime offers a unified crime partnership and intelligence-sharing platform for retail businesses. The core offering consists of the SentrySIS-powered database and mobile app, through which over 1,500 member businesses access daily alerts on active offenders, report incidents, and use the ID Sought gallery. This platform is complemented by crime analysis and offender profiling services, police intelligence liaison with four UK police forces, and the Retail Crime Techniques booklet. Members also receive regular area meetings, monthly statistics, Key Performance Reports, staff training, and access to conferences and networking events. RAC's community education programme, including youth workshops on crime prevention, rounds out the service portfolio.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• 274 offenders identified in six weeks through SentrySIS platform (May-June 2025)
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature4 records

Partnerships

15 partnerships are on record, tiered headline sponsor, associate member, core partner and minor partner.

• TSS (Total Security Services)headline sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerHeadline sponsor of RAC. TSS is the UK's retail specialist security company employing over 6500+ security personnel, founded in 1989. They are committed to sponsoring RAC and supporting their bid to detect, reduce and prevent crime across the UK retail community.
• ASEL (Argenbright Security Europe)associate memberGTM or Marketing PartnerAssociate member providing dynamic risk management methodology, thought leadership and technology infrastructure for safety and security businesses in the UK and Europe. Specialist across Retail, Hospitality, Logistics, Manufacturing, and Critical National Infrastructure.
• Lodge Securityassociate memberGTM or Marketing PartnerThird-generation family business and longest-serving security consultancy in the UK with 100 years' continuous experience. Delivers Profit Protection, Technological Security, Fire Solutions, Manpower, K9 and Vehicle Solutions, Physical Security, Intelligence Centre and Employee Screening.
• Lithiumassociate memberTechnology or IntegrationIT Managed Services provider in its 20th year, serving clients ranging in size and sector from Clackmannanshire. Grown its Cyber Security offering with Cyber Lock practice.
• Mitieassociate memberGTM or Marketing PartnerUK's leading intelligence and technology led security business combining deep expertise of people, systems, and technology to deliver highly effective security solutions.
• Pinnacle Responseassociate memberGTM or Marketing PartnerWorld-leading ISO 270001 accredited manufacturer of high-quality body-worn video cameras for Police Forces and Professional Security Industry. PR5, PR6, PR7 models used in over thirty countries.
• Apex Radio Systemsassociate memberTechnology or IntegrationLeading Two-Way Radio and Body-Worn Camera supplier specializing in sale and hire of communication equipment. Supports BIDs and local authorities with radio link schemes across the UK.
• Security Industry Authority (SIA)associate memberStrategic or Co-development PartnerRegulator of the UK's private security industry, an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Home Office. Responsible for licensing, approving contractors, conducting inspections, and improving standards.
• Police Scotlandcore partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerOne of four police forces RAC works alongside, linking into police intelligence units to tackle force-wide and cross-border criminality. Joint operations include Days of Action and intelligence briefings.
• Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)core partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerRAC works alongside PSNI sharing information on local and travelling offenders. Collaboration includes ANPR Interceptor team operations against organized shoplifting gangs.
• Greater Manchester Policecore partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerOne of four police forces RAC partners with for intelligence sharing and retail crime prevention in the North West of England.
• SentrySIScore partnerTechnology or IntegrationTechnology platform partner providing the secure database and app used by RAC members for offender identification, incident reporting, and information sharing. Platform identified 274 offenders in six weeks.
• NABCP (National Association of Business Crime Partnerships)core partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerRAC supports and shares information with retail crime partnerships throughout the UK including NABCP, coordinating national approach to business crime.
• Bank of England (Banknote Checking Scheme)minor partnerOthersPartner for banknote checking scheme, supporting retailers in identifying counterfeit currency.
• Scottish Grocers Federationcore partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint seminars and campaigns including the 'Don't Put Up With It' campaign to raise awareness of retail crime impact. Represents 5,000 convenience stores.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Facewatch: UK retail crime reporting and evidence-sharing platform used by retailers and police to share incident footage and offender alerts. Directly comparable as a digital retail-crime intelligence network competing for the same retailer budget and police partnership slots as RAC.
• SentrySIS: Technology platform partner powering RAC's core intelligence-sharing product (crime database, daily alerts, offender ID, CCTV). Directly comparable as a retail-crime intelligence SaaS, with overlapping functionality and shared customer pool of UK retailers and police liaison units.
• Business Crime Reduction Partnership (Manchester / Birmingham / London BCRPs): Regionally organised Business Crime Reduction Partnerships operating in English conurbations RAC does not yet cover. Directly comparable because they offer the same retailer + police + BID intelligence-sharing model, fragmenting the national market RAC would need to enter to scale.
• NABCP (National Association of Business Crime Partnerships): Umbrella body for UK Business Crime Reduction Partnerships, of which RAC is itself a member. Directly comparable as a coordinating network linking retailers with police and BIDs across UK regions, addressing the same organized retail crime problem from a national rather than regional level.

Broad incumbents

• Securitas UK: Global security services giant with significant UK retail guarding and loss-prevention business. Comparable as a broad incumbent offering overlapping retail-security services, including remote intelligence and technology-enabled guarding, to the same large retailer customers as RAC.
• TSS (Total Security Solutions): RAC's headline sponsor and the UK's specialist retail security company with 6,500+ personnel. Comparable because it combines retail guarding with crime-prevention services and shares retailer customers, making it both a channel partner and a potential in-house substitute for RAC.
• Lodge Service: 100-year-old UK security consultancy offering profit protection, intelligence centre, and manned guarding to retail. Comparable as a long-established broad incumbent serving many of the same retailers RAC addresses, with an in-house Intelligence Centre competing with RAC's SentrySIS model.
• CIS Security: UK-wide security services provider with strong retail and corporate guarding footprint. Comparable as a broad incumbent that could absorb RAC-style intelligence services into bundled retail-security contracts, especially for ASDA, Tesco and shopping-centre customers in common.
• Mitie Security: UK's largest intelligence and tech-led security provider and an RAC associate member. Comparable because it offers retail loss prevention, manned guarding, and intelligence services under one P&L — a broader incumbent RAC members could switch to if they consolidate security vendors.

Emerging players

• Vizsec / Dr Security (retail crime intelligence vendors): Smaller UK and European retail-security technology vendors offering digital incident reporting, offender databases, and CCTV analytics to retailers and police. Comparable as emerging niche players pursuing the same retail-crime intelligence category RAC dominates, often with newer stacks and direct API integrations with police systems.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/retailers-against-crime

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Retailers Against Crime