Seb James said: “Our new CCTV Monitoring Centre allows us to provide real time care and support to our team members. At Boots we have been very active in working with others in the retail industry as well as local authorities and police forces to tackle retail the rise in violence and abuse towards retail workers. Our team members have the right to work in a safe and respectful environment.” 

Katy Bourne OBE said: “I feel very honoured to be invited by Boots to officially open the CCTV Monitoring Centre in Nottingham today. Since I first became the national Business Crime Lead for PCCs, I have been very impressed by Boots’ commitment to its staff, recognising that shopworkers have been on the front line right through the pandemic. Despite providing an essential service and lifeline for millions of customers, they have suffered the stress of persistent shoplifters as well as verbal and physical abuse.” 

Kit Malthouse, Member of Parliament for North West Hampshire and Policing Minister, said of the opening: “I want to congratulate and commend Boots for investing in their new state of the art security centre as part of  their commitment to make their stores safer for their colleagues and customers.” 

As well as the launching a new CCTV Monitoring Centre, Boots is also expanding its Safer City initiative to Sheffield and Rotherham, following a successful trial in Birmingham. This initiative involves close collaboration with local authorities, police forces and other retailers. It also includes the provision of specialist training to team members and upgraded technology in stores – from linking CCTV feeds to the Boots CCTV Monitoring Centre to digital reporting tools.