The number of thefts reported in Poland increased by 13% to 124,000 in 2022 – the second year in a row that the figure has risen after a previous long-term fall to a low of 99,000 in 2020 – show new police figures reported by the Rzeczpospolita daily.
The data relate to reported criminal thefts – meaning of items valued at more than 500 zloty (€106). Thefts of items worth less than that are classified separately as misdemeanours. From the start of this year the threshold has been raised to 800 zloty
The number of such crimes had been declining steadily since 2004, although there was a brief increase in 2010-2012, when Poland was grappling with the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
However, after falling to their lowest level in 2020, there has subsequently again been a noticeable increase in thefts. That has coincided with soaring inflation, which began to rise in early 2021 and reached a 25-year high of 17.9% in October.
Annual inflation fell to 17.4% in November, surprising economists, who had expected it to reach 18%.
It was the first time that inflation has slowed since February, when the government introduced measures to combat price rises.
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“We have indeed recorded an increased number of [thefts], especially shoplifting,” police spokesman Mariusz Ciarka told Rzeczpospolita. He added that alcohol and cosmetics are most often the target of such crimes.
The newspaper’s data show that last year’s rise in thefts, of 13%, was much higher than the overall rise in common crimes of 4.5%. Thefts now make up around half of all such crimes.
In 2022 there were growing reports in Polish media of thefts of essential products such as food. In response, some shops started to put anti-theft devices on items such as butter.
From January to October 2022, 152,407 small thefts were recorded in supermarkets and 36,377 in smaller shops, which was in both cases 18% more than in the same period a year earlier, reported Business Insider Polska.
Ceny masła podskoczyły w rok o ponad 30 proc. Efekt? Sklepy zaczynają stosować zabezpieczenia antykradzieżowe nawet na tak podstawowym produkcie.
Na zdjęciach – etykiety przeciwkradzieżowe w sklepie #Kaufland.#inflacja #kradzieże pic.twitter.com/QCw1u2BVjg— Paweł Jachowski (@paweljachowski) July 20, 2022
Main photo credit: Polska Zielona Sieć/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)
Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.
