Early data suggests promising results for pilot project addressing retail theft
Posted Jun 27, 2026 10:02:32 AM.
Last Updated Jun 27, 2026 10:04:41 AM.
After two months, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) say the Retail Theft Pilot Project has made positive impacts around the city, with a high rate of criminal charges and lower involvement from secondary police units.
In April, the OPS launched this pilot project as a way to identify repeat offenders and commercial shoplifting. While mainly contained to the downtown core, data shows that the impacts are being felt across the city. Criminal activity is being tracked across 40 kilometres from east to west Ottawa.
“The analysis shows a significant number of incidents are clustered within a small number of high-volume retail locations in the downtown core,” said Cory Robertson, Central District Inspector in a release. “This concentration allows our investigators to identify repeat offenders quickly and connect cases across multiple businesses and areas. This targeted enforcement benefits all retailers not just the major chains.”
The data released by OPS about statistics and impact:
- 279 cases handled: Investigators identified and managed almost 300 unique general occurrences tied directly to the pilot project between April 1 and early June.
- 80 per cent clearance rate: Of the 279 files, 221 cases, or 79.2 per cent, have been cleared with charges, marking an “exceptionally high” success rate for retail theft investigations.
- City-wide reach: The project impacted 30 unique commercial addresses across Ottawa, including major malls, shopping plazas and multi-unit commercial properties.
- Downtown concentration: The downtown core accounted for 211 cases, or 75.6 per cent, of the project’s total volume.
The pilot project has removed a bulk of the files from queues of other specialized teams by connecting cases which originated in the downtown core to retail crimes committed in outer divisions. This allows them to streamline the process, ensure faster cross-city tracking of repeat retail thieves and free up important frontline investigative resources.
This project adds to ongoing retail theft and diversion projects, like the Adult Pre-Charge Diversion (APCD) Unit program which redirects individuals charged with minor offences toward programs and support services rather than the criminal justice system.
The goal of the APCD program is to address the reasons why individuals commit an offence in the first place, while holding them accountable for their actions. This program also considers the victim’s needs and wishes regarding the incident.
