Assaults on WA retail staff surge as Geraldton forum boosts crime reporting and community response

Assaults against retail workers have surged across WA, with new data revealing police have charged almost one person a day since tougher penalties were introduced last year.

Figures obtained through parlimentary questioning show 329 West Australians have been charged since July 2024, under new laws that carry penalties of up to seven years jail and fines up to $36,000 for assaulting retail staff.

The event, which brought together more than 50 local retailers, aimed to equip businesses with tools to prevent crime and encourage better reporting practices.

At the time of the forum, 14 assaults against retail workers had been reported in Geraldton since the start of the year — a figure police said was likely far below the true number.

Since then, MWCCI chief executive Joanne Fabling said reporting had increased.

“I can’t say for certain whether crime itself has increased or decreased, but what we do know is that people are finally coming forward, and that’s a huge step,” she said.

“Before, there was a lot of noise about retail crime, but no data to back it up. Now we’re starting to see the stats and that makes all the difference.”

Graham Still, owner of SportFirst Geraldton on Marine Terrace said he believed youth crime in the retail sector was one of the main problems facing Geraldton business owners, with two of his employees having faced instances of hostile or physical behaviour from children and teenagers in the past month.

“We’ve chased a few of them down the street and that sort of stuff, but they’re getting more brazen, and they know there’s very little that can be done, so they don’t care,” he said.

“They don’t care because there’s no consequences.

“What’s happening more and more is these kids are just getting products in their hands, and then they’ll just walk straight through.

“If they swing at you and they’re 15, there’s no consequence, and you can’t do anything.”

Ms Fabling said there was “no one solution to youth crime”.

“We need to ask how we, as a community, wrap our arms around these kids,” she said.

While the forum had been nearly a year in the making, it is now being rolled out to other chambers to improve crime responses in other local areas across the region.

Ms Fabling said there was still a “long way to go” in tackling retail crime across the city, but education was an important factor in prevention.

“We can’t kid ourselves — the crime hasn’t gone away. But what we can do is keep leaning in, listening and finding better ways to support both our retailers and our youth,” she said.