20 Jul 2026

Retail Crime Fusion Cell: vendor information session – event round-up

On 10 July, techUK hosted a vendor information session for suppliers on the Retail Crime Fusion Cell, led by Lisa Maslin, Superintendent, National Business Crime Centre (NBCC), and Steph Coombs, Head of Intelligence at OPAL, National Intelligence Unit for Serious Organised Acquisitive Crime.

The session followed an earlier techUK retail crime event this past January, and gave suppliers the opportunity to hear directly from those shaping the upcoming procurement.

Key takeaways from the session:

  • An outline of the platform that will bring together retail and policing data on retail crime into one place, owned and led by policing through the National Business Crime Centre and Opal, but designed to complement existing local and sector partnerships.
  • A discussion of early priorities including linking retailers' strategic data with Opal's operational data on organised crime groups, standardising and automating the cleansing of largely unstructured data, and strengthening facial matching by connecting retail imagery with the Police National Database.
  • Longer-term ambitions will include predictive analytics and risk modelling, identifying patterns such as hostile reconnaissance, moving from monthly to near real-time data feeds, and a self-service portal with role-based access for retailers, security partners and police.

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If you're interested in learning more about how the JES programme supports work on retail crime, feel free to contact the team below!


Dave Evans

Dave Evans

Head of Programme - Justice and Emergency Services and Economic Crime Lead, techUK

Cinzia Miatto

Cinzia Miatto

Senior Programme Manager - Justice & Emergency Services, techUK

Fran Richiusa

Fran Richiusa

Junior Programme Manager - Justice and Emergency Services, techUK

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Meet the team 

Dave Evans

Dave Evans

Head of Programme - Justice and Emergency Services and Economic Crime Lead, techUK

Cinzia Miatto

Cinzia Miatto

Senior Programme Manager - Justice & Emergency Services, techUK

Fran Richiusa

Fran Richiusa

Junior Programme Manager - Justice and Emergency Services, techUK