CITY centre street rangers have recovered more than £5,000 of shoplifted stock so far this year as part of their crackdown on anti-social behaviour.

The rangers, who are part of the York BID team, patrol the city’s business improvement district seven days a week working alongside police, shopkeepers and council staff.

Elliot Sawyer, operations manager at York BID, said the rangers have become the “friendly face of York” since the scheme launched 18 months ago.

He added: “This year to date the street rangers have recovered £5,225.37 of shoplifted stock.

“This figure includes items that people have been deterred from stealing; by which I mean the rangers could have caught them in the act, for example.

“Not all of the incidents are high value thefts, many are relatively small, but they soon add up to the businesses affected.”

He said the small team of three rangers during the week and five on a Saturday are making a big difference, not only to businesses but also to visitors as they help deliver first-aid, report areas that need to be cleaned up and tackle anti-social behaviour.

Elliot added: “The rangers have an excellent working relationship with North Yorkshire Police, store managers and detectives, CCTV operations room, and City of York Council.

“Each rangers has their own zone to patrol which allows the opportunity to build rapport with the businesses there. We want BID levy paying businesses to get to know their ranger and make use of the service.

“The rangers programme has been a great success, in just 18 months the rangers are fully integrated in the city and are working hard to be recognised as the customer focussed, friendly face of York.

“We do much more than help with the issues of shoplifting and anti-social behaviour, we have reported over 380 cleaning and environmental issues so far this year in addition to delivery of first aid and helping to find missing people.”

In January the officers became the first members of a private security firm in the country to be given certification by the Secretary of State for their ethical use of body-worn cameras and were praised for working to gain the confidence of the community.