Thursday 13 November - Enhanced Operation Apprentice: Turning Intelligence into Impact
As Safer Business Action Week 2025 continues, Brighton & Hove shifts from conversation to action on the ground.
Today’s focus, an Enhanced Operation Apprentice Day of Action, shows exactly what can be achieved when businesses, police, outreach teams and partners unite behind a shared goal: keeping our city’s business community safe, supported and heard.
A Unified Voice for Safer Business
At the Brighton Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP), Operation Apprentice represents the very best of local partnership working.
Born out of the need to respond quickly to repeat offending and retail crime, the operation combines intelligence, enforcement, and compassion. It’s a people-powered model that uses shared insight to reduce harm, not just by removing offenders from our high streets, but by addressing the root causes of their behaviour.
Through bi-weekly Business Intelligence Meetings (BIM), the BCRP brings together Sussex Police, Change Grow Live (CGL), the Business Improvement District (BID), Churchill Square, and other key partners. Using information from the Brighton DISC system and frontline reports, the group identifies priority offenders, emerging hotspots, and patterns of harm affecting local businesses.
Enhanced Day of Action
Today, those insights move into action.
With enhanced police resourcing, including PCSOs and PCs patrolling side by side with BCRP field officers, teams are focusing on the city’s key hotspot areas highlighted in recent Business Intelligence Meetings and member reports.
The day involves:
• Targeted patrols across known problem areas.
• Business engagement visits, offering reassurance and gathering fresh intelligence.
• Joint outreach with Change Grow Live (CGL), providing support to individuals whose substance misuse or vulnerability may be driving offending.
This enhanced presence amplifies the ongoing weekly work of Op Apprentice, connecting proactive policing with outreach, and frontline intelligence with real-time action.
Partnership in Motion
For Brighton’s businesses, the operation delivers both visibility and reassurance.
It means the concerns raised through DISC reports and phone calls aren’t just logged — they’re acted on. It means businesses see police and partners responding to their feedback, and know that their voices directly shape citywide priorities.
“The partnership between Sussex Police and the BCRP under Op Apprentice provides a more effective and efficient way of working with local businesses to bring high-harm offenders to justice. Every effort is underpinned by a community-oriented approach that protects shop workers and reduces loss.”
— PC Gina Baker, Sussex Police, Neighbourhood Policing Team
Why It Matters
Operation Apprentice bridges the gap between enforcement and empathy. It delivers outcomes that make our high streets safer, but it also opens doors to support, from addiction recovery to housing referrals, ensuring people aren’t left behind in the process.
Every patrol, every conversation, and every report feeds back into the intelligence cycle, strengthening the city’s understanding of harm and its response to it.
“Because safety is built by people, not systems.”
— Brighton Crime Reduction Partnership
Today’s enhanced day of action is partnership in motion: people working together, side by side, to turn intelligence into impact and make Brighton safer for everyone.