SHOP staff are backing a campaign to highlight and tackle the issue of abuse towards them.

The Freedom from Fear campaign takes place this week in partnership with the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers.

Shop workers and colleagues, customers, the police and the community are encouraged to join forces against antisocial behaviour to help keep stores safe and welcoming places.

As part of this year’s campaign, 15 Co-op stores, which include Abbotts Road, Mersea Road, Station Road and Wimpole Road in Colchester and High Street, Dovercourt, will introduce extra measures to protect customers and colleagues from aggressive, abusive or threatening behaviour.

Each of the 15 stores will be fitted with a response alarm, which when activated notifies the East of England Co-op’s secure response service team who can then see and record any anti-social behaviour live via in-store cameras.

The controller can also play a series of automated warning messages over instore speakers.

The system is currently being tested with a view to a wider roll-out across all stores after a period of review.

Jamie Treloar, security manager, said: “We believe this innovative new security measure will defuse incidents of antisocial behaviour at the tills – where tempers can fray.

“Trials have shown the alarm to be a good intervention method, quickly bringing to an end episodes of abuse towards our colleagues.

“The system also allows us to capture evidence in case it’s needed for a police prosecution - which is an effective deterrent against most antisocial behaviour.”

As a direct result of last year’s campaign, two Anti- Social Behaviour Support Officers now work with East of England Co-op colleagues to respond to incidents, support customers and gather evidence for police prosecutions.

They’ve so far dealt with over 400 reports of antisocial behaviour.