Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts, Wickes chief David Wooden, and Fortnum & Mason boss Tom Athron have been among the many executives to signal an open letter in August calling on the federal government to legislate to higher shield service employees.
Headline signatory Jo Causon, CEO of the Institute of Buyer Service (ICS), and her co-signatories from retail, hospitality and adjoining sectors, need the Crime and Policing Invoice at present transferring by Parliament to guard all public-facing employees. It contains particular laws regarding assault of retail employees, however the ICS is looking for it to go additional to discourage crime in all service sectors.
Why the clamour now? ICS knowledge from January reveals 42% of customer support employees throughout each sector skilled abuse within the prior six months, up 19% in comparison with an analogous examine the institute printed in March 2024.
Some 37% of employees surveyed mentioned that they had thought-about leaving their position resulting from hostility, and 1 / 4 of them have taken sick go away consequently. It’s not only a drawback with private penalties, it’s a enterprise continuity subject as properly.
And the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported in March almost 1 / 4 of UK customers had witnessed shoplifting happening within the earlier 12 months, and 23% of shoppers had skilled bodily or verbal abuse of employees, with some incidents involving weapons.
BRC’s annual crime survey, launched in January, confirmed retail crime resulted in report losses of £2.2bn in 2024, with the two,000-plus incidents of violence and abuse greater than thrice the extent recorded in 2020.
Motion – be it from central authorities, native authorities or the police – is required. In lots of circumstances, retailers themselves are taking issues into their very own arms and deploying new know-how within the title of defending their employees and premises.
Physique-worn tech
Workers at H&M, Tesco and EE are among the many retailers providing their employees the chance to don cameras as they work as a deterrent for criminals. In July, H&M mentioned it was utilizing the know-how. Laptop Weekly contacted the retailer to examine on the outcomes to this point, however it’s nonetheless in pilot stage and there are not any learnings to report but.
A spokesperson for H&M says: “We’re testing body-worn cameras in a three-store pilot to evaluate what helpful impression it could have, together with employees customer support coaching, on de-escalating and lowering incidents for the security of each our colleagues and prospects.”
In February, Motorola Options introduced its VT100 physique cameras had been distributed to workers throughout Poundland shops. It claimed Poundland had reported a lower in incidents, together with an 11% drop in violence in opposition to retailer workers and a marked discount in shoplifting and theft because the tech was launched.
The footage is utilized by Poundland’s safety and loss prevention group in its investigations. The retailer makes use of Motorola’s digital proof administration software to arrange, retailer and course of video knowledge, based on the producer – and it may tag and match physique digicam movies with CCTV footage and different incident knowledge.
We’re testing body-worn cameras in a three-store pilot to evaluate what helpful impression it could have…on de-escalating and lowering incidents H&M spokesperson
In February, Tesco launched a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year manned safety hub as a direct response to rising crime within the retail trade. The ability was unveiled at its newly refurbished safety centre in Daventry, Northamptonshire, and it goals to trace down criminals focusing on its premises throughout the UK. Workers there analyse hundreds of hours of CCTV footage and so they share intelligence with the police.
A Tesco spokesperson tells Laptop Weekly: “Our colleagues work arduous to serve our prospects on daily basis, and each member of our group deserves to really feel protected at work. We proceed to spend money on the newest know-how, sources and coaching for our skilled group in our Safety Hub. This group is devoted to becoming a member of up proof and supporting the police to sort out crime, serving to to maintain our colleagues and prospects protected.”
Tesco launched body-worn cameras to retailer employees in 2023, and final 12 months some supply drivers have been supplied the possibility to make use of them too. The UK’s largest retailer mentioned the cameras are usually not recording on a regular basis and can solely begin if the driving force feels unsafe, calling it an “unlikely occasion” {that a} driver will really feel the necessity to start recording.
“Any footage that’s taken will likely be saved securely and can solely be used if an incident requires investigation,” the grocery store says on-line, including that the driving force will inform folks if they’re to begin recording.
In the meantime, tech retailer Currys introduced in Could that it’s working with VoCoVo to ramp up safety in its shops. The producer’s headsets are being launched to Currys outlets, with early suggestions from employees suggesting they really feel safer carrying them as a result of they will talk with colleagues when confronted with shoplifters because the gear doubles up as a comms software for basic operations.
The retailer has additionally partnered with Auror to introduce crime reporting software program into its shops. The intention of utilizing this platform is to hurry up and enhance the accuracy of crime reporting, and the person outlets can share info on criminals and incidents which is then matched with knowledge nationwide.
Cellular and broadband companies retailer EE is embarking on a brand new retailer technique in 2025, investing £3m between Could 2025 and March 2026 in bricks and mortar, together with opening what it phrases as “expertise shops” containing areas the place guests get “arms on with tech”. In August, it opened in Merry Hill close to Birmingham – its third retailer of 2025 within the new format, following openings in Nottingham in Could and Sheffield earlier within the month.
Asif Aziz, EE retail director, says safety and tech to guard prospects and workers is a key characteristic as the shop property is refreshed. “As a part of our continued funding into our retail property, we’re not solely enhancing experiences for our prospects, but in addition making certain each they and our groups are protected,” he says.
“Our employees put on the newest physique cameras, which immediately transmit footage to our monitoring groups and regulation enforcement. In our shops, we utilise sensible monitoring programs to trace stolen items and monitor them in real-time till they’re recovered.
“We additionally make use of time delay inventory safes, in addition to fogging and misting units that, when triggered, immediately fill a part of the shop with disorienting fog and forensic marking options. All these safety measures are serving to to successfully deter and detect criminals.”
CCTV-plus
In June, frozen meals retailer Iceland acknowledged it had began trialling use of facial-recognition know-how in a small variety of its shops, together with in its The Meals Warehouse outlets.
“We are going to do something and all the things to assist shield our employees and prospects,” the retailer’s government chairman Richard Walker mentioned on LinkedIn, following a backlash which included privateness marketing campaign group Massive Brother Watch calling the transfer “chilling”.
“Organised and focused retail crime is uncontrolled. Each single week, I see the stories from our shops and examine our colleagues being abused, threatened and assaulted merely for doing their job,” Walker added.
Reflecting on the deployment of facial-recognition tech from Facewatch, he added: “I do know some folks is not going to like that – however I make zero apologies for it. If I have to select between upsetting a marketing campaign group or defending our colleagues from violence, I’ll choose our folks each time.
“Let me be clear – this know-how doesn’t monitor harmless buyers. It doesn’t retailer your knowledge. It helps skilled retailer groups to calmly determine repeat offenders who’re recognized to make use of violence or intimidation. That’s it.”
Iceland estimates it might see a 30% discount in violent incidents the place the Facewatch know-how is deployed. Extra Iceland shops will likely be fitted with the tech later in 2025, with retailers equivalent to Residence Bargains, Farmfoods, Sports activities Direct, B&M, Flannels, Spar and Morrisons Every day already utilizing it in components of their respective estates, based on Facewatch.
In June, Trigo Retail, the corporate recognized for its high-tech, laptop imaginative and prescient stack which helps checkout-free shops for a number of retailers throughout Europe, introduced it had began to play within the loss prevention house by providing an alternative choice to CCTV.
The corporate’s new synthetic intelligence (AI)-enabled platform helps retailers to trace buyers as anonymised figures, identifies which objects are picked up after which cross-references these items in opposition to what’s scanned at checkout. Prompt alerts are made to retailer safety within the occasion of potential theft – and, like Facewatch, Trigo says it by no means makes use of, collects or shops any biometric knowledge.
Daniel Gabay, co-founder and CEO of Trigo Retail, says: “The simplest retail safety know-how as we speak isn’t about including extra boundaries or locks – it’s about making present infrastructure smarter.
“Laptop imaginative and prescient AI basically offers cameras a ‘mind’ to interpret what they’re seeing in real-time, offering shops with unprecedented intelligence about when and the way hidden theft is going on within the retailer. When carried out appropriately in a non-biometric method that protects shopper privateness, this know-how preserves what issues most: trustworthy buyers ought to really feel welcomed and trusted by their retailer, by no means embarrassed or underneath suspicion.”
Loyalty and the regulation
Iceland additionally introduced in August its prospects who alert employees after they see shoplifters in retailer will likely be eligible for a top-up reward to spend by way of their Bonus Card loyalty scheme.
The corporate is taking a look at all angles to guard itself together with this quasi-vigilantism. Iceland prospects are strongly inspired to not immediately work together with any shoplifters, however to seek out the closest member of employees and alert them as a substitute with an in depth description – and when doing so, they are going to be topped up with a £1 reward that may be spent within the store instantly.
Walker known as shoplifting a “plague” spreading throughout massive cities, market cities and villages. “To fight any exercise in Iceland shops, we’re encouraging our loyal prospects to assist sound the alarm, and in the event that they do assist to catch a shoplifter, we’ll high up their Bonus Card to spend in retailer,” he says.
EE’s Aziz provides: “Whereas superior know-how is a key a part of our safety technique, we additionally put loads of give attention to our coaching. We make investments hundreds of hours in onboarding new group members and in common coaching to make sure our workers know find out how to deal with thefts safely, rapidly and successfully. We’re all the time on the lookout for methods to enhance our processes to guard everybody who walks by our doorways on daily basis.”
There’s solely to this point the person measures retailers are adopting can shield their folks and their income. Additional top-down deterrents are required from policymakers, whereas regulation keepers must dedicate sources to public-facing trade. The BRC desires processes put in place to make sure police attend all incidents of crime in retail shops and observe up as essential.
“The federal government should act now to enshrine very important protections for all our service employees; with out motion now to create a robust deterrent, this drawback will proceed to develop,” Causon writes in her open letter. “These professionals kind the bedrock of our society and economic system. They’re important to neighborhood constructing, social cohesion and financial progress – let’s seize this second to guard all public-facing employees.”
