Loblaw’s supermarkets have come under special scrutiny from social media and industry watchdogs for their continuing quest to cut shoplifting. Now, a new initiative has them howling: Are you ready for body cams at Loblaw’s?
US retail store employee wearing body camera…
Loblaw’s has tried a record number of in-store anti-theft schemes this past year. And all have piqued the ire of shoppers for one reason or another. Now, a new proposal is raising more questions than it’s answering…
Cues from law enforcement
Taking its cue from law enforcement, private security staff and other store employees in at least a couple of Loblaw’s stores, in Calgary and Saskatoon, have started wearing body cameras.
The mere presence of the cams is supposed to intimidate would-be thieves. And make irate shoppers think twice about escalating confrontations with store staff from mere shouting to actual physical vi-olence. Previous such experiments have produced mixed results. And very few, if any have been con-ducted on any kind of scientific basis.
The in-store body cam programs have taken their cues from evidence generated by the experience of police and other public law-enforcement organizations. But their missions and goals are subtly dif-ferent from those of grocery store operators. As are their operating environments.
Two ‘angry’ birds, one stone
The body cams are supposed to address two issues at the one stroke. First, of course, surveillance is supposed to deter shoplifters who collectively cost Canada’s supermarkets more than $5 billion in ‘losses’ each year. But they’re also supposed to make irate shoppers think twice before getting into potentially violent encounters with store staff.
Such confrontations have been on the rise as food prices continue high and supermarkets – Loblaw’s in particular – continue to report record quarterly profits. Store managers and supervisors are con-cerned about the safety of both staff and customers. Then there’s the chance of collateral damage to or injury to third parties why may get caught in the middle, of a fight. Clashes could easily explode into intricate webs of ‘who did what to whom’. Court costs around civil lawsuits and confusion over possible criminal charges could quickly balloon.
Anecdotal evidence
“Retailers in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States have utilized body cameras for years,” a guest column in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reports. “Generally, retailers in these juris-dictions use body cameras based on beliefs and some anecdotal evidence that they reduce retail theft and decrease violent encounters between staff and shoppers.”
A survey of the staff at one UK health and beauty store suggested there was a 68 percent reduction in violent encounters after body cams were introduced. Similarly, a UK grocery store reported a 41 per-cent decrease in violent crime after introducing body cameras.
But critics point out that the UK findings were self-reported by store employees and were not the result of any structured, controlled scientific surveys or observational studies.
On the other hand…
Two other recent studies showed reductions in violent incidents between customers and staff in two different retail stores. In one, violent incidents were reported to have dropped by 41 percent. In an-other, the number dropped by more than 2/3.
AXON, a leadinf maker of police body cam systems, says it’s combined numbers suggests violent incidents in retail settings can be decreased by an average of 50 percent using their gear.
My take
Shoppers on the other hand are said to be reacting with anger and disgust, saying the body cam initiative is no less invasive and unfriendly from their point of view than the receipt scanners and shopping cart wheel locking systems tried at some Ontario Loblaw’s-owned stores earlier this year.
And opponents point out that closely-related casino-like surveillance camera systems have not succeeded in reducing store theft or violence significantly.
The Loblaw’s 3-month body cam experiments were scheduled to conclude this week. We expect to hear about their results and observations in the near future…
~ Maggie J.