industry focus
Retail leaders discuss how body-worn video represents the power to reduce risk and boost crime reporting across the sector
Battersea Power Station, whose turbines and transformers once generated 20 per cent of the capital’s electricity supply, provided the fitting backdrop for a Retail Safety Leaders Roundtable focused on how body-worn video (BWV) will power the future of crime reporting and connectivity to support wider risk reduction strategies on the UK high street.
In the long shadow cast by the four chimneys of the historic landmark overlooking the River Thames, the Art ‘Otel provided the venue for the seminar hosted by leading BWV provider Reveal Media.
The art deco Grade 2 listed power station is itself no stranger to transformation as it has in recent years reinvented itself as a leading retail and hospitality destination, boasting almost 200 shops, showrooms, restaurants, and luxury apartments.
So, where better to discuss the positive power of change and how retailers can harness technology to deflect and de-escalate conflict and generate a less charged atmosphere than a now defunct power station?
Co-hosted by ORIS Media, publishers of Loss Prevention Magazine Europe, the roundtable on 28th April - World Health and Safety At Work Day - invited delegates to learn and share experiences about the new normal of a challenging retail landscape, where stubbornly high levels of violence and aggression toward retail staff are a daily reality.
Retail businesses, the Retail Trust and the Met Police engaged in wide ranging discussions from the current, unacceptable levels of violence to the scope and ambition to eradicate the scourge from stores to help the sector not only survive but thrive once again.
Reveal’s CEO Alasdair Field said: “Our mission is to help our customers get rid of violence and aggression – that’s our ‘north star’.”
From hero to zero, retail workers, once the essential worker darlings of pandemic business continuity keeping the nation fed, have rapidly seen that praise turn to frontline abuse. One knock-on impact is the appeal of the retail sector as a place to work – and delegates were clear that attitudes have to change if it is to continue to attract the people it needs.
One of the keynote speakers, Cliff Lee, Director of Wellbeing at the Retail Trust, presented the 200-year-old charity’s Let’s Respect Retail Campaign.
“There has been a huge change in society,” he said.
“Five years ago, retail colleagues were applauded for keeping the country running, but those who were once heroes are now the target of acts of violence and aggression.”
“As a charity, our work is about creating a sector that is vibrant and where people want to start and end their careers. But what is going on is eroding people’s desire to work in the sector.”
“Crime rates have increased but they are not just statistics - there is a human impact behind each of these challenging interactions,” he told attendees.
He said the Let’s Respect Retail campaign was designed to give retail staff the foundation to flourish and empower people to lead healthier lives.
Worryingly, the UK’s largest private sector employer, with more than 3 million colleagues, is facing an existential crisis.
The Trust’s own research revealed that 47 per cent of colleagues said they don’t feel safe at work and 17 per cent want to leave the sector altogether, leading to a wider societal disengagement and a sector-wide skills shortage.
Its campaign promoting more digital self-help and e-learning pathways of support to assist 30,000 workers a year to move away from the old school ‘put up or shut up’ culture is designed to encourage younger, less experienced colleagues to speak up for positive change.
The Trust has been working with the University of Manchester around guidance to identify levers they can pull to get the message across.
The Metropolitan Police, the UK’s largest force with 32 boroughs, has shifted its emphasis more towards tackling retail crime having noted the significance, persistence, and seriousness of the problem.
Rav Pathania, the Met’s lead on business crime told delegates that policing priorities had moved towards acquisitive crime in light of the double-digit increase in retail theft across the capital, but he cautioned that reported crime had decreased for a number of reasons, a situation that needs to be reversed.
“We can’t investigate a crime if we don’t have the supporting evidence - we don’t have the capacity to physically go to the shops.”
He said existing CCTV and facial recognition had their place, but the growth in body-worn video represented a more impactful future of retail crime fighting.
And, it was not all about shoplifting offences. A third of incidents of violence against women and girls (VAWG) and a quarter of all reported hate crimes occurred in retail settings, he told delegates.
“We need more retailers to report and give us the evidence. In the Met area, it is five retailers reporting 66 per cent of crime,” he said.
“If retailers submitted more body-worn video footage, where we can see people’s faces at eye level, that would support us greatly,” he said.
Britain’s largest supermarket, Tesco, has seen a transformation in body-worn camera use since it launched its national-scale body-worn video strategy, working with Reveal.
Ollie Tebbutt, Tesco’s project manager for shrink and security told delegates that research among colleagues revealed that 78 per cent felt that body-worn video enhanced their safety and security and that when serious incidents do occur, the technology has been able to provide the relevant supporting evidence.
Tesco has now developed a bespoke body-worn video eco-system working with its Security Operations Centre, with a focus on future-proofing the additional features it could offer and how they dovetail into its strategy.
Part of colleague induction training includes the deployment and use of BWV and why it is in place to help frontline staff feel safe.
The retailer wanted front-facing BWV devices that make it clear to users and those displaying aggressive behaviour when recording is in progress and, importantly, it is committed to making the technology available to all colleagues as part of its ‘over-subscription’ policy and approach to crime reporting.
Now a large percentage of staff across its Express and larger format stores as well as its dot.com delivery drivers wear BWVs, a move that has even resulted in alterations to the different styles of Tesco uniform to allow for easy attachment and optimum camera angle positions.
A high percentage of colleagues now feel that BWV makes them feel significantly safer. Figures also revealed that their ubiquity means they are being better utilised, with almost two-thirds of all serious incidents now having BWV evidence attached to them.
“They are no longer seen as props,” said Ollie who added that its one platform dashboard delivered a daily ping to every camera in the estate to identify its location and use, helping to better manage their assets. He said it was part of an integrated strategic solution – one platform across the whole of Tesco.
“We see BWV as part of a suite of tools we can use to provide live incident response data reported centrally from the hub aligned to UK police forces. This will drive greater evidence uploading and more prosecutions.”
The way to achieve this is to make reporting simpler and less burdensome for frontline teams, ensuring the data it generates becomes meaningful intelligence for the sector as a whole. Reveal’s goal is to help retailers understand where and why incidents occur, track trends over time, and take targeted, evidence-led action to improve colleague safety.
