Shoplifting isn’t the only crime on the rise in the world of retail. Shops and fast food outlets are suffering ever-higher levels of antisocial behaviour, with the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reporting in January that violence and abuse has “increased over 50% to more than 2,000 incidents a day”. The consequences are serious, impacting staff safety, customer experience and, ultimately, your bottom line. With retail crime at its highest level on record, what can your business do to safeguard your people, property and profits?
Understanding the nature of the problem
Working out a solution means first understanding the nature of the abuse retail staff are experiencing. A survey by the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) found that 87% of the shopworkers questioned have been on the receiving end of verbal abuse in the past 12 months, with 1.2 million incidents of it in the last year – some, according to the BRC, with a racial or sexual harassment element. The ACS survey identifies rowdy or inconsiderate behaviour, loitering, littering, begging and vandalism as the top antisocial behaviour concerns.
Even more troubling is the number of incidents involving weapons (37% knives, 30% blunt objects and 23% other weapons), which has doubled in the last year to 70 a day. The top triggers for violence, according to the ACS survey, are encountering a thief, enforcing an age-related sales policy or refusing to serve intoxicated customers.
But in the face of this rising aggression and violence, shopworkers are dissatisfied with the police, with 61% describing police response to such incidents as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’. It’s one of the reasons why only 42% of retail crimes are actually reported to the police, with the time and hassle of filing reports also behind this reluctance.
Prevention and proactivity
It’s clear that CCTV alone is no longer enough to tackle the rising scourge of antisocial behaviour and violence on the front line of retail, and that relying on a reactive approach, such as calling the police, won’t cut it either. But technology has a few answers.
Smart security can help address antisocial behaviour in more proactive ways. It can use facial recognition to spot and alert staff to repeat offenders, giving them advance warning of potential trouble. AI behavioural analysis can spot and alert suspicious behaviours, such as someone loitering in one place for too long. Footfall analytics can help identify blind spots and allow reconfiguration of stores to make it easier for shopworkers to see what’s going on.
Such technology is also helpful for evidence capture and incident logging, ensuring footage is timestamped and immediately accessible for passing on to police – hopefully increasing the chances of a conviction.
Then there are tangible measures to help staff and customers feel safer, such as body-worn cameras. These do far more than capture evidence when something happens. One recent survey found that “More than half of UK consumers (55 per cent) say body-worn cameras make them feel safer”. And they act as a deterrent, too: “44 per cent admit the presence of one would make them reconsider how they act.” Poundland, for instance, has reported an 11% drop in abuse since equipping its staff with this tech.
Finally, panic alarm technology linked to remote surveillance is a measure for the most extreme incidents involving weapons and duress. With our own solution, when a shopworker presses the panic button, they send an emergency alert to our 24/7 control room and open up two-way communications, allowing our remote surveillance team to help de-escalate the situation while awaiting the police.
Safeguard your staff today
At iFacility, our cutting-edge V5 system takes a proactive approach to tackling antisocial behaviour in shops and fast food outlets, combining staff protection and business optimisation features with AI-enhanced CCTV and alarm systems to keep your people and property safe. If you’re ready to level up your security, drop us a line at the link below.