The D&D Daily recently released a ‘Retail Violent Death Report’ for the first half of 2017, and the news isn’t good. So far this year there have been:
225 total violent retail deaths (up 15% from last year)
201 total acts of retail crime (up 14% from last year)
Shoplifters and organized retail criminals are getting bolder and more aggressive. And while retail security professionals do their best, it’s clear that the status quo isn’t enough to combat the rising tide of retail crime.
Looking at D&D’s numbers for Q2 sheds light on another alarming fact: The highest percentage of individuals killed are customers (54%), as opposed to suspects (30%) or employees (12%). No customers should have to die for shopping in their favorite retail store. It’s clear that retail companies need to do more to protect their customers from harm.
How Face Recognition Prevents Crime
While it’s virtually impossible to prevent 100% of violent acts that occur in retail stores, some companies have already discovered that facial recognition is the closest thing around to a failsafe solution. Face recognition works by alerting your security team the moment that a known shoplifter, organized retail criminal or individual with a history of violence enters your store. This enables security pros to proactively identify and deter potential threats, thereby preventing crime before it happens.
Gus Downing, who published the “Retail Violent Death Report,” recently stated that face recognition is on an inevitable path to retail adoption. And the reason why is that customers who have taken the bold leap forward to adopt face recognition technology are experiencing game-changing results.
As an example, companies that have adopted FaceFirst’s facial recognition system for retail are seeing:
External shrink reductions of up to 34%
Up to 91% less violent incidents
The Relationship Between Shrink and Violence
Reducing shrink and reducing violence are more related than it might appear. It turns out that a lot of retail violence occurs after AP/LP professionals identify that someone is in the act of shoplifting. Desperate, retail criminals often turn to violence. But face recognition offers a unique opportunity to prevent shoplifting (and any subsequent violence that ensues). By observing potential criminals (or even offering them customer service), loss prevention pros can often deter them from even attempting to shoplift. The result? Less violence.
To learn more about how face recognition is transforming retail security, check out our 5-Minute Guide to Face Recognition for Retail.