Body cameras will be provided to staff at Tesco stores amid a rise in violent attacks, the company’s chief executive said.
This echoes findings by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) published earlier this year, which found that abuse against retail staff has almost doubled compared to pre-Covid levels.
Tesco CEO Ken Murphy issues stricter rules:-
Ken Murphy called for change to bring England and Wales in line with Scotland, where the Worker Protection Bill makes it an offense to assault, threaten, or abuse retail staff.
He also called for the supermarket to have the right to remain informed of how the case is progressing.
He added, “Crime is a blight on society and an insult to shoppers and retail workers. It is time to put an end to it”, adding that the violations we were subjected to were “heartbreaking”.
In the BRC’s crime survey published in March, more than 850 incidents per day were recorded in 2021/22, a sharp rise from the pre-Covid level of 450 incidents per day in 2019/20.
A suspected shoplifter got extremely abusive with a shop security guard:-
The supermarket is owned by the John Lewis Partnership, which has said staff in John Lewis stores have also been given bodycams and de-escalation training to deal with a rise in incidents.
Sainsbury’s has been using body-worn cameras since 2018, a policy that is one of “a number of security measures” to support customer and colleague safety.
