New Research: Do Body Worn Cameras “work” in Retail Stores?

The video working group had an opportunity to learn about the findings from a new report by Professor Adrian Beck on the use of body worn cameras in retail.

The group then shared back their questions, comments and their own learnings. The full recording of the meeting is available to retailers, if this is of interest, please send email to colin@ecrloss.com.

The link to the full report is here

Five key highlights from the report include:

1) Growing Adoption in Retail: As a response to the more challenging retail environment, and especially in the UK, there is greater adoption of body worn cameras in retail, with interest growing in USA, Europe and Australia.

2) Staff Feel Safer with Body Worn Cameras: The report highlights how staff generally feel safer when they wear body worn cameras, there is a strong belief amongst staff that the cameras can act as a calming agent, and stop the abuse. But worst case, if there is an incident, the staff are reassured that it is on record and recorded.

3) Body Worn Cameras help retailers gather better evidence: What the report shares is how, especially with audio, the quality of the video data available can help lead to more successful prosecutions, and sometimes, with no requirement for the member of staff or management to attend the court.

4) Body worn cameras can reduce incidents by 37%. In fact, the report identified a range of reductions, with 37% the average but the report also calls out caution, the actual number of incidents were often low, often single digits, and the methods and trial design often fell below the expectations of the academic who wrote the report, Professor Beck

5) Finally, body worn cameras are no panacea, or silver bullet to the problems of violence, abuse and crime in a retail setting. They must be seen in the context of a company wide approach.

For a video recap of the launch meeting, please see video below with Professor Beck.