Nov 25, 2022
Foodstuffs North Island, a cooperative of over 300 grocery stores, announced that it will be testing facial recognition technology at several stores. Foodstuffs North Island CEO Chris Quin cited data that showed that since 2020, there has been a 246% increase in serious incidents at grocery stores, including assault, robbery, theft, and other aggressive, threatening, and violent behavior. "Supermarkets are on the frontline of the rising trend of retail crime with our teams dealing with daily incidents of assault, aggression and theft," Quin said. "Facial recognition technology is one of the only tools we've identified that could help us to proactively target and reduce theft, burglary, robbery, assault, and other aggressive, violent or threatening behavior by repeat offenders." Data showed that 25% of incidents involve repeat offenders.