Walmart is testing out a dramatic safety precaution as concerns rise over crime and shoplifting at its stores.
The grocery giant has rolled out body cameras to employees at multiple stores in the Dallas area to help deter and address confrontations with aggressive customers, the New York Post reported.
‘This is a pilot we are testing in one market, and we will evaluate the results before making any longer-term decisions,’ a spokesperson for the company said of the initiative.
‘While we don’t talk about the specifics of our security measures, we are always looking at new and innovative technology used across the retail industry,’ they added.
The bodycam devices were seen on employees checking customers’ receipts at a store in Denton, Texas, CNBC reported.
Walmart has given its staff in the pilot instructions on how and when to use the cameras.
Employees are advised to ‘record an event if an interaction with a customer is escalating,’ but to remove the cameras in employee break areas and bathrooms, an internal document seen by CNBC said.
If there is an incident then employees are to log the information in the ‘ethics and compliance’ app.
Walmart is trialling a new safety precaution as concerns rise over crime at its stores
Retailers have suffered from a rise in self-checkout theft and smash-and-grab incidents over the last few years.
In some cases stores such as Safeway, have even been forced to shut locations due to safety concerns for staff and shoppers.
Retail experts have advised that body cameras can be an effective deterrent to crime and aggressive behavior from customers.
‘Many of these body-worn cameras have reverse view monitors on them so there’s a little video screen that you actually see yourself on camera,’ David Johnston, vice president of asset protection for the National Retail Federation told CNBC.
‘That in itself can be a very big deterrent. The moment that you see yourself is probably [when] you’re going to change your behavior, and that’s what I think the use of a body-worn camera can do.’
Walmart has been testing various other methods to reduce shoplifting at its stores in recent months.
The chain recently introduced a feature that lets shoppers simply move an item over the self-checkout scanner, which will register the item without needing to scan a visible barcode.
The new technology works on any Walmart Great Value branded items, such as graham crackers, chocolate bars and croissant sandwiches.
Body cameras are often worn by law enforcement to record incidents
The invisible barcodes were created to speed up checkout for workers and customers, who now no longer have to search for a barcode and angle the item to scan it.
However, another consequence is that it makes it harder for shoplifters to pocket items without properly scanning them.
If an item with an invisible barcode is moved over the self-checkout, in an attempt to appear as if it has been scanned but hasn’t, the computer will still pick up the item and register it for payment.
