New report shows serious harmful behaviour averted by around 16%
The use of facial recognition technology (FRT) in Foodstuffs North Island (FSNI) stores has been deemed justified following findings that it reduced serious harm events, including assault.
A review on FSNI's FRT six-month trial on 25 New World and PAK'nSAVE stores across North Island found that it reduced serious, harmful behaviour by an estimated 16%.
This harm reduction is equivalent to around 100 serious harm events avoided, including assaults, abuse, and other aggressive or disorderly conduct, according to the review, carried out by Scarlatti.
"Around half of that reduction can be attributed to actual interventions by supermarket staff, approaching someone who's a repeat offender before they can do more harm, with the remainder due to the deterrent effect, stopping them returning," said Dr. Adam Barker, director of Scarlatti, in a statement.
There were nine cases of the wrong person being approached, but all of them were due to a failure in the human process, Scarlatti added.
FSNI carried out the FRT trial starting in February 2024, following a sharp increase of retail crime in stores, including violent and aggressive crime.
Julian Benefield, FSNI's general counsel, said the review's findings show the "potential for harm reduction across our wider store network."
"Of those misidentifications where we approached a customer, we acknowledged our mistake and apologised as soon as possible. We have also implemented further training and changed our verification processes as a result," Benefield said.
"We have a moral and legal duty to do all we can to keep our teams and customers safe. The goal has been to learn if facial recognition can reduce harm while respecting everyone's privacy."
Meanwhile, Retail NZ lauded FSNI for trialling FRT in some of its stores.
"We applaud the huge amount of time and effort that Foodstuffs North Island has put into this trial, to achieve strong outcomes that lead the way for the wider retail sector," said Retail NZ Chief Executive Carolyn Young in a statement.
Young noted that while FRT may not be the solution for all crimes, retailers still want this option available for consideration alongside other crime prevention tools such as security guards, fog cannons, staff training, body cameras, and other technology solutions.
"We know that retailers across Aotearoa New Zealand have been watching the trial with great interest and a number are investigating FRT for their own operations in the future," the chief executive added.
The use of FRT in the 25 FSNI stores continues even after the trial, according to the retailer. It noted that further expansion will depend on the Privacy Commissioner's findings on the technology.
"Every case of assault and abuse has an impact on at least one of our team members – they can even be life-changing events. Our stores must be allowed to take the reasonable steps available to them to try to ensure that doesn't keep happening," Benefield said.
Retail crime remains a significant issue in New Zealand, according to Retail NZ. It is impacting more than 92% of retailers and costing over $2.6 billion.
Woolworths, a major retailer in New Zealand, revealed earlier this year that physical assaults against its store employees jumped 50% in the previous year.
To protect its teams, a Woolworths supermarket in Auckland had to update its trading hours to reduce the "potential for anti-social behaviour."
The New Zealand government also said it will set up a two-year advisory group with the aim of reducing victims of violent crime by 20,000 by 2029.
