UK lawmakers debate facial recognition as a solution for retail crime

UK retail crime levels have been surging in recent years with lawmakers launching an inquiry on organized shoplifting gangs, including increasing the use of facial recognition surveillance.

To fight the scourge of shoplifting, the UK’s largest retailers agreed last year to fund a biometric police operation named Project Pegasus to the tune of £600,000 (US$752,000). The project has so far identified more than 150 individuals linked to organized retail crime and facilitated more than 23 arrests of so-called “high harm” offenders.

However, the plan has attracted controversy, Emmeline Taylor, a professor of criminology at the University of London, told the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee during an inquiry on Wednesday. As the retail sector introduces more biometric surveillance capabilities, a code of practice on how facial recognition should be used in various sectors will be needed, she says.

“There’s no question that AI-driven biometric surveillance can be intrusive to everyday members of the public and customers,” says Taylor, who sits on the steering committee for Project Pegasus. “Similarly, there’s no question that this could be a very effective tool in identifying prolific, repeat and organized criminals, but it must be done ethically in a privacy-first way.”

Co-op is one of approximately 15 members of Project Pegasus, which also includes retail giants such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Next. Paul Gerrard, the Co-op group’s public affairs director, told the commission that the company saw a 44 percent rise in retail crime last year, driven predominantly by organized gangs.

The increase in crime has also led to a 35-percent increase in “violence, abuse and threat” directed towards Co-op’s workers, with the company recording attacks with knives, syringes and even a medieval mace.

“We’ve had colleagues lose their eye, we’ve had colleagues miscarry,” says Gerrard.

Aside from safety, some shops are finding it more difficult to operate with profit, leading some locations to lose retail stores and become “food deserts.”

“Nearly £2 billion was lost to customer theft last year, almost doubled the previous year,” adds Taylor.

To fight off shoplifters, Co-op has been using retrospective facial recognition. When the store reports a crime, an evidence pack, including CCTV or body cam imagery is provided to the police.

“Our understanding is that it is not some police forces will take that imagery and automatically check it against the Police National Database and the Police National Computer System,” says Gerrard. “But it’s not common practice in police forces to automatically check the evidence of the images against the police national dead airspace. I think it should be.”

Police in South Wales are one of the forces that performed identification while Co-op also performed a trial with the London Metropolitan Police.

Gerrard adds that retailers do not have much to gain by performing live facial recognition checks. The only database that could establish someone with certainty is a shoplifter is the Police National Database, not a locally created one. The police database, however, could potentially flag people who have nothing to do with shoplifting, he explains.

The Pegasus initiative is a part of OPAL, a national intelligence unit focused on serious organized acquisitive crime (SOAC). Last year, former policing minister Chris Philp also floated plans to double their use of facial recognition checks against the Police National Database and expand the number of images that can be compared by drawing on other databases, including the passport and immigration database.

But although UK police have been betting on facial recognition to stop retail crime, speakers at the inquiry highlighted other important steps, including changing laws and boosting police presence.

According to UK law, theft of items worth less than £200 (US$262) is treated as a petty offence with many police forces no longer taking action against shoplifting below that level. For many offenders, this has become “a license to steal,” says Taylor.

Police forces throughout the UK have also been hit with austerity measures with less police force available to tackle petty crimes. According to a Freedom of Information request filed last year by Co-op, in the first quarter of 2023, police showed up only 70 percent of calls from retailers to investigate crime, violence, abuse or large-scale theft.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  criminal ID  |  facial recognition  |  retail biometrics  |  video surveillance