Facewatch, Forecourt Eye partner to tackle petrol theft at UK pumps with FRT, ANPR

“The price of gas keeps on rising,” says a song from UK indie band Bloc Party’s classic 2005 album, Silent Alarm. “Nothing comes for free.” Unless, that is, you steal it. According to data from Forecourt Eye, more UK drivers are avoiding paying up at the pump, either by declaring No Means of Payment or simply driving off. Incidents are up 20 percent since the beginning of the U.S. conflict with Iran, which has put a chokehold on global oil supplies.

Forecourt Eye, a provider of fuel crime prevention, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology and loss recovery services, says the estimated value of fuel losses is 194,000 pounds (around $262,000) daily – which, if left unchecked, could translate to sectoral losses of some £70.7 million (about $95.5 million) in a year.

The company believes the solution is to be found in facial recognition. According to Talking Retail, the organization has announced a partnership with biometrics provider Facewatch to offer a new Crime Management Platform free of charge to more than 2,000 Forecourt Eye customers.

The piece quotes Forecourt Eye managing director Michelle Henchoz, who says the move enables operators to manage fuel theft, shop crime and incident reporting to the police through one integrated system, with the option to join Facewatch’s Live Facial Recognition network.

“Our customers have told us they increasingly want one place to manage everything from unpaid fuel and ANPR intelligence through to shop theft, violence and police reporting. This partnership delivers exactly that while fitting seamlessly into the way they already work.”

Gas stations now hotspots for retail crime

A forecourt technically refers to the open area of a gas station where the pumps are located. However, today’s filling stations are also major convenience stores. Nick Fisher, chief executive of Facewatch, says the distinction between fuel crime and retail crime has largely disappeared. “Modern forecourts face the same prolific offenders, violence and abuse experienced across the wider retail sector.”

“By combining Forecourt Eye’s expertise on the forecourt with Facewatch’s crime management capability, we’re giving operators a single platform to prevent crime, manage investigations and help police tackle repeat and violent offenders. The partnership also means forecourts can consider accessing our live facial recognition technology to create a really powerful shield against all types of crime and that next step would enable the capability to instantly alert police when the highest harm offenders are on their forecourts.”

Using Facewatch’s Crime Management Platform, which will be integrated as an app into Forecourt Eye’s network of tablet devices, does not require customers to deploy live facial recognition. However, “operators choosing to introduce Facewatch Live Facial Recognition alongside Forecourt Eye’s ANPR technology will, for the first time, be able to combine vehicle recognition on the forecourt with facial recognition inside the store.”

The aim is to cover the full customer interaction, from the time the vehicle drives into the forecourt until it leaves, by linking Forecourt Eye’s large private database of vehicles linked to fuel theft and Facewatch’s national database of known retail offenders.

FaiceTech emphasizes quality of image capture

Also serving the market for facial recognition in the UK is Manchester-based “ethical facial recognition company” FaiceTech. A release from the firm calls for higher standards in forecourt security, in the form of evidence-quality camera infrastructure, stronger governance and proportionate technology.

More FRT, says FaiceTech, isn’t the right solution. The UK has plenty of CCTV cameras – but “grainy, dirty or poorly positioned cameras often record incidents without clearly identifying offenders.” Your facial recognition product is only as good as the footage it captures; if a legacy surveillance system is incapable of producing the image quality, coverage and evidential standards needed to serve as credible evidence, it’s mostly for display.

The factors vary: camera placement, capture quality, processes and strategies. While FaiceTech recognizes that pre-authorization and pay-at-pump systems can help solve the theft problem, it suggests that new camera infrastructure is a more cost-effective upgrade than new pumps.

FaiceTech CEO Will Walters says “replacing or upgrading fuel pumps can be expensive and technically complex for SMEs and independent forecourts because equipment has to meet strict safety and electrical certification requirements. It is not always something that can be easily retrofitted.”

“Wherever a forecourt chooses to authorise dispensing before payment has been secured, there is an obvious evidential risk. If someone decides to leave without paying, the operator needs systems capable of identifying the individual, not just recording that an incident happened.”

“Premium security technology has to do more than identify people. It has to protect rights, reduce harm and give businesses confidence that they are acting lawfully and responsibly. That is the standard FaiceTech is committed to setting.”

Article Topics

ANPR  |  biometrics  |  criminal ID  |  Facewatch  |  facial recognition  |  FaiceTech  |  license plate readers  |  live facial recognition  |  retail biometrics  |  video surveillance