Prevention is the only way forward

Why live facial recognition has to become part of retail’s defence

I’ve just come back from a few days glamping with the family.

I’ll be honest, when my wife told me her mum had booked us four nights in a shed by a canal, I wasn’t exactly thrilled.

But once we settled in, it turned out to be exactly what I needed.

A bike ride up the towpath, an inflatable assault course with the kids, and a chance to switch off. And now I’m switching back on.

Because while I was away, one headline caught my eye: more than 80% of shoplifting offences end with no charge.

It sounds shocking. But let’s be clear, those numbers only reflect the small fraction of incidents that actually get reported to police.

The sector often cites 10-20% reporting rates. In my view, it’s far lower… Probably less than 1%. Here’s what drives my thinking…

We know that in England and Wales police recorded shoplifting was at its highest level since 2003, the number was roughly half a million. When we look at the BRC 2024 survey we see that incidents of customer theft rose to 16.7 million. So that’s roughly 3.3%. And that’s only the businesses that take part in the survey, what about the shop thefts across retailers who don’t take part in the survey, surely that brings true shop lifting police reporting rates to under 1%?

Many retailers don’t report, simply because they don’t see the point.

So if less than 1% of shop thefts are being reported, what does that tell us?

It tells us that chasing higher charge volumes alone won’t solve the problem, think about resource and investigation challenges. We could spend years arguing about reporting protocols and policing outcomes, but the reality is: it won’t fix retail crime.

What will? Prevention.

That has to become the critical focus. And prevention doesn’t just mean a few more cameras or another reminder to staff about vigilance. It means adopting technologies that genuinely make offenders think twice and give us the opportunity to deter.

For me, that’s live facial recognition. I’ve been vocal about it across the industry, and I’ll keep saying it: we need mass adoption of LFR across the retail sector. It needs to be affordable, compliant, and scalable… A model that can be replicated store to store, town to town, where data sharing is possible for the benefit of all.

The solution is target hardening. We need stores that feel safe for customers, where staff can come to work without fear of intimidation, and where offenders know they won’t get a free run at the shelves.

The alternative is what we’ve got now: a cycle of under-reporting, overstretched police, and a huge gap between the reality on the shop floor and the picture in the statistics.
That gap won’t close on its own. It will close when prevention becomes the default, not the afterthought. And LFR, done right, has to be part of that future.

So, I say to the retailers who are piloting its use, well done you. You are the pioneers of the future, the first adopters, the next generation.

The problems of yesterday cannot be solved with the tools of yesterday, real progress demands the courage to break the mould.

Peter Fisher

Director of Risk and Intelligence