A rising number of British stores are using a facial recognition system powered by artificial intelligence to identify repeat shoplifters in what one human rights group has called the spread of “airport-style security” on the high street. Simon Gordon, founder of UK surveillance company Facewatch, told CNN that demand for his product had grown “exponentially” as the incidence of shoplifting and violence in stores has soared in recent years. “We’re just here trying to prevent crime,” he said. It works like this: Once a store manager knows an item has been stolen — for instance, when taking an inventory of their stock — they will review the footage recorded by their security cameras to identify the thief. Then, the manager will log into Facewatch’s system, which will have also taken video of all the customers who entered the store that day, to find the suspect in the firm’s footage and log the incident. “We then review the incident, make sure it describes the suspected crime or disorder and then we set it live,” Gordon said. Any time the same person tries to enter that store again, the manager will receive an alert on their phone, and can ask the person to leave, or keep a close eye on them.
Full story : AI facial recognition tech brings ‘airport-style security’ to UK stores, says human rights group.
