Sainsbury’s pauses London store’s AI cameras after man ousted

Sainsbury’s highlighted recent British Retail Consortium figures showing 1,600 daily incidents of violence and abuse against shopworkers nationwide, up significantly from 455 a day in 2019-20.

The retailer added that initial trials of the facial recognition system across two stores resulted in a 46% reduction in logged incidents of theft and anti-social behaviour, with over 90% of offenders not returning.

Silkie Carlo, the director of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, has called for Sainsbury’s to scrap the technology, arguing that it is “treating customers like criminals”.

“Serious mistakes like this are inevitable when a national retailer does hundreds of thousands of ID checks indiscriminately with this sinister surveillance tech,” she said.

Arnold, who donated a £150 goodwill voucher from Sainsbury’s to a local food bank, questioned why the system remains active elsewhere.

“If they’re suspending it in this East Dulwich store, they are conceding there’s a problem with it. Why aren’t they suspending it in every store?”

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